At Saddam's tomb, loyalists mourn their lost leader

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

AWJA, Iraq (AFP) — Nostalgic supporters of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein voiced regret on Thursday over the US-led war that ousted their hero and said they feel victimised by Iraq's new Shiite regime.

Five years to the day after US warplanes dropped the first bombs on Baghdad marking the launch of the invasion to topple his regime, members of Saddam's tribe gathered in his home village of Awja to express their unwavering loyalty to the man who led Iraq with an iron fist for almost a quarter century.

Some visited the hall in the centre of the village where Saddam was buried after he was hanged in December 2006 for crimes against humanity over the mass killing of Shiites in the 1980s.

"I feel comfortable when I come here. It is like a medicine for me....