Iraq: Twelve years after the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, a report published on a Middle-East news website points to alleged fabrication of details of Hussein’s capture by United States forces.

The report, which has been published on the al-Araby al-Jadeed website, quotes Firas Ahmad, a 41-year-old Iraqi interpreter saying that contrary to US claims of Hussein being captured in a hole, the Iraqi leader was actually discovered in a ‘reinforced underground bunker.’ However, the report adds at the end that the opinions expressed in the article are of the writer himself.

“Two days after Saddam was captured, a celebration was held for US commanders at the Rehab Palace. I was there to translate for Iraqi politicians expected to attend the event. While there I learned Saddam was not found in a hole as claimed by the official US account,” Ahmad is quoted saying.

Ahmad reportedly was told by an Army captain that the picture of Hussein in a hole was taken after his capture and that the intention was purely to humiliate him. The report also says that Hussein did not resist at all when US forces went barging into his bunker. It goes on to say that US forces altered his appearance before shooting off his photographs to Washington.

Hussein, who ruled Iraq for a period of 24 years as its president, was captured by US forces on December 13, 2003 in an invasion on his country. He was accused by US-UK leaders of having accumulated weapons of mass destruction. Following a three-year trial in which he was convicted in a case of murder of 148 Iraqi Shiites, he was executed in December, 2006.

Courtesy The Indian Express