Iraqi arrested over hanging footage

Last Modified: 03 Jan 2007
By: Jonathan Rugman

An Iraqi prison guard has been arrested over the mobile phone footage showing officials mocking Saddam Hussein just before his execution.

Watch the report

An Iraqi prison guard has been arrested over the mobile phone footage showing officials mocking Saddam Hussein just before his execution - as the Americans insisted they would have handled it differently.

The US State department said they had raised concerns about procedures and timing before the hanging took place - but insisted 'these were decisions for the Iraqis to make'.

In the wake of angry protests by Sunni Muslims over the execution, Major General William Caldwell told a news conference the Americans "had absolutely nothing to do with the facility where the execution took place".

Here, the Prime Minister has made his first comments on the row over Saddam's execution, Downing Street saying that he "fully supports" the Iraqi Government's decision to hold an inquiry into the way it was handled.

Meanwhile the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he has no interest in a second term and wished he could be done before the end of his current term.

Asked whether he would accept a second term, Maliki said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal: "Impossible."

"I wish it could be done with even before the end of this term. I would like to serve my people from outside the circle of senior officials, maybe through the parliament, or through working directly with the people," Maliki said.

"I didn't want to take this position. I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again," he said.

His term is intended to be four years, but it could be cut short by a power shift in parliament.

Maliki also criticized US-led multinational forces and the Iraqi army as being too slow to react to insurgents.

The interview, part of a larger article about him, was held on December 24, as US President George W. Bush has been considering increasing the US troop presence in Iraq or other changes in his war strategy. The interview was also given nearly a week before the tumultuous hanging on Saturday of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, which further increased sectarian tensions.