Saddam Loyalists Mark Passage Of Traditional 40-Day Mourning Period.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's elder daughter joined hundreds of Baathists in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday to mark the passage of the traditional 40-day mourning period.

Raghad Hussein, accompanied by her son and daughter and several of Saddam's defence lawyers, was greeted with chants of "Revenge, revenge for Saddam" and "Eternity to Saddam", on arrival at the San'a airport.

A convoy of cars carrying pictures of Saddam then drove them to a palace in downtown San'a for a ceremony hosted by the chief of the state security forces, Yahia Mohammed Abdullah Saleh.

Addressing the gathering, Raghad praised the insurgents in Iraq, saying, "As long as the resistance and the mujahedeen are fulfilling their duties in Iraq, the Iraqi people, without any doubt, will achieve victory."

"Saddam Hussein is the real hero and the pan-Arab leader. I am proud of him and proud of his great struggle and sacrifices," she added.

Other speakers at the ceremony lashed out at the United States and Iran, and some unnamed Arab regimes they labelled as US collaborators in Iraq.

Saddam was sentenced to death on November 5 for the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail after a 1982 attempt to assassinate him. On December 26, Iraq's highest court rejected his appeal and the former dictator was executed on December 30 in an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government.

Saddam loyalists chose to mark the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period in Yemen a day early, to draw attention from other ceremonies across the Middle East the following day. (NDTV.Com)
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