US would have handled Saddam hanging 'differently'

BAGHDAD: US forces took no part in the execution of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and would have handled things differently, military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said on Wednesday.

Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad that US forces had handed 'physical control' of Saddam to Iraqi officials shortly before the hanging, and all US personnel had left the Iraqi prison facility before it took place.

"It's a sovereign nation. It's their decision and it's their responsibility to decide how things go from there," he said.

"If you're asking me if we would have done things differently, yes we would have. But that's not our decision, that's the government of Iraq's decision," he added, amid controversy over Saddam's final moments.

Footage of Saddam's death from a video that was filmed on a mobile phone by an Iraqi official and later distributed on the Internet shows that he was taunted by Shiite witnesses in the build up to his hanging.