Saddam's Baathist supporters demonstrate

Dozens of backers of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party marched in a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad on Thursday to protest the former leader's execution and show support for his fugitive deputy, who is said to have taken command of the insurgency.

Shortly after Saddam was hanged Dec. 30, the Baath party named his former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri to succeed him as the "legitimate president" of Iraq and the leader of the Arab Socialists Baath Party, which ruled Iraq for 35 years until the regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion nearly four years ago.

"Our soul, our blood we sacrifice for you Izzat," chanted the nearly 100 demonstrators as they marched in Azamiyah, home to Sunni Islam's holiest shrine in Iraq, the Abu Hanifa mosque. "Izzat, continue the march! We are your soldiers for liberation."

"Saddam represented all Iraq. Today all Iraq represents Saddam," read one of the banners carried by the demonstrators, who dispersed peacefully shortly before midday.

A Baath party statement described Saddam's execution as "the crime of this era committed by the American administration." It said Saddam left the world "as a martyr and an example of courage, heroism and self-respect" and vowed "to liberate Iraq from foreign invaders."

Azamiyah is the neighborhood where Saddam was last seen in April 2003 hours before the fall of his regime. Ibrahim is the former deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, the top decision-making body under Saddam. He is a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head.

Outrage over Saddam's hanging was fueled by the executions of Saddam's half brother and the former Revolutionary Court chief. The three were convicted in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 attempt to assassinate Saddam.