The News Minute | August 7, 2014 | 10.47 am IST

Saddam Hussein’s allies shifted his remains from where he was buried in a family grave eight months ago, fearing that the Iraqi dictator’s grave would be desecrated. 

According to a Reuters report, a leader of Hussein’s Albu Nasir tribe, which is a Sunni tribe said that Shia militia broke into Hussein’s grave in his village Awj, tore down photographs of Hussein and then set the whole place ablaze.

The tribal leader quoted says the move was carried out eight months ago, but he rued that he and three others could not move the bodies of Saddam’s sons. However, he refused to say where Saddam’s body is now.

Saddam Hussein was hanged in 2006 for committing crimes against humanity, one of which was the killing of 148 Shia villagers in 1982, Reuters reported.