Thousands of Sunni Arabs vented their anger on Tuesday over Saddam Hussein's execution as the Iraqi government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shiite officials taunting him on the gallows. "Two officials were holding mobile phone cameras," said Prosecutor Munkith al-Faroon, who was a deputy prosecutor in the case for which Saddam was hanged and is the chief prosecutor in a second trial that will continue against his aides for genocide against the Kurds.
Faroon challenged government claims that those who filmed the event were guards, saying they were senior officials.
"One of them I know. He's a high-ranking government official," Faroon said, declining to identify the man. "The other I also know by sight, though not his name. He is also senior."
A court official said he nearly halted the hanging over the jeering, which has inflamed sectarian passions in a nation already threatened by civil war. Data showed civilian deaths hit a new record in December and were over 12,000 in 2006.
In the video, widely seen on the Internet, observers chant the name of Shiite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr as Saddam stands on the scaffold, a convicted mass killer appearing dignified in contrast to the uproar below him.
But the government adviser who announced the investigations on Monday into the taunts and filming, accused the opposition of using them to deflect attention from Saddam's crimes.
"This is an artificial uproar," Sami al-Askari told state TV.
By rushing through the execution just four days after the former dictator's appeal failed - over the reservations of the US ambassador who urged a two-week delay - Premier Nuri al-Maliki made good on a promise to fellow Shiites that Saddam would not live to see 2007.
"The Americans wanted to delay the execution by 15 days because they weren't keen on having him executed straight away," said the senior Iraqi official, who was involved in the events leading to Saddam's death and spoke on condition of anonymity.
"But during the day [on Friday] the prime minister's office provided all the documents they asked for and the Americans changed their minds when they saw the prime minister was very insistent. Then it was just a case of finalizing the details."
Furthermore, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday distanced himself from the execution of Saddam Hussein, saying he had not needed to give his approval for it and had not known when it was to take place.
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"The president did not know the date of the hanging," a spokesman for Talabani said in a statement.
Faroon, who can be heard appealing for order on the Internet video, said he threatened to leave the room if the jeering did not stop. That would have halted the execution as a prosecution observer must be present by law.
"I threatened to leave," Faroon told Reuters. "They knew that if I left, the execution could not go ahead."
Another 45 bodies were found around Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, most apparently victims of the kind of sectarian death squads that are tearing Iraqi society apart.
Saddam's grave in his native village, Awja, drew thousands more mourners on Tuesday, as it has each day since he was buried there in the dead of night early on Sunday.
Thousands marched in nearby Tikrit and in the city of Mosul, carrying portraits of Saddam and banners proclaiming him a martyr. In Samarra, Sunni mourners prayed at a shrine venerated principally by Shiites that was destroyed by a bomb in February, unleashing the present sectarian bloodbath.
Sunni areas in Baghdad and other towns have seen similar demonstrations since Saturday.
Prisoners in a jail in Iraq smashed cell doors, burned furniture and broke cameras during a riot on Monday that began when visitors told inmates that Saddam had been executed.
At least seven guards and three inmates were wounded before the Iraqi police and army ended the fighting.
The clashes in Padush prison in northern Iraq broke out during visiting hours as inmates reacted to news of Saddam execution, a witness in the prison said.
"Visitors brought the news of Saddam's execution and this ignited the unrest," he said.
Protests against the hanging were also held around the Middle East. Thousands gathered in Gaza, where they held a mock funeral. Many Sunni protestors also held rallies in Tunisia, Yemen and Pakistan.
Saddam's execution also prompted international condemnation, including official statements from France, Italy and Cuba. - Agencies
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