Saddam anniversary: Iraq alert
2007-12-29 20:06
Baghdad - Iraqi security forces are on full alert for any violence or civil unrest surrounding Sunday's first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's execution, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
Saddam loyalists are expected to gather at his grave in Awja, the village in central Iraq where the deposed dictator was born and is now buried, to mark one year since his hanging in Baghdad.
They are also expected to mark the anniversary in the nearby city of Tikrit and in the Sunni Arab heartlands north and west of Baghdad.
"For sure there are men who used to support him, and there are still some of his loyalists left," interior ministry spokesperson Abdul Karim Khalaf told a news conference.
"Our security forces are ready for an occasion such as this. If we see any criminal acts aimed at harming our fellow citizens, there are preparations and procedures in place to make certain that such attempts fail.
"We also undertake intelligence activities which are very effective and backed by the multi-national force," Khalaf added. "We will see what will happen. Our forces are prepared."
Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity on December 30 last year, three years after US forces found him hiding in a hole near Tikrit.
The town of Dawr, near where he was captured, was put under indefinite curfew on Saturday.
Mobile phone footage taken seconds before Saddam's execution showed his executioners taunting him in scenes that intensified Iraq's vicious Sunni-Shi'ite conflict and the chaotic security situation.
Violence across the country has dropped recently, partly because of alliances between Sunnis and US forces in the fight against militants of al-Qaeda in Iraq.