The White House on Thursday urged Iraq to handle the execution of two of Saddam Hussein’s henchmen ”with appropriate care” after the controversy over the ousted dictator’s hanging.
”We expect Iraqi officials to handle their business with appropriate care. I don’t think there’s anything more we can say,” spokesperson Tony Fratto said after the government in Baghdad postponed carrying out the sentence.
Asked whether US President George Bush had seen or planned to watch the widely disseminated footage of Saddam’s execution, Fratto replied ”no”, and indicated that the president did not see a need to do so.
Earlier in Baghdad, a senior official from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the execution of the two Saddam aides was postponed ”due to international pressure”.
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half brother and former intelligence chief and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the head of the revolutionary court, were to have been hanged on Thursday.
Saddam, Barzan and Bandar were found guilty on November 5 of ordering the judicial murder of 148 Shiite men and boys from the village Dujail in the 1980s. They were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.
Saddam’s execution five days ago has angered members of Iraq’s large Sunni minority and triggered criticism from observers who felt he was humiliated minutes before being put to death.
A grisly unofficial video released after Saddam was hanged showed one of the members of the execution party shouting the name of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a bitter opponent of Saddam.
The US military has expressed concern over the manner in which Saddam was hanged, saying it would ”have done things differently”, and Britain has condemned the leaking of the video.
The two-and-half minute film shot on a mobile telephone camera has spread like wildfire on the internet and triggered angry outbursts within Iraq’s Sunni Arab community and from international leaders.
One of those present at the execution could be heard shouting ”Moqtada! Moqtada! Moqtada!” at a sneering Saddam, inspiring some observers to compare the execution to a sectarian lynching. — AFP
