Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein executed

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Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, 69, was hanged in the first hours of the Muslim Al-Adha feast at 6:05 am local time Saturday.

His death sentence was handed down by a tribunal formed under occupation. Both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch (HRW) had accused the trial of deep legal flaws.

Demonstrating defiance and strength, Saddam refused to have his head covered with a hood when he was taken to the gallows. Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.'"

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

Under Saddam more than 100,000 Iraqi Kurds were killed in Northern Iraq as part of the 1998 Anfal campaign.

But according to prestigious medical journal the Lancet, over 655,000 Iraqis have died unnaturally as a result of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Since the occupation in 2003 the once-prosperous and oil-rich Arab country has been transformed into a massive blood bath for Iraqis and US troops alike.

The UN Security Council imposed comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq on August 6, 1990, just after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. After the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi sanctions ñimposed at the urging of the US- were linked to removal of Weapons of mass destruction which the US-led coalition failed to find evidence of upon its invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Over a million Iraqis, disproportionately children died as a result of the sanctions.

Related links:

Fighting empire

Why Saddam is important

The rise and fall of Saddam Hussein

Invasion of Iraq

Archive specials on Iraq