Film Shows Apparent Executions of 3 Iraqis

Film uncovered after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shows three men apparently being executed by use of explosives packed around their bodies.

The men were convicted in 1985 of a bomb attack that killed children in Baghdad.

The footage shows men in the uniforms of Iraqi security officers strapping what appear to be explosives to one of the blindfolded men and attaching wires to a large vehicle battery.

“You’re going to kill me. You’re going to kill me even if I confess,” says the man, who was apparently accused of being an Iranian agent at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. A few seconds later, he disappears in a cloud of smoke and dust.

In the next shot, bloodied remains lie in the sand. The same happens to the other two men.

Since Hussein’s overthrow, Iraqis have told of arrests, torture and killings. Several mass graves have been found.

The film begins with uniformed Iraqi army officers and officials in civilian clothes descending from a bus in the desert with the condemned men.

An Iraqi army major reads a court ruling that says the three men were sentenced to hang.

The Iraqi officials applaud when the officer states who signed the death warrant: “Saddam Hussein, the president.”