(Updates with bodies buried) AWJA, Iraq, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's two aides were buried within hours of their hanging on Monday in a garden outside the hall which has become a shrine to the former president since he was interred there two weeks ago. Abdullah Jubara, deputy governor of Iraq's Salahaddin province, said the bodies of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander were handed to local officials after being flown to a U.S. military base. The two bodies in plain coffins draped in Iraqi flags were then driven to Awja, the village on the outskirts of Tikrit where Saddam was born, arriving soon after dark. Several hundred mourners had gathered in the hall, where flowers and pictures of Saddam were still piled up over his grave. The two bodies were ritually washed and prepared for burial and then put to rest in the garden outside as prayers were said and people read from the Koran. The two men were convicted of crimes against humanity for their role in the killing of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination bid on Saddam in 1982. Like Saddam's execution, their hangings angered many Sunni Arabs who accuse the now dominant Shi'ite and Kurdish majority of seeking revenge rather than justice in Saddam's trials. The government's admission that Barzan's head was ripped from his body by the noose sparked anger among the mourners. Some chanted anti-government slogans, accusing the Shi'ite- led government of being "agents of Iran", Iraq's Shi'ite non- Arab neighbour which is viewed with deep suspicion by many Sunni Arab Iraqis. Bander's son was among the mourners at the burial, along with the governor and deputy governor of Salahaddin province and the local chief of police. Some fired off volleys of gunfire to show their anger at the executions. In keeping with Muslim tradition, the bodies were buried less than 24 hours after the 3:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) executions.
