Late dictator Saddam Hussein’s tomb destroyed in Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - The tomb of Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein was virtually levelled in heavy clashes between the Islamic State militants and Iraqi forces in a fight for control of the city of Tikrit, the Guardian reports.

Fighting intensified to the north and south of Saddam’s hometown on Sunday, March 16, as Iraqi security forces vowed to reach the center of Tikrit within 48 hours. All that was left of Hussein’s once-lavish tomb were the support columns that held up the roof.

Poster-sized pictures of Saddam, which once covered the mausoleum, were nowhere to be seen amid the mountains of concrete rubble. Instead, Shia militia flags and photographs of militia leaders marked the predominantly Sunni village, including that of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general advising Iraqi Shia militias on the battlefield.

“This is one of the areas where IS militants massed the most because Saddam’s grave is here,” said Captain Yasser Nu’ma, an official with the Shia militias, formerly known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces. He said the Isis militants set a trap by planting bombs around the tomb.

IS has controlled Tikrit since June, when it waged its lightning offensive that saw Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, come under their control. The militants were helped in their conquest of northern Iraq by Saddam loyalists, including military veterans, who appealed to Sunnis who felt victimized by Baghdad’s Shia-dominated government.

IS claimed in August that Saddam’s tomb had been completely destroyed, but local officials said it was just ransacked and burned, but suffered only minor damage.

Saddam was captured by U.S. forces in 2003 and was executed by hanging in December 2006 after an Iraqi special tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity for the mass killing of Shias and Kurds. His body has been kept in the mausoleum in his birthplace, Ouja, since 2007.