Saddam Hussein was buried before dawn on Sunday in his native village of Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, the head of his tribe said.
BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein was buried before dawn on Sunday in his native village of Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, the head of his tribe said.
Ali al-Nida, head of the Albu Nasir tribe, told journalists the burial in a family plot took place in the early morning, less than 24 hours after the former president was hanged for crimes against humanity.
His sons Uday and Qusay, killed by U.S. troops in 2003, are also buried in Awja, close to Tikrit, where tribal elders received the body on Saturday from Baghdad.
Musa Faraj, one of Saddam's relatives from the area, said, "Saddam Hussein has been buried today at 4:00 am (local time) in a place that was constructed during his regime in the centre of Awjah."
Faraj said the building where Saddam was buried was a hall usually used for condolence meetings in Awjah, 180 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Earlier on Sunday, Faraj said that a delegation from Salaheddin province including the governor Hamed al-Shakti and chief of Saddam's tribe of Albu Nasir, Ali al-Nida, had gone to Baghdad to claim Saddam's body. The burial was reportedly attended by Shakti and Nida and many other members of the tribe.
Faraj said security forces had sealed off the town of Tikrit, the stronghold of Saddam's supporters, since Saturday so that "nobody could participate in the burial" at Awjah, just four kilometres south of Tikrit.
Saddam was born in Awjah, a bastion of the Albu Nasir tribe and part of Salaheddin province.
The former strongman was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on November 5 for the killing of 148 men and boys in the Shi'ite village of Dujail in 1982 after an attempt was made there to assassinate him.
The death sentence was confirmed by a judicial panel on December 26, and carried out at dawn on Saturday inside a former torture centre used by Saddam's intelligence service in the Shiite district of Kadhimiyah in northern Baghdad.
Iraqi Shi'ites, persecuted during Saddam's 24-year rule, feted his demise, dancing and cracking off bursts of automatic fire, while Sunni militants slammed the US-backed government for hanging their hero.
Although it was not clear whether the attacks were masterminded by Saddam loyalists to avenge his death, the abyss of civil strife into which Iraq has sunk since the US-led invasion has cast a shadow over Shiite celebrations. US President George W Bush hailed Saddam's execution as "an important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy, but European countries including US allies criticised use of the death penalty.
Saddam's execution, which came just as one of Islam's most important festivals was beginning, rankled in the Middle East and analysts warned public opinion in the Arab world could turn even further against the United States.
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