GHOULS IN WEB FRENZY.

(From The Daily Star)

Byline: IAIN BURCHELL

A CHILLING video of evil Saddam Hussein dropping to his death at the end of a rope sparked an internet frenzy yesterday. Millions desperate to see the final moments of the tyrant searched the web for grisly scenes not shown on TV. The gruesome footage - apparently filmed on a mobile phone - captures the moment Saddam plummets through the gallows trapdoor. And it shows a close-up of the Butcher of Baghdad's face as he hangs from the end of the rope with his neck broken. More than 500,000 people had watched the chilling video on one site alone, within hours of it appearing online. Viewers have been stunned by footage of the execution, carried out by who one website described as "three punks in leather jackets and balaclavas" rather than soldiers from the Iraqi army. One said: "The more I watch it, the more it looks like a hit instead of a state execution." An Arab website, which was among the first to post the film, crashed amid the mad scramble to see it. Official television footage had stopped just short of showing the 69-year-old dictator being hanged. But, as Saddam was buried in his home town, the internet film ended any lingering doubts over whether he was really dead. The video also confirms reports of how the deposed Iraqi leader was taunted by guards and witnesses. The shaky film - shot from a staircase leading up to the platform - shows Saddam being led to the gallows by hooded executioners. A noose can be seen hanging from the concrete ceiling. The darkened room is repeatedly lit by flashbulbs as witnesses capture the historic moment on camera. One man shouts "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada!" - a reference to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shi'ite militia leader who was blamed for running death squads targeting Saddam's Sunni Arab minority. Saddam, the noose already ...