The man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for a quarter of a century was hanged at dawn on 30 December 2006, delighting many of the country’s long-oppressed majority Shiites and symbolising the humiliation of Saddam Hussein’s fellow Sunnis. But till today, mystery hangs over the final resting place of the man
No trace of his remains
After the hanging, US President George W Bush then personally authorised the immediate transfer of the dictator’s body on an American military helicopter from Baghdad to the northern city of Tikrit, near Al-Awjah. Is his body still in Al-Awjah or was it exhumed, and, if so, where to? In his native village of Al-Awjah, the mausoleum of executed dictator Saddam has been reduced to broken concrete and tangled barbed wire, showing no trace of his remains
Dictator’s mausoleum in ruins
Sheikh Manaf Ali al-Nida, a leader of the Albu Nasser tribe to which Saddam’s clan belongs, has held on to a letter his family signed when they received the body, agreeing that Saddam be buried without delay, according to AFP. Saddam, 69, was laid to rest before dawn in the mausoleum he had commissioned years earlier. Today, visitors need special authorisation to enter the site. Sheikh Nida has been forced to leave the village and seek refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan
‘One of his doubles was hanged’
At Saddam’s grave, the mainly Shiite paramilitaries of the Hashed al-Shaabi coalition, tasked with security in the area, say the mausoleum was destroyed in an Iraqi air strike after the Islamic State jihadist group posted snipers on its roof. Jaafar al-Gharawi, the Hashed’s security chief, insisted: “The body is still there.” But some believe the Iraqi strongman is still out there. “Saddam’s not dead,” a local said. “It was one of his doubles whowas hanged”