Saddam's final moments

Palestinian boys play with their toy guns under a poster of executed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in the refugee camp of Shatila. -- PHOTO: AFP

BAGHDAD - A NEWLY-LEAKED US diplomatic cable describes in detail the circumstances of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's execution, from guards telling him to 'go to hell' to officials taking mobile phone pictures.

Saddam's execution in December 2006 sparked international controversy after mobile phone video of the sentence being carried out was published on the Internet showing witnesses taunting him as he was about to be hanged.

The controversies led then-US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to comment in the leaked cable that supporters of Saddam would use the poorly-conducted execution as an excuse to condemn what he said was a fair trial.

According to the cable, dispatched in January 2007 and classified SECRET, Iraqi deputy prosecutor Monqith al-Faroun, in a meeting with Mr Khalilzad, described a guard who was escorting Saddam to the execution platform telling the ousted president to 'go to hell", remarks that Mr Faroun said he admonished.

Mr Faroun said that subsequently, he saw Iraqi officials present at the execution openly taking photographs with their mobile phone cameras, despite the fact that the devices were prohibited.

The lawyer added that as Saddam was conducting his final prayer before being hanged, one witness shouted, 'Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada", in reference to the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who rose to prominence after Saddam's fall from power. -- AFP