Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, has been hanged, Iraqi officials have said.

The execution took place shortly before 6am (03:00 GMT) on Saturday at an Iraqi miltary facility in northern Baghdad.

Iraqi television later showed footage of Saddam being placed in a noose by hangmen, cutting away just before his execution

The 69-year-old former leader appeared calm, chatting to his masked executioners as they wrapped his neck in black cloth then a thick hemp rope and steered him towards the gallows.

Saddam was convicted of the killings of 148 Shia villagers after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.

The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, later urged Saddam's fellow Baathists to reconsider their tactics and join the political process.

"I urged followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands, to help in rebuilding an Iraq for all Iraqis," he said.

In Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad, people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate the former leader's death.

Violence in Iraq continued on Saturday after Saddam's death and at least 30 people were killed when a bomb exploded in a fish market south of Baghdad in the first .




Hanging Footage

The government had kept details of the execution plan secret amid concerns that it may provoke a violent backlash from Saddam's supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war.

"It was very quick. He died right away," an official Iraqi witnesses told the Reuters news agency.

"We heard his neck snap," said Sami al-Askari, a political ally of al-Maliki.

Another witness said: "He seemed very calm. He did not tremble."

As guards took him to the scaffold, according to witnesses, Saddam said: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet."