A new video of Saddam Hussein's body, showing a neck wound, was posted on the Internet early today, the second leak of clandestine pictures from Saddam's hanging.
The video appeared to have been taken with a camera phone, as was the video of the hanging that showed guards taunting Saddam in the final moments of his life.
The footage pans up Saddam's shrouded body from the feet. It apparently was taken soon after Saddam was executed and placed on a gurney. He was hanged Dec. 30.
As the panning shot reaches the head region, the white shroud is pulled back to show Saddam's head and neck.
His head is unnaturally twisted at a 90 degree angle to his right. The video also shows a bloody, circular wound about an inch below his jaw line on the left side of his neck. His left cheek is marked with red blotches, and there is blood on the shroud where it covered his head.
The newest video leak is likely to increase the angry reaction to the way that the execution was carried out. There has already been an outcry about the undignified manner in which the Shiite-dominated government hanged Saddam, a Sunni.
The 27-second video was posted on an Iraqi news Web site that is known to support Saddam's outlawed Baath Party.
"A new film of the late immortal martyr, President Saddam Hussein," the Web site said in a headline over a link to the video.
Voices could be heard on the video. As the shroud is pulled back, one voice says, "Hurry up, hurry up. I'm going to count from one to four. One, two.... Hurry up, you're going to get us into a catastrophe."
Then another voice, apparently the man taking the pictures, says, "Just one second, just one second, Abu Ali. I'm about finished."
Then a third voice says, "Abu Ali, you take care of this."
It was the second clandestine video to have been leaked, the first showing Saddam being taunted in his final moments. It showed Saddam dropping through the gallows floor as he prayed. It ends with his body swinging at the end of the rope.
The clandestine hanging video was in sharp contrast with an official video that was broadcast not long after Saddam's execution which showed him standing silently on the gallows as the noose was put around his neck. The official video was silent.
On the leaked hanging video, however, voices could be heard taunting him.
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