| Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told the BBC.
"I believe so, yes. He has been executed. It has been officially announced that he has been executed," Abbawi said, speaking by telephone to BBC News 24.
"Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," state-run Iraqiya television said in an announcement. The station played patriotic music and showed images of national monuments and other landmarks.
The station said Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also hanged.
"The execution started with criminal Saddam, then Barzan, then Awad al-Bandar," an Iraqiya announcer said.
The station broadcast national songs and had a tag on the screen that read: "Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history." |
