Elevation Grabs Iraq's Sunni Quarters after Saddam's Death

Politics | December 30, 2006, Saturday // 00:00
Saddam Hussein: Elevation Grabs Iraq's Sunni Quarters after Saddam's Death The news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged was greeted with delight on the streets of Sadr City, a Shia stronghold in Baghdad. Photo by Getty Images

There was jubilation on the streets of Baghdad on Saturday after the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by hanging for crimes against humanity.

In the Shia-dominated Sadr City, with a populace of two million, many had taken to the streets to celebrate the execution of the former dictator. Much of the rest of Baghdad was reported to be quiet.

Saddam was hanged early Saturday, after his conviction last month for crimes against humanity in connection with the 1982 killings of 148 Shiites. Despite concerns about a spike in unrest, Saturday's violence was not unusually high.

Curfews were enforced in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit and in Samarra, both in the predominantly Sunni Salahuddin province north of Baghdad.

Mostly peaceful demonstrations broke out in several towns across Iraq, with hundreds of people marching in the streets carrying Iraqi flags and banners. Despite the curfew, gunmen in Tikrit paraded with his picture and fired their weapons into the air, calling for vengeance.

If anything, his death will tend to strengthen the hand of Sunni insurgents in recruiting people to their cause, BBC commented.

For these hardliners, the death of Saddam is "victor's justice", carried out amid the extraordinary facilities of the high-security, sanitised international Green Zone.

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