End of an Era for Iraq

Saddam Hussein Executed in Baghdad

Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging in Baghdad. Shiites danced in the street to celebrate while Sunnis mourned the dictator's death. George W. Bush welcomed the news but Germany reacted by condemning the death penalty on principle.

Saddam Hussein has been hanged in Baghdad in a violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq in a reign of fear for three decades.

Saddam was executed by hanging before sunrise Saturday at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. The former Iraqi dictator, who was dressed in a black coat and trousers, struggled briefly after being handed over to his Iraqi executioners by American military guards. He was reported to have grown calm, however, as the moment of his death grew closer. He held a Koran as he was led to the gallows and refused to wear a hood over his head.

He was reported to have shouted "God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab," before the rope was put around his neck.

Iraqi television showed what it said was Saddam's body after the execution.

Hundreds of Shiite Muslims danced in the streets in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City and others fired guns in the air to celebrate the dictator's death. The government did not impose a curfew, as it had done last month when Saddam was convicted. Meanwhile people in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, once a Saddam power base, mourned his death.

Just a few hours after his death, a bomb exploded in a market in Kufa, a Shiite town 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, killing 31 people and wounding around 58 others. It was not clear if the explosion was connected to Saddam's execution or if it had been previously planned.

The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

A US judge Friday rejected a last-minute court challenge and refused to stop Saddam's execution. US authorities held Saddam in custody until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated.

US troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution was broadcast on television in the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad.

US President George W. Bush issued a statement from his Texan ranch welcoming the execution. Bringing Saddam to justice was "an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself," the statement read. Bush added that the execution marks the "end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops". However he cautioned that Saddam's death will not halt the violence in Iraq.

German politicians criticized the death penalty after hearing the news. "The federal government, like the European Union, rejects the death penalty on principle, irrespective of the circumstances," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

dgs/ap/reuters/dpa