RIYADH, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that it was dismayed by the timing of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hanging, the official SPA news agency said in a commentary.

    The hanging caused dismay as Saddam was executed at dawn on Saturday, the first day of four-day Muslim festival Eid al-Adha, or Greater Bairam, the commentary said.

    "It was expected that the trial of Saddam would be longer and go through tight legal procedures, away from politicization," it said.

    Saddam, born on April 28, 1937 and deposed in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was executed by hanging at dawn on Saturday for crimes against humanity.

    He was handed over on Friday to the Iraqi authorities from a U.S. camp near Baghdad International Airport where he had been held.

    Hours after the Iraqi government executed Saddam, a series of bombing attacks hit Baghdad, killing nearly 30 people.