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Old Saturday, December 30, 2006
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Default Execution of Saddam hussain

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before a U.S. invasion toppled him.

"It was very quick. He died right away," one of the official Iraqi witnesses told Reuters, saying the former president's face was uncovered, he appeared calm and said a brief prayer as Iraqi policemen walked him to the gallows and put the noose round him.

President Bush, who branded Saddam a tyrant and a threat to global security even though alleged nuclear and other weapons were not found after the 2003 invasion, hailed the execution as a "milestone" on Iraq's path to democracy.


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The deaths of four troops pushed the American death toll to three short of the emotive 3,000 mark. Bush already faces mounting public dismay at the war as Iraq slides toward all-out civil war between Saddam's fellow Sunnis and majority Shi'ites.

As day broke on one of the holiest dates of the Muslim year and the call to prayer echoed out from minarets across a dark and bitterly cold Baghdad, officially backed television channels flashed the news shortly after 6 a.m. (0300 GMT).

"He seemed very calm. He did not tremble," a senior official present at the execution told Reuters. Saddam, 69, was bound and shackled but his face was uncovered as he met his death.

The former president recited the Muslim profession of faith "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet" but made no other remark after policemen escorted him to the scaffold.
The official would not say where the execution took place but said it was not in the fortified Green Zone compound. Another said it was at a facility known to Americans as "Camp Justice" -- a former base for Saddam's feared security services and now used regularly for executions by Iraqi's courts.

National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told state television Saddam seemed to him "a broken man" on the gallows.

He and other officials denied a statement read out earlier on state television that said Saddam's half-brother and a former judge were also hanged. The senior official said Barzan al- Tikriti and Awad al-Bander, convicted with Saddam last month, would be executed after the week long Eid al-Adha holiday.

BUSH HAILS "MILESTONE"


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"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," Bush said in a statement.

Saddam's appeal was rejected four days ago and the rapid execution will delight Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ites, who were oppressed under Saddam, but may anger Saddam's resentful Sunni minority, as well as some Kurds who were hoping to see him convicted of genocide against them.

"The timing of the execution and the sudden way it has been done may irritate people," Saleem al-Jibouri, a spokesman for the main Sunni party in the national unity government, said.

The start of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday at noon, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, had seemed it might cause a delay in the execution before a late-night meeting between Maliki and U.S. officials agreed the final procedures
Saddam's daughter Raghd, in Jordan, "is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq," a source close to the family said.

One senior Iraqi official said the family could claim the body. It might also be sent to Saddam's home town of Tikrit, where the governor had declared a four-day curfew.

Seeking an 11th hour reprieve, defense lawyers asked a U.S. federal court to order a halt to the execution because Saddam is a defendant in a civil case in Washington. But a U.S. judge denied the move, saying Saddam was not being held in U.S. custody and as a result her court lacked jurisdiction.

U.S. troops are on alert for trouble from insurgents among Saddam's Sunni minority. While there were some protests at November's verdict by a U.S.-sponsored court, few Sunnis have deep feelings about the fate of the fallen strongman.


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An execution at the start of Eid is highly symbolic. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son and many Shi'ites could regard Saddam's death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, resentful of new Shi'ite power.

Saddam was found guilty over the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982.

Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

The United Nations and many of Washington's Western allies called on Bush and Maliki not to go ahead with the execution.
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