Fierce clashes broke out in some Sunni districts in Baghdad immediately after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death, an Interior Ministry source and witnesses said today.

Clashes erupted in Zaafaraniyah neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad between insurgents and Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops, wounding at least five people. Elsewhere, clashes in Fadhil district in central Baghdad resulted in death of an Iraqi army officer, he added.

As many as 2,000 people took to the streets in Iraq in protest after Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging Nov. 5. And the number of demonstrators is increasing.

A witness said the protesters in Tikrit, Hussein's hometown, carried his posters and shot into the air in defiance of the government's curfew while some others joyously shouted "the killer deserves to be killed" and set his pictures on fire.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani insisted the trial was "fair," but he refused to comment on it further.

Two Sunni Arab local television stations, Baghdad-based, have been shut down by Iraq's Interior Ministry for inciting violence.

Leading Iraqi attorney Khalil al-Dulaimi warned early Sunday in a letter to the U.S. President Bush that the verdict could plunge Iraq and the region into violence. The trial on Saddam has caused casualties before. On Sept. 29, a brother-in-law of a judge trying Saddam Hussein for genocide in Anfal operation was shot dead, together with his son, by unknown armed men in a western Baghdad neighborhood.

The sentence has also aroused mixed reactions worldwide. U.S. President Bush hailed it as "a milestone" for Iraq, while the Finnish presidency of the European Union (EU) called for Iraq not to use the death penalty against Hussein.

Saddam got his sentence by the Iraqi High Tribunal for his killing of 148 Shiite villagers in the Iraqi village of Dujail. Along with this verdict, two other Saddam's defendants were also sentenced to death by hanging. One other defendant was sentenced to life in prison, and three received 15-year sentences.