Iraqi TV footage shows ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's final moment before execution on early Saturday, Dec 30, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

Special Report: Execution of Saddam Hussein
Chronology: Saddam Hussein's trials
Profile: Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein

    BEIJING, Dec. 31 -- Iraqi state television has broadcast footage of moments before the hanging of Saddam Hussein. They also showed his body after his execution.

    Saddam's guards wore ski masks and placed a noose around the deposed leader's neck just moments before his execution. The video shows the guards wrapping a piece of black cloth around Saddam's neck, as he approaches the gallows.

    The moment of the former president's death was not shown.

    Later, footage showed a man identified as Saddam lying on a stretcher, covered in a white shroud. His head is uncovered, and his neck is twisted at a sharp angle.

    The man's neck and part of the shroud appear to have bloodstains.

    The video also shows Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signing Saddam's death warrant.

    The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity. This, for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill the dictator in 1982.

    Saddam's appeal was rejected by Iraq's highest court on Tuesday.

(Source: CCTV.com)

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A frame grab from Biladi shows former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's body after his execution in Baghdad Dec. 30, 2006. Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery >>>

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