Christopher Torchia And Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Canadian Press
BAGHDAD (AP) - Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday, Iraqi state-run television reported. It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

U.S. President George W. Bush called Saddam's execution "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."

State-run Iraqiya television news reported that Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, also were hanged. However, three officials said only Saddam was executed.

"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," National Security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run Iraqiyah.

Al-Rubaie said Saddam "totally surrendered" and did not resist. He said a judge read the sentence to Saddam, who was taken in handcuffs to the execution room. When he stood in the execution room, photographs and video footage were taken, al-Rubaie said.

"He did not ask for anything. He was carrying a Quran and said: 'I want this Quran to be given to this person,' a man he called Bander," he said. Al-Rubaie said he did not know who Bander was.

Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and 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."

Al-Rayes said Prime Minister Al-Maliki did not attend but was represented by an aide.

The station earlier was airing national songs after the first announcement and had a tag on the screen that read "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."

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 a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.

Al-Maliki had rejected calls that Saddam be spared, telling families of people killed during the dictator's rule that would be an insult to the victims.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki's office quoted him as saying during a meeting with relatives before the hanging.

The hanging of Saddam, who was ruthless in ordering executions of his opponents, will keep other Iraqis from pursuing justice against the ousted leader.

At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.

On Thursday, two half brothers visited Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defence team, Badee Izzat Aref, told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the former dictator handed them his personal belongings.

A senior official at the Iraqi defence ministry said Saddam gave his will to one of his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.

One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the letter was written by Saddam on Nov. 5, the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal in the Dujail killings.

The message called on Iraqis to put aside the sectarian hatred that has bloodied their country for a year and voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency against U.S.-led forces, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen."

Saddam urged Iraqis to rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations" that ousted his regime.

Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's legal team, said U.S. authorities maintained physical custody of Saddam until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

Iraq's death penalty was suspended by the U.S. military after it toppled Saddam in 2003, but the new Iraqi government reinstated it two years later, saying executions would deter criminals.

Saddam's own regime used executions and extrajudicial killings as a tool of political repression, both to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror.

In the months after he seized power on July 16, 1979, he had hundreds of members of his own party and army officers slain. In 1996, he ordered the slaying of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

Saddam built Iraq into a one of the Arab world's most modern societies, but then plunged the country into an eight-year war with neighbouring Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and wrecked Iraq's economy.

During that war, as part of the wider campaign against Kurds, the Iraqi military used chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja in northern Iraq, killing an estimated 5,000 civilians.

The economic troubles from the Iran war led Saddam to invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990, seeking to grab its oil wealth, but a U.S.-led coalition inflicted a stinging defeat on the Iraq army and freed the Kuwaitis.

The final blow came when US-led troops invaded in March 2003. Saddam's regime fell quickly, but political, sectarian and criminal violence have created chaos that has undermined efforts to rebuild Iraq's ruined economy.

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A glance at the life of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:

April 28, 1937 - Born in village near Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

1957 - Joins underground Baath Socialist party.

1958 - Arrested for killing his brother-in-law, a Communist. Spends six months in prison.

Oct. 7, 1959 - On Baath assassination team that ambushes Iraqi strongman Gen. Abdel-Karim Kassem in Baghdad, wounding him. Saddam, wounded in leg, flees to Syria then Egypt.

Feb. 8, 1963 - Returns after Baath takes part in coup that overthrows and kills Kassem.

July 30, 1968 - Becomes chief of internal security under President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, his cousin.

July 16, 1979 - Takes over as president from al-Bakr, launches major purge of Baath members.

Sept. 22, 1980 - Sends troops into Iran; war lasts eight years.

March 28, 1988 - Uses chemical weapons against Kurdish town of Halabja, killing estimated 5,000 civilians.

Aug. 2, 1990 - Invades Kuwait, but sees his army driven out by U.S.-led coalition five months later.

Feb. 20, 1996 - Orders killing of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

Nov. 27, 2002 - Under UN threat of "serious consequences," allows UN weapons experts back into Iraq.

March 17, 2003 - Gets 48-hour deadline from U.S. President George W. Bush to give up power and leave Iraq. War begins three days later, chasing him from Baghdad on April 9.

July 22, 2003 - His sons, Qusai and Odai, killed in gunbattle with American soldiers.

Dec. 13, 2003 - Captured while hiding in hole in ground near Tikrit.

July 1, 2004 - Arraigned before judge, rejects charges of war crimes and genocide.

Oct. 19, 2005 - Goes on trial with seven co-defendants charged in 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims, stemming from attempt to assassinate him in Dujail.

March 1, 2006 - Admits ordering trial of 148 Shiites eventually executed, but insists doing so was legal.

April 4, 2006 - Faces new criminal charges, for second trial with six others, in connection with brutal 1987-88 crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.
June 19, 2006 - Hears prosecution demand death penalty in closing arguments at Dujail trial, saying he showed "no mercy" in the killings of women and children.

Aug. 21, 2006 - At opening of second trial, shouts at prosecutors and refuses to enter plea to charges of genocide and war crimes.

Nov. 5, 2006 - Trembles but remains defiant as tribunal in first trial announces guilty verdict and sentences him to hang.

Dec. 26, 2006 - Iraq's highest court rejects appeal of conviction, saying Saddam must be hanged within 30 days.

Dec. 30, 2006 - Saddam is hanged at the age of 69.

Courtesy: Canadian Press