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Decapitation of Saddam's half brother could increase tensions

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | Newsday Middle East Correspondent

10:49 PM EST, January 15, 2007

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Saddam Hussein's half-brother was decapitated Monday during his hanging in Baghdad, an incident likely to further inflame sectarian tensions across the Arab world.

Despite international appeals for a delay, the Iraqi government proceeded with the hanging of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Hussein's half-brother, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court. The pair were convicted and sentenced to death with Hussein for the killing of 148 Shia Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the Iraqi dictator in the town of Dujail.

The Iraqi government showed a video of Monday's hanging to a group of reporters in Baghdad, but said the footage would not be publicly released. It showed the two men, wearing red prison jumpsuits, being outfitted with black hoods before nooses were placed around their necks. After the trap doors were opened, the video showed al-Bandar's body dangling from the rope. But al-Tikriti's body fell to the floor and his severed head came to a rest several yards away.

After worldwide criticism that followed Hussein's execution on Dec. 30 -- with an unofficial video taken by cell phone showing Shia witnesses taunting him in his final moments -- the Iraqi government tried to ensure Monday's hanging was orderly.

"Those present signed documents pledging not to violate the rules or otherwise face legal penalties," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. "No one shouted slogans or said anything that would taint the execution." He said the decapitation of al-Tikriti was inadvertent.

By not heeding appeals for a delay from Iraq's Kurdish president and Sunni vice president, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seemed to be trying to appease hardline Shia supporters -- especially the renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This highlights al-Maliki's challenge: how to balance the competing interests of the United States and Shia militants.

President George W. Bush said last week as part of his plan to deploy 21,500 additional troops in Iraq, he had received assurances al-Maliki would no longer try to protect al-Sadr's militia, known as the Mahdi Army. But some analysts doubt al-Maliki will be able to part ways with Shia hardliners.

"After the public relations disaster that followed Saddam's execution, al-Maliki should have delayed these latest executions," said Nabil Salim, an Iraqi political analyst. "But that would have angered his Shia supporters and he could not afford that."

For months, the Bush administration has tried to push al-Maliki's Shia-dominated government into talks with Sunni political and tribal leaders close to Iraqi insurgents. Washington has also pressed Sunni-led regimes such as Jordan and Saudi Arabia to mediate between Iraqi factions.

"These executions are not going to help our efforts toward national reconciliation," Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, told Al-Jazeera satellite TV.

Even the top U.S. military commander in Iraq Monday tried to downplay expectations for Bush's new plan, saying it needs "sustained political support" from al-Maliki's government to succeed. Gen. George Casey also said he did not expect significant results from a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive until the summer or fall.

Iraqi officials played footage of the latest hanging for reporters to allay suspicions that al-Tikriti's body was mutilated. "We will not release the video, but we want to show the truth," al-Dabbagh said. "The government acted in a proper way."

But Arab TV was filled with criticism of the Iraqi leadership. Fakhri Saleh, an Egyptian forensics expert interviewed on Al-Jazeera, said hanging is designed to break a person's neck and choke him to death as quickly as possible. A victim can be decapitated, Saleh said, if he drops for longer than the necessary distance based on his weight, or if the rope used is of the wrong length or quality. He blamed inexperienced executioners.

"This was a grave mistake because an execution is intended to end a person's life without torturing him," he said. "If the Iraqis want to carry out a death by hanging, they should use an expert."