(State TV has been showing footage of Saddam Hussein's atrocities) Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad for crimes against humanity. Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time
(0300GMT).
The news was confirmed to the BBC by the Iraqi Deputy Foreign
Minister, Labeed Abawi.
Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former
Iraqi chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are also reported to
have been executed.
All three were 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.
"Criminal Saddam was hanged to death,"
state-run Iraqiya television announced, as patriotic music and
images of national monuments were broadcast.
Saddam Hussein was hanged first, followed by Barzan and
then Bandar, it announced.
A scrolling headline read: "Saddam's execution marks the end
of a dark period of Iraq's history."
Mariam al-Rayes, an ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,
told the TV station that the execution "was filmed and God
willing it will be shown. There was one camera present,
and a doctor was also present".
Other Arab TV stations aired live footage of the sunrise over
Baghdad's Firdous Square, where US Marines pulled down
a statue of Saddam Hussein, after he was deposed
in April 2003.
'Turning a page'
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 Peter Greste in Baghdad says Shias have generally
welcomed Saddam Hussein's death and hailed the execution
as justice for the suffering endured under his leadership.
But Saddam's own Sunni tribesman were angered by his
treatment and may well protest once more, our correspondent
adds.
US President George W Bush hailed the execution as "an
important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy,
but warned it would not end the deadly violence there.
He said: "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move
forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible
crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a
fair trial.
"It is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a
democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be
an ally in the War on Terror."
UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett welcomed the fact that
Saddam Hussein had been tried by an Iraqi court "for at least
some of the appalling crimes he committed" and said "he has
now been held to account".
France called on Iraqis to "look towards the future and work towards reconciliation and national unity".
form BBC.
오늘은 역사에 기록될 날..
사람이 죄를 짓든 아니든, 역사에 한 글귀를 장식한 그는
보통 인물은 아니었다.
148명을 죽인죄로 사형. 국내 전두환, 미국의 부시부자는...?!
재밌는 세상에 살고 있다. 나는.
