Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad.

Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT).

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town of Dujail.

Two co-defendants, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former Iraqi chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar, were also executed.

“Criminal Saddam was hanged to death,” state-run Iraqiya television announced, as patriotic music and images of national monuments were broadcast.

A scrolling headline read: “Saddam’s execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq’s history.”

The TV station said Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court were also hanged.

US troops and Iraqi security forces are on high alert for any violent backlash. The US State Department has urged all its embassies to increase security.

The BBC’s Adam Brookes in Washington says the Bush administration will see the act as turning a page in Iraq - a demonstration that Iraq has a sovereign and democratic government.

A US statement is expected. However, the Bush administration will be keen to portray the execution as a matter purely for the Iraqi government and its court system, our correspondent says.

BBC