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Saddam's body flown to Tikrit
30/12/2006 22:21 - (SA)
Dubai - The body of Saddam Hussein was
flown on board a US plane to his family hometown of Tikrit on
Saturday after it was handed over to tribal leaders for burial,
a defence lawyer said.
Lebanese lawyer Bushra al-Khalil said the body of
the former leader who was hanged at dawn for crimes against
humanity was now in Tikrit.
A senior Iraqi government source confirmed that
Saddam's body was being given to the head of his Albu Nasir
tribe and would be taken to his native Salahaddin province for
burial.
Khalil said Saddam's daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, was
in contact with her family's tribal leaders on a safe burial
location either in the family cemetery in Awja, a village near
Tikrit, or in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad.
The burial could take place as early as Sunday, Khalil said.
Raghd had earlier asked for her father's body to be flown to
Yemen for a temporary burial there until it can be transferred
back to Iraq for a proper family ceremony.
US troops are on alert for trouble from insurgents among
Saddam's Sunni minority.
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