Saddam Hussein's execution filmed
2006-12-30 06:54
Baghdad - Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday, officials said, as Iraq braced itself nervously for possible reprisals by his remaining supporters.
"The execution of Saddam Hussein is complete," state television said in a text headline broadcast against a background of Qur'anic verses.
"Saddam Hussein was hanged until death ensued. A black page in the history of Iraq has been turned," it added in a second news flash, as joyful popular music filled the airwaves.
Mariam al-Rayis, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki who attended the execution, said in an interview on state television news: "It was between 05:30 and 06:30.
"The whole thing was filmed."
Rayis said the execution was witnessed by a judge, a prosecutor and journalists.
Saddam's Jordan-based defence team, which largely boycotted the year-long trial, made one last desperate shake of the dice by going to court in the United States to demand that the ousted despot remain in US military custody.
Backlash
But US authorities in Baghdad insisted that the detainees have been under Iraqi legal authority for more than a year and were only being held in an American military base as a simple security precaution.
Security officials fear a backlash, however, from hardline factions among Iraq's Sunni minority, including the Islamist and nationalist militant groups that make up the deadliest elements of Iraq's violent insurgency.
Ahead of the verdict, the head of Iraq's interior ministry command centre, Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, told AFP that the country's beleaguered security forces were on high alert.
"Certainly, this is a big event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer," he said.
"We will take measures proportionate to this event.
"We will put all our forces on the streets so that no lives are jeopardised."