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Elation Gives Way to Dread of Daily Life
After hearing news about Hussein's hanging, Iraqis carrying his effigy drive through the streets of Sadr City, a mostly Shiite slum in Baghdad.
(By Wathiq Khuzaie -- Getty Images)
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His persona diminished even more as he stood trial for the retaliatory killings of 148 Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. In ill-fitting suits, he was no longer scary-looking. As many Iraqis assumed he would be convicted, interest in his trial faded. They had new enemies: insurgents, militias, death squads, Americans, each other.
The sectarian divisions that had always existed in Iraqi society had begun tearing it apart. Hussein, a Sunni, and his Baath Party often oppressed Shiites and Kurds. In the new Iraq, Shiites, who make up the majority of the population, now wield more power, and Sunnis are waging a relentless insurgency.
Reaction to Hussein's execution early Saturday, the day Sunnis consider the beginning of the holy Eid al-Adha celebration, reflected that deep divide.
"There's no Eid," said Sami Mahmoud, 35, a store owner in Karrada. "This is a day for the Persians and not for the Arabs. God have mercy on his soul."
Shiites, many of whom lost relatives during the Hussein era or were imprisoned for political dissent, called his execution an early gift. Their Eid celebration begins Sunday.
Hussein Abu Ali, 35, a civil servant, stayed up all night with his brothers and sisters, waiting for news of the execution. Hussein had banished them from Iraq when he was a child, he said. They moved to Iran and were allowed back in only after 2003.
The family cheered at the television images of masked men wrapping a noose around Hussein's neck.
"Now the head of the snake has been cut," Ali said.
Despite the tension, there was relative calm Saturday and no curfew, which the government often imposes in particularly violent times.
Shiites celebrated peacefully in the southern city of Najaf, albeit with gunshots in the air. There were minor clashes in Tikrit, as residents carried pictures of Hussein and banners that read: "You Shiites, you shall leave this city, and every home and every street."
Car bombs killed at least 45 people.
Just three hours after Hussein's death, an olive green minibus exploded in a crowded market in the Shiite southern city of Kufa, killing 34 civilians and wounding 58, said Munthir al-Ithary, the director of the Najaf Health Department. A mob beat and stoned the perpetrator after a shopkeeper spotted him trying to flee, said Kufa's mayor, Yusif al-Janaby.
