2 Guards Arrested for Hussein Video, Official Says
Others at Execution Reportedly Identify Cellphone Users
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 5, 2007; Page A12
BAGHDAD, Jan. 4 -- Two guards were reportedly arrested Thursday for recording former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's execution with a video cellphone.
"Two Justice Ministry guards have been arrested. Other guards have identified them as having filmed the hanging," an aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sami al-Askari, told the Reuters news agency.
  A man leads a woman from the scene of two car bombings in Baghdad. The explosions, moments apart, killed 14 people outside a governmental heating oil facility and gas station in the Mansour neighborhood. (By Khalid Mohammed -- Associated Press) Special Report
Saddam Hussein was hanged Dec. 30, 2006, after an Iraqi tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity. Get background, photos and video about Hussein's rise to power and ultimate fall. Special Report
Washington Post coverage of the U.S. military and its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. |
The government, apparently seeking to douse the sectarian tensions that worsened following Hussein's disorderly hanging, said Wednesday it had detained a security guard, but it was not clear whether the detentions reported by Askari were in addition to the earlier arrest.
"The investigation is ongoing, and we have identified those who flouted the rules," Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told reporters. "Even for a dictator like Saddam, the law must be obeyed."
Meanwhile, 14 people were killed when two car bombs exploded in quick succession about 10 a.m. Thursday outside a governmental heating oil facility and gas station in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad.
The explosions at the Abu Jaafar station also injured 18 others, as residents lined up to buy heating oil, said 1st Lt. Amar Yasin of the Mansour police. Mortada Jassim, a security guard at the site, said several of the nearby cars, laden with oil, also burned.
"These cars became car bombs themselves," Jassim said. Guards at the site said they believed they were attacked because the facility is frequented by Shiites.
The U.S. military said Thursday that a patrol in western Baghdad was attacked by small-arms fire, killing one U.S. soldier. The soldier's name was not released until his family could be notified.
Correspondent Joshua Partlow, special correspondent Salih Dehema and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
