A new video of Saddam Hussein's corpse has been posted on the Internet. The video, which appears to have been taken with a camera phone, shows Saddam shortly after his hanging, with a gaping neck wound.

The footage pans up the shrouded body of the former leader from the feet. It apparently was taken shortly after Saddam was executed and placed on a gurney shortly before dawn on Dec. 30.

As the panning shot reaches the head region, the white shroud is pulled back and reveals Saddam's head and neck.

His head is unnaturally twisted at a 90 degree angle to his right. It shows a gaping bloody wound, circular in shape, about an inch below his jaw line.

The 27-second video is posted on an Iraqi news website that is known to support Saddam's outlawed Baath Party.

"A new film of the late immortal martyr, President Saddam Hussein," the web site said in a headline over a link to the video.

It is the second clandestine video to have leaked. The first showed Saddam being taunted in his final moments, dropping through the gallows floor and his dead body swinging at the end of a rope.

The newest video leak is likely to increase the angry reaction over the way the execution was carried out. There already has been a global outcry about the undignified manner in which the government hanged Saddam.

Source: Xinhua/agencies