| December 31, 2006 | Sunday | Zilhaj 09, 1427 |
| December 31, 2006 | Sunday | Zilhaj 09, 1427 |
BAGHDAD, Dec 30: A delegation that included the governor of Salahuddin Province and the head of Saddam Hussein's clan has retrieved his body from Baghdad and taken it for burial near the executed dictator's hometown, Al-Arabiya satellite television reported on Saturday night.
The broadcaster reported the burial would take place on Sunday.
The reported could not immediately be verified.
Al-Arabiya said Salahuddin provincial governor Hamad Hamoud Shagtti and Sheik Ali al-Nidawi, leader Saddam's of the Albu-Nassir clan, had negotiated with US and Iraqi officials to be able to bury the executed leader's body near where he was born, the village of Ouja which is near Tikrit, 130 kilometres north of Baghdad.
The report said the clan had gathered at the grand mosque in Ouja to await the return of Saddam's remains.
SECRET BURIAL: Earlier, an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had said that Saddam Hussein would probably be buried secretly in Iraq.
“The body of Saddam Hussein will most probably be buried in a secret place in Iraq,” Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Maliki, told Reuters.
Asked whether the body would be given to Saddam's daughter or his family, he answered: “No.”
Saddam's daughter Raghd, in exile in Jordan, wants her father buried in Yemen, a source close to the family said.—AP/Reuters
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