BAGHDAD — Turning on their TVs during a long holiday weekend, Iraqis were greeted by a familiar if unexpected face from their brutal past: Saddam Hussein.

The Iraqi dictator is lauded on a mysterious satellite channel that began broadcasting across the Arab world on Friday, the Islamic calendar’s anniversary of his execution three years ago and the first day of Eid al-Adha.

No one seems to know who is bankrolling the so-called Saddam Channel, but the Iraqi government suspects it’s Ba’athists, whose party he once led.

A man in Damascus, Syria, named Mohammed Jarboua claims to be its chairman. The channel, he said, “didn’t receive a penny from the Ba’athists” and is for Iraqis and other Arabs who “long for his rule.”