Heavy fire flattens Saddam’s tomb

THE tomb of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was virtually levelled in heavy clashes between militants from the Islamic State group and Iraqi forces in a fight for control of the city of Tikrit.

Fighting intensified to the north and south of Saddam Hussein’s hometown on Sunday as Iraqi security forces vowed to reach the centre of Tikrit within 48 hours.

An Associated Press video from the village of Ouja, just south of Tikrit, shows all that remains of Hussein’s once lavish tomb are the columns that held up the roof.

Poster-sized pictures of Saddam which once covered the mausoleum, are now nowhere to be seen amid the mountains of concrete rubble. Instead, Shi’ite militia flags and photos of militia leaders mark the predominantly Sunni village, including that of Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general advising Iraqi Shi‘ite militias on the battlefield.

“This is one of the areas where IS militants massed the most because Saddam’s grave is here,” Shi’ite militia officer Captain Yasser Nu’ma said.

The Shi’ite militias were formerly known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

“The IS militants set an ambush for us by planting bombs around the tomb,” Nu’ma said.

The extremist IS has controlled Tikrit since June, when it waged its lightning offensive that saw Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, come under its control.

IS was helped in its conquest of northern Iraq by Saddam loyalists, including military veterans, who appealed to Sunnis who felt victimised by Baghdad’s Shi’ite-dominated government.

IS claimed in August that Saddam’s tomb had been completely destroyed, but officials said it was just ransacked and burnt, but suffered only minor damage.

Saddam was captured by US forces in 2003 and was hanged in December 2006.

His body was interred in the mausoleum at Ouja in 2007.

The complex featured a marble octagon at the centre of which a bed of fresh flowers covered the place where his body was buried.

Iraqi media reported last year that Saddam’s body was removed by loyalists amid fears that it would be disturbed in the fighting. The body’s location is not known.

Recapturing Tikrit, a Sunni bastion on the Tigris River, would pave the way for an assault on Mosul. US officials have said this could come as soon as next month.

Concerns are mounting that Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, of which an estimated 20 000 are fighting in Tikrit, will carry out revenge attacks on this and other areas that are home to predominantly Sunni residents.