BAGHDAD -- Film uncovered after the fall of Saddam Hussein shows what seems to be new evidence of brutality under his rule -- three men being executed in gruesome fashion by being blown up with explosives packed around their bodies.

Convicted in 1985 of a bomb attack that killed children in Baghdad, Saddam's security police wired them up to explosives in the desert and simply blew them up, one by one -- the whole proceedings captured on a film obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

The footage shows men in the uniforms of Iraqi security officers strapping what appears to be explosive to one of the blindfolded men and attaching wires to a large vehicle battery.

"You're going to kill me, you're going to kill me even if I confess," wails the man.

Licking his dry lips with his tongue, he waits for death. A few seconds later, he disappears in a cloud of smoke and dust.

In the next shot, bloodied remains lie in the sand. The next man is brought up to the same spot and made to kneel. He too appears to be blown up, followed by the third.

Since Saddam's overthrow by U.S. forces, Iraqis have found the confidence to recount tales of arrests, torture and killings once too risky to tell. Several mass graves have been found in different parts of the country, containing thousands of bodies.

The film begins with uniformed Iraqi Army officers and what appear to be intelligence officials in civilian clothes descending from a bus in the desert with the condemned men.