Saddam hanged but no let-up in Iraq violence

MUTED REACTION

Unusually, the government did not even see a need for a curfew in Baghdad. Protests in Saddam's home town and in the Sunni west were small. Although resentful at a loss of influence, few Sunnis found much to mourn in Saddam's passing.

Many Kurds were disappointed that Saddam would not now also be convicted of genocide against them in a trial yet to finish.

With violence killing hundreds every week, Iraqis have other worries. Even celebrations in Shi'ite cities and the Sadr City slum in Baghdad were brief and fairly restrained.

"It's a great joy that I can't even express," said Mohammad Kadhem, a journalist in the Shi'ite city of Basra. "I can't believe what I'm seeing on television -- Saddam led to the gallows where he hanged tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis."

"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," said Bush, who has defended the 2003 invasion despite U.S. troops' failure to find alleged banned weapons.

The deaths of six soldiers pushed the U.S. death toll to just two short of the emotive 3,000 mark as December became the deadliest month for Americans in Iraq for more than two years. Bush has promised to unveil a new strategy in the New Year.

The United Nations, the Vatican and Washington's European allies all condemned the execution on moral grounds.

Many Muslims, especially Sunnis, making the haj pilgrimage to Mecca were outraged by the symbolism of hanging Saddam on the holiest day of the year at the start of Eid al-Adha -- some Shi'ites also said his death was a suitable gift from God.

"There is no God but God and Mohammad is his prophet," Saddam intoned when asked to do so, according to a witness.

"We heard his neck snap," said Sami al-Askari, an adviser to Maliki. The prime minister himself was not present.

A witness in the Dujail trial said he was shown the body at Maliki's office: "When I saw the body in the coffin, I cried. I remembered my three brothers and my father whom he had killed."

Saddam was convicted of killing, torture and other crimes against the population of Dujail after militants from Maliki's Dawa party tried to assassinate him there in 1982.

After complaints of interference by Shi'ite politicians in the trial, the speed of the execution may add to unease about the fairness of the U.S.-sponsored process.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander will be hanged for the same crimes in January.

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Dubai and Mussab Al-Khairalla, Ibon Villelabeitia and Claudia Parsons in Baghdad)