Saddam Hussein Executed in Iraq

Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein was executed. Saddam was hanged in Baghdad at 8.30 am (IST) on Saturday. The execution has led to a dramatic end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before a US invasion.


Saddam's fate Timeline

• March 20 - US launches war against Iraq.
• April 9 - US forces sweep into the heart of Baghdad as Saddam's three-decade rule crumbles.
• July 22 - US military confirms Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed in gun battle in Mosul.
• December 14 - US officials announce capture of Saddam.
• October 19, 2005 - Trial opens with Saddam charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men in Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt. He pleads not guilty.
• August 21, 2006 - Saddam refuses to enter a plea as the trial starts on charges of war crimes in the "Anfal" campaign that killed tens of thousands of Kurdish villagers in 1988.
• November 5, 2006 - A court in Baghdad finds Saddam guilty of crimes against humanity and sentences him to hang for the deaths of 148 Shi'ite men in Dujail.
• December 26, 2006 - An Iraqi appeals court confirms the guilty verdict and death sentence against Saddam in the Dujail case.
• December 30 - Saddam is hanged.