Handgun fom Saddam
Handgun fom SaddamKedma police

Police from the Kedma station in central Israel were surprised Wednesday when a search of a suspect car yielded a weapon bearing a dedication from deceased Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The policemen were on routine patrol in Kafr Kassem in the evening hours, when they told a driver who aroused their suspicion to stop his car. After a short search, they found an illegal handgun, with an engraved inscription in Arabic.

"A gift from the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to one who defended his homeland,” says the inscription on the gun, which was confiscated by the police. The assumption is that the gun was a gift given to someone who served the Iraqi tyrant, as a token of appreciation.

Police arrested the four occupants of the car and took them to interrogation. Three of the four were subsequently released.

Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He was toppled when the US led an invasion of Iraq and eventually captured and hanged.