Baghdad: A new video was posted on the internet apparently showing the body of Saddam Hussain lying on a hospital trolley with a wound in his neck after being hanged.
The 27-second clip, the third illicit film to emerge since the former Iraqi president was executed for crimes against humanity on December 30, showed a sheet being removed to reveal a smear of blood on Saddam's left cheek and a vivid red wound, 5 cm in diameter, surrounded by beard on his throat.
The footage, seen on Tuesday, showed his neck severely twisted. The throat wound may have been caused by the rope.
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 Hussain," the web site said in a headline over a link to the video.
The grainy film appeared to have been taken in a room lit by daylight. A man is heard addressing another familiarly as Abu Ali and urging him to hurry - possibly because the people filming were aware of breaching regulations in doing so.
The Iraqi government had released an official video showing a dignified Saddam refusing a hood as the noose was placed around his neck. It showed the executioner persuading Saddam to have the folded hood wrapped around his neck. It did not show the drop through the trap or Saddam dead.
Shortly afterward on January 30, a television station run by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's Shiite Dawa party showed a grainy clip of Saddam lying in a shroud. It was similar to the newest film but not clearly showing the neck wound.
By the time Saddam was buried the following day, another piece of film, shot on a mobile phone, emerged on the Internet and Arab television stations showing the three minutes around the hanging.
It showed Saddam and officials trading sectarian jibes and has prompted a government inquiry after it sparked widespread anger among Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs.
