BAGHDAD: A grisly new video showing the body of Saddam Hussein shortly after his hanging, his head sharply twisted to one side and a gaping bloody wound to his neck, was posted on the Internet Tuesday.
The 27-second footage, apparently taken with a cell phone camera, is expected to trigger fresh outrage in Iraq over the manner in which the former dictator was hanged and his body treated immediately after the execution.
The footage begins by showing a body on a stretcher covered in a white shroud and the camera moving upwards.
As the camera reaches the head, the shroud is pulled aside to reveal the bearded face of Saddam twisted sharply to his right with a wound just below his jaw on the left side. A few red blotches are also seen on Saddam s left cheek.
Voices can be heard, apparently of those shooting the film secretly.
As the shroud is pulled back one voice is heard saying, Hurry up, hurry up. I will count one to four.
Then another voice is heard saying, Abu Ali, you take care of this.
The latest video follows an earlier one posted on the Internet soon after the Dec. 30 hanging, also shot secretly on a cell phone camera, which showed Saddam at the gallows being taunted by guards moments before the trapdoor opens.
A voice, apparently of a Shiite guard, mocks him as others put a noose around his neck.
Others in the execution chamber can be heard chanting Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada! – a reference to Moqtada Al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric and a bitter opponent of Saddam.
Go to hell, Saddam seems to respond, although the sound is not clear.
Saddam appears angry but remains composed in his final minutes, standing on a dusty steel platform in a dark hall in a north Baghdad military base, his hands bound and a rough hemp rope round his neck.
As the Sunni leader drops through the metal trapdoor his final prayer, the shahada or last testimony, is also caught short.
The unofficial footage of the hanging has triggered outrage among Iraq s Sunni community and further soured their relations with the Shiite majority.
Some international leaders have said that the taunting of Saddam moments before his death has made him a martyr.
