BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government has launched an inquiry into how guards filmed and taunted Saddam Hussein on the gallows, turning his execution into a televised spectacle that has inflamed sectarian anger.

Enraged crowds protested across Iraq's Sunni heartland yesterday, as a mob in Samara broke the locks off a bomb-damaged Shiite shrine and marched in carrying a mock coffin and a photo of the dictator.

Armed Iraqi Sunni militants hold up their weapons during a protest in Al-Dawr. Iraq has launched a probe into a grisly video of Saddam Hussein's execution that has triggered angry protests from the country's Sunni minority three days after the hanging of the former dictator. Photo:/AFP

The demonstration in the Golden Dome, shattered in a bombing by Sunni extremists 10 months ago, suggests many Sunni Arabs may now more actively support the small number of Sunni militants fighting the Shiite-dominated government.

Until Saddam's execution, most Sunnis sympathized with the militants but avoided taking a direct role in the sectarian conflict – despite attacks by Shiite militia that have killed thousands of Sunnis or driven them from their homes.

The current Sunni protests, which appear to be building, could signal a spreading militancy.

Sunnis were not only enraged by Saddam's hurried execution, just four days after an appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence. Many were also incensed by the unruly scene in the execution chamber.

Cellphone footage on the Web showed guards shouting "Go to hell!" and other insults, and taunting Saddam with chants of "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada."

The chants referred to Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shiite cleric who runs one of Iraq's most violent religious militias and is also a major power behind the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Many Sunnis are also upset that Saddam was put to death the day Sunni celebrations began for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim festival. Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the Kurdish judge who first presided over the case that resulted in Saddam's death sentence, said the execution at the start of Eid was illegal according to Iraqi law, and contradicted Islamic custom.

News of the ousted strongman's death and his treatment by Shiite officials also was blamed for sparking a prison riot among mainly Sunni Arab inmates at a jail near the northern city of Mosul.

In a Sunni neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, hundreds of demonstrators turned out to mourn the executed leader, while at a mosque in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, a sheep was slaughtered as a sacrifice to him.

Saddam's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest yesterday in Jordan – her first public appearance since her father was hanged.

"God bless you, and I thank you for honouring Saddam, the martyr," Raghad Saddam Hussein told members of the Professional Associations – an umbrella group of unions representing doctors, engineers and lawyers – outside the group's office in west Amman.

The protest was broadcast by Dubai-based Al-Sharqiya television, which remained on the air yesterday despite a shutdown order from the Iraqi government over its objections to a newscaster wearing black mourning clothes while reporting on Saddam's execution.

In Baghdad, Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari said the government would investigate how guards in the execution chamber, once used by Saddam's own secret police, smuggled in the phone camera.

"They have damaged the image of the Sadrists," Askari said. "That should not have happened. Before we went into the room we had an agreement that no one should bring a mobile phone."

Another government official, speaking anonymously, claimed U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had urged Maliki to wait until after Eid al-Adha before executing Saddam.

The Americans "changed their minds when they saw the prime minister was very insistent," the official told Reuters.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman declined immediate comment.

Meanwhile, six Iraqis were killed in a U.S.-led raid on the west Baghdad offices of a top Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq. The U.S. military and Iraqi police said they suspected the offices were being used as an Al Qaeda safe house.

The deaths of two U.S. soldiers in an explosion in Diyala province Sunday raised to at least 3,002 the number of Americans killed since the war began in 2003.

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