Saddam's tribe, home village suffering

OWJA, Iraq, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The leader of executed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab tribe says he expects to be killed by al-Qaida.

Sheik Hassan al-Nassiri, head of the Nassiri tribe of Owja, Iraq, tends a mausoleum on his estate that contains Saddam's remains. He told Sunday's Los Angeles Times that because he's been abandoned by the Shiite-led Iraqi government, he's now cooperating with U.S. military forces. But that, he said, will probably cost him his life, as it already has his two brothers.

Asked by the Times who killed his brothers, the sheik answered, "They are Sunnis from al-Qaida groups. I am on the path of my brothers. I expect to be killed. I just don't know when or where."

Saddam lavished his fellow Nassiri tribesmen and the village of Owja -- 5 miles from the provincial capital of Tikrit -- with money and attention during his years in power.

But now, almost two years after he was hanged, his town's streets are empty, unemployment is high and the mansions fronting the Tigris River once owned by Saddam and his family are in ruins, the newspaper said.