AP News, December 30th, 2006
Iraq's prime minister was smiling as he boldly signed Saddam Hussein's death warrant.
As the second-in-command of the Shiite Dawa party, Nouri al-Maliki had just closed what may have been the final chapter in a decades-old battle between the Islamic group and Saddam's now outlawed secular Baath party _ a war so fierce that it left thousands dead and sent thousands more into exile.
"Let the families of Iraqi martyrs killed in mass graves, Anfal, Halabja or those executed in the cells of the dead regime be happy. The mothers, orphans and widows should celebrate the death of the buried dictator," al-Maliki said in a statement released after the execution.
The parties' rivalry dates back more than four decades. The two groups have traditionally held opposing views on how Iraq should be run, with Dawa calling for an Islamic Shiite state, and the Baath party having a secular, pan-Arab ideology.
During his rule, Saddam's regime banned Dawa and sentenced its members to death. Others were expelled to Shiite Iran, where they found sanctuary and financial support. Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, triggering an eight-year war that killed 1 million people on both sides.
Saddam's execution on Saturday was perhaps the most significant event in the battle between the two groups since April 9, 1980 _ when the founder of Dawa, the Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was executed along with his sister. Al-Sadr's son, Muqtada al-Sadr, is now a radical cleric who leads a feared Shiite militia as well as a political faction in al-Maliki's governing coalition.
The coalition also includes other longtime opponents of Saddam, who was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity for killing 148 Shiites from the Iraqi town of Dujail after an assassination attempt in 1982 organized by Dawa.
The attempt on Saddam's life was just one in a series of Dawa attacks against the Baath party. The Shiite party bombed the state-run Iraqi News Agency and the Iraqi Airways headquarters, and tried to kill Saddam again in 1987. Nine years later, Dawa members seriously wounded Saddam's elder son, Odai, who was later killed along with his brother by U.S. troops in 2003.
After each attack against him and his Baath government, Saddam retaliated more severely _ executing Dawa members by the dozens or forcing them into exile.
But after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq the tables turned.
American troops toppled Saddam on April 9, 2003 _ exactly 23 years after the Dawa founder was slain _ and the Baath party became the outlawed group. Saddam loyalists and former regime leaders were either captured by U.S. forces or fled to nearby Syria and Jordan.
Dawa became the ruling party when its leader, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, became interim prime minister after Iraq's first general election in January 2004. A year later, al-Maliki replaced al-Jaafari in the post.
Saturday's execution was a powerful symbol of Dawa's power. The Shiite party's television station aired footage of what it said was Saddam body, lying on the ground covered with a white sheet. At the bottom of the screen read: "The end of an ultimate evil."
But exiled Baath party members vowed to reclaim Iraq from Dawa's control.
"Iraq will be ruled again by the honorable people, not like today by a group of hired agents who work for Bush," a man who identified himself as Abu Mohammed, the Iraqi Baath party representative in Syria, told the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya satellite station.
