Saddam Hussein executed by hanging in Baghdad
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
Saddam Hussein, the 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 as dawn broke Saturday.
It was a grim end for the 69-year-old former leader. 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.
Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, said Sami al-Askari, a prominent Shi'ite politician close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The neighborhood is home to the Iraqi capital's most important Shiite shine, the Imam Kazim shrine.
AdvertisementAskari witnessed the event and said the process of Saddam's execution lasted about 25 minutes, but once he was dropped through a trap door his death was very quick.
"One of the guards pulled a lever and he dropped half a meter into a trap door. We heard his neck snap instantly and we even saw a small amount of blood around the rope," Askari said.
"They left him hanging for around 10 minutes before a doctor confirmed his death and they untied him and placed him in a white bodybag," he added.
State-funded television channel Iraqiya showed the final moments of Saddam's life but stopped short of broadcasting the actual hanging or his body.
The footage showed a group of guards dressed in civilian clothes and wearing ski masks helping Saddam up a small metal staircase where a cloth was put around his neck before stepping onto the trap door. A red metal barrier, like a witness box, surrounded the trap door in the low-ceilinged, gray concrete, cell-like room.
The hangman, wearing a beige leather jacket, placed the thick rope over Saddam's head and tightened the noose on the left side of his neck. The hangman exchanged a few words with Saddam, who nodded in return.
Hussein wore a black coat over a black V-neck jumper and a white shirt and had black trousers and black shoes. Askari said he was told to take off a woolly black hat before his execution.
Another official witness confirmed Saddam died instantly.
"He seemed very calm. He did not tremble," said the official, adding that Saddam recited the Muslim profession of faith before he died: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet."