Did saddam hussein have a quran written in blood

[jack]

http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/30152/did-saddam-hussein-have-a-quran-written-in-blood

This obviously sounds completely made up, but was reported straightforwardly in a bunch of mainstream articles. I couldn't figure out what those articles were based on though, and I couldn't find any earlier references, nor any mention on Snopes, so I don't know how to tell. Other than "I refuse to think about it, it's just obviously true/false", does anyone know where to go from there?

Comments

[hatam_soferet]

There's something kicking in the back of my head but I can't find it. I think it might be an older trope than Saddam. Also if you think about blood being the most precious liquid available it makes a certain kind of twisted sense.

[danohu]

earlier references are plenty, e.g. this.

I had it filed in my head as 'bizarre but probably true', with a caveat about how much of his own blood was actually used.