Left: A Jordanian woman kisses Raghad Saddam Hussein, daughter of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, during a protest against the execution of her father in Amman on January 1.   Right: A Palestinian woman holds a poster depicting former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the Fatah movement's founding in the West Bank village of Anza near Jenin. January 4.

The women who loved Saddam - reuters photos

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was executed on Saturday, December 30, 2006. Though some celebrated in the United States and Baghdad, there are those who mourn his execution.

Despite the tyrant dictator that he was portrayed as or was, he was a father, a husband and grand-father. He had daughters, wives and grandchildren who loved him. Saddam had five children with his first wife, Sajida Khairallah Telfah. Their sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed by American forces in a July 22, 2003 shoot-out.

His daughters, Raghad, 35, and Rana, 33, are currently living in Jordan. Saddam has a third daughter Hala.

They have been estranged from their father for some time. In 1995, they defected to Jordan with their husbands — Hussein and Saddam Kamal.

Six months later, they returned to Baghdad. However, the husbands were killed in a 13-hour shoot-out at a house near Baghdad that is believed to have been organised by Uday and Qusay at their father's request.

On January 1 his eldest daughter Raghad visited a sit-in held by hundreds of her father's Jordanian supporters to condemn his execution.

On Sunday, dozens of Palestinians held a protest in Baqaa refugee camp north of Amman, following prayers which mourned Saddam's death. In the southern city of Karak, a tent set up by Jordanian Saddam supporters welcomed thousands of sympathisers, organisers said.

Raghad and her children were granted asylum by King Abdullah in 2003 after she fled with her sister to Jordan after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

She took a leading role in organising her father's legal defence for his trial for crimes against humanity.