Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein met a grim end Saturday, as he was led to the gallows in handcuffs and hanged for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims.

A witness said Saddam was handcuffed before he was brought into an execution chamber and did not resist. He also said there was visible fear on his face before he was hanged, but he refused to wear a head-covering.

Saddam, 69, was convicted for his role in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a primarily Shiite town north of Baghdad. The victims had been detained after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail, northern Iraq.

Mariam al-Rayes, a former member of the Shiite bloc in parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there."

Edward Peck, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said the execution could actually do more harm than good for the country.

"I don't think this is going to advance America's interests in Iraq at all," said Peck, arguing it could spark further sectarian violence.

Late Friday, a U.S. judge dismissed a last-minute court challenge by Saddam's lawyers, who had argued the execution should be stayed because Saddam also faced a civil lawsuit in Washington.

The judge said the U.S. courts could not interfere with another country's judicial system, according to AP.

Saddam had been formally in Iraqi custody since his capture three years ago, but physically held by U.S. military guards at Camp Cropper, a military prison near the Baghdad airport.

Prior to the execution, the administration of U.S. President George Bush said the timing was a matter for the sovereign Iraqi government.

"That is a matter for the Iraqi people; we are observers to that process. They are a sovereign government and they will make their own decisions regarding carrying out justice," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas.

Saddam himself had appeared to be preparing himself for the hanging on Friday. AP reported his half-brothers visited him in his jail cell and he gave them his will.

And in a final farewell letter posted Wednesday on Saddam's former Baath Party website, he urged Iraqis not to retaliate against American citizens.

"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," he wrote in Arabic. The Associated Press translated the letter.

Hussein added: "I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us."

Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also reportedly hanged, although their deaths have not been confirmed.

U.S. forces in Iraq are preparing for any attacks following the execution, U.S. Defence Department officials say.

Saddam was also in the middle of another trial, in which he was charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.

That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue despite his execution.

Coalition forces stopped capital punishment in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, arguing the court system was incapable of rendering fair decisions.

But the Iraqi government reinstated the death penalty after the handover in June 2004, partly in order to have the option of executing Saddam if the High Tribunal found him guilty.

The Iraqi government has since released footage of some executions, showing convicts lined up in a row with black hoods covering their faces. Saddam rarely made executions public during his rule.

With files from The Associated Press

I believe some hard evidence is needed.

No doubt the conspiracy theorists will be all over this one.

Stranger things have happened, have they not?

If the Americans were there to witness it well then I would guess it really happened, but if it was solely down to the Iraqi's, like it looked on the news photo's, well then you never know.

The Brits and the Americans wanted him dead, because we didn't want it to come out how much we helped him by supplying him with weapons of mass destruction, when he was uncle Saddam. The Iranians in charge of the Kangaroo court wanted him dead because he oppressed and killed their people. Don't suppose we will hear the end of it, but lets hope it doesn't cause a civil war over there, If there isn't one already.

Is there anything more me medieval then hanging someone?



Apart from that death penalty is something medieval itself....

There are lots of "educational" things you could have done with someone like Saddam to fight "terrorism", and at the same time "convert" some potential terrorists, then to just kill him.

......"That is a matter for the Iraqi people; we are observers to that process. They are a sovereign government and they will make their own decisions regarding carrying out justice," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in Crawford, Texas.......

That made me laugh in the above article, for all sorts of reasons

Well the moon landings were faked so its no hard to fake someones death.

tis a strange situation, i see that other countrys have equal problems with such nasty dictators, some countrys have experienced there own genocides, a prime example of that would be Rwanada. yet the leaders of the world did not intervene in most of these 'other' cases, human rights abuses have been going on in other countrys like Iran for many many years, so personally i dont see why the western governments have singled out Iraq and its former leader. whilst its a good thing he was removed, cos he was abusing his peoples rights, i do feel the governments responsible for his removal from power have done so with ulterior motive as opposed to 'just doing a good for the world' and i dont buy it myself.