Iraq to probe filming of Saddam hanging

The Iraqi government launched an inquiry on Monday
into how guards filmed and taunted Saddam Hussein on the gallows,
turning his execution into a televised spectacle that has inflamed
sectarian anger.

A senior Iraqi official told
Reuters the U.S. ambassador tried to persuade Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki not to rush into hanging the former president just four days
after his appeal was turned down, urging the government to wait another
two weeks.

News of the ousted strongman's death
on Saturday and of his treatment by officials of the Shi'ite-led
government was blamed by one witness for sparking a prison riot among
mainly Sunni Arab inmates at a jail near the northern city of Mosul.

An adviser to Maliki, Sami al-Askari, told Reuters: "There were a few guards who shouted slogan