By Matt Frei BBC Washington correspondent

The US said Saddam Hussein was hanged after a "fair trial"

It was only nine o'clock in the evening in Crawford but George Bush was already embedded in the land of nod, with orders not to be woken until the morning.

The blithe indifference of deep slumber was the final snub to the dead man who once described himself as "Salahadin II", "the Redeemer of all the Arabs" and "the Lion of Baghdad".

Some might think that George Bush can't afford to sleep soundly these days with his approval ratings in the cellar and his policy towards Iraq in inertia.

But while the world stirred to comment, cyberspace buzzed with applause or condemnation and Cable television hyperventilated, George Bush soldiered on in sleep. He arose only at 4.40am, we are told, which is his usual time of rising.

One hour later he had a 10-minute conversation with his National Security adviser Stephen Hadley about the events in Baghdad.

Saddam Hussein tried to get George HW Bush assassinated

The statement, which will not be complemented by a presidential turn for the cameras, betrayed no hint of gloating or crowing. It went on to say that "bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq".

On one level, the hanging of Saddam Hussein is the end of a dramatic family saga that has pitted the Bushes of Texas against the Husseins of Tikrit.

Failed alliance

It is a saga that started with a tacit alliance.

When George HW Bush was vice president, Saddam Hussein was still seen as a potential partner thanks to his status as the enemy of America's enemy, Iran.

It was in 1983 that Donald Rumsfeld was dispatched to Baghdad as a friend of the Reagan administration to shake the hand of Saddam Hussein and offer America's help against the ayatollahs during the Iran Iraq War.

Alliance finally turned into animosity when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and President Bush cobbled together an international alliance of Western and Arab states to remove him from Kuwait but not from power.

"The butcher of Baghdad" began to call President Bush "the viper" and George junior, "the son of the viper".

It was at that time that the famous Al Rashid hotel in Baghdad received an elaborate mosaic of President Bush "the criminal", which patrons were forced to stomp across on entering the lobby.

Two years later Saddam Hussein tried to get President Bush assassinated.

The White House has always maintained that personal grudges had nothing to do with the invasion of Iraq.

And yet in September 2002, as preparations for war were well under way, George Bush the younger told a Houston fundraiser: "This is after all the man who tried to kill my dad."

Mafia rule

The personal side of this bitter family saga is over.

But even from his unmarked grave, Saddam Hussein will continue to haunt the Bush administration and define the legacy of the 43rd president of the United States.

Saddam had always promised to lure, fight and defeat the Americans in the cities of Iraq.

No-one thought at the time that this would happen after he had already been deposed.

But his prophetic threat is becoming reality, triggering a multi-headed insurgence that no longer fights on his behalf, and a vortex of sectarian violence that makes a conventional civil war look organised and coherent.

The former Iraqi leader is likely to haunt the Bush administration

The brutal bloodletting, ethnic cleansing and vicious fragmentation, in which American troops now find themselves embroiled, is also a legacy of Saddam's regime.

A quarter of a century of his mafia rule, in which tribal loyalties were lavishly rewarded and anything less was severely punished helped to rot the cohesion of a young and artificial country.

The extent to which Iraq is disintegrating has taken many Iraqis by surprise. It was grossly under-estimated by the officials who planned the occupation.

President Bush and his advisers have always liked to compare the birth pangs of Iraqi democracy to the emergence of a free Germany after the World War II.

Bloodletting

But what they were dealing with was not Germany 1945 but Germany in 1648 emerging from the feudal bloodbath of the 30 years war.

Another example would have been Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

So not even the few beleaguered optimists in the Bush camp, including the president himself, believe that the execution of Saddam Hussein will stem the bloodletting and allow America to plan for a graceful exit.

The sectarian violence in Iraq has reached its own alarming momentum, in which Saddam Hussein had been reduced to a walk-on part.

Nearly 3,000 US servicemen and women have already been killed

The White House may boast about the new rule of law but for many ordinary Iraqis justice comes in the form of death squads, torture gangs and rogue police road blocks.

These days the wrong identity card can get you executed. This is not the kind of justice that George Bush had in mind.

So now the noose has done its deed the Pentagon is, if anything, expecting a spike in the sectarian violence.

The US State Department has put its embassies on a security alert "to prepare for demonstrations and possible attacks".

And the American public, which had long expected the execution of Saddam Hussein is waiting with growing impatience to see how exactly the president will execute his heralded "new Iraq strategy".

More troops? More money? More hope? For American soldiers December 2006 proved to be the bloodiest month of a bloody year.

Sometime in the next 10 days 3,000 US servicemen and women will have been killed by a war that was declared "accomplished" in May 2003.

Saddam Hussein is dead. His legacy lives on.

Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003

During more than two decades as leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein's violent methods and uncompromising stance thrust his country onto the world stage.

Saddam Hussein's road to absolute power began in Tikrit, central Iraq, where he was born in 1937.

His stepfather beat him as a child, introducing him to the brutality and bullying which would mark his own life.

Joining up with the clandestine Baath party in 1956, he participated in a failed attempt to assassinate military ruler General Abdul Karim Qassem.

In a country where politics was always a violent game, his talents took him swiftly to the top.

Saddam Hussein (left) with General al-Bakr (centre)

Saddam was forced to flee Iraq in 1959 and spent four years in exile in Cairo.

Back in Iraq, he rose through the party ranks. When it finally seized power from Abdul Rahman Mohammed Aref in 1968, Saddam Hussein emerged as the number two figure behind Gen Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.

Now the power behind the throne, he took over when Bakr was quietly shunted aside in July 1979 and began the reign of terror that was to keep him in power for so long.

Saddam Hussein took the posts of prime minister, chairman of the Revolution Command Council and armed forces commander-in-chief.

Within a year, he launched Iraq into a massive and risky adventure.

Iran-Iraq conflict

Seeing himself as the new leader and champion of all Arabs, Saddam Hussein poured his army across the border into western Iran in September 1980, hoping to defuse a potential threat from the new Islamic revolution.

The disastrous war lasted eight years and claimed a million lives.

The president strengthened Iraq's military capability

The US quietly backed him, ignoring Iraq's human rights record and atrocities like the killing of 148 people in the mostly Shia town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against him in July 1982, and the gassing of 5,000 Kurdish villagers of Halabja in March 1988.

After the ceasefire with Iran that August, Saddam Hussein's constant striving for regional supremacy intensified.

His experts produced special long-range missiles and pursued ambitious nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes.

Invasion

But war with Iran had crippled the Iraqi economy and the Iraqi leader desperately needed to increase his oil revenues.

In August 1990, he accused Kuwait of driving the price of oil down, invaded and annexed the emirate.

1991: Kuwait's oilfields ablaze

Weeks of US-led bombing, during what Saddam Hussein had famously described as the "Mother of All Battles", reduced Iraq's infrastructure to ruins, and wrought havoc among front-line troops.

Operation Desert Storm, the subsequent ground assault in January 1991 to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait left thousands of Iraqi soldiers dead, wounded or captured.

Retreating troops set fire to the country's oil wells, turning day to night and precipitating a vast ecological disaster.

Kurds flee

But this time, the Iraqi president's blunders did lead to consequences at home. Encouraged by the first US President George Bush to rise up, the Shia of southern Iraq revolted.

But the Western powers did nothing, as Saddam Hussein ruthlessly restored his grip on the south.

Tide of humanity: Kurdish refugees

In the north, he attacked the rebellious Kurds. Millions fled into the freezing mountains and the West was forced to impose a "safe haven", maintained by a constant air umbrella, over the area.

The following year, the Western powers imposed a no-fly zone in the south, to give some sort of protection to the Shia.

To add to his humiliations, after his ejection from Kuwait, the Iraqi leader was forced to agree to the elimination of all his weapons of mass destruction by the UN.

'Regime change'

Stringent international sanctions remained in full force in the years after the Gulf War, causing a near-collapse of the Iraqi currency and leading to infighting in the power structure.

The first Gulf War destroyed much of Iraq's infrastructure

His two sons-in-law defected, but both were murdered after being persuaded to return to Iraq.

President George W Bush's election in 2000 increased the pressure. Washington now talked openly of "regime change".

And, following the 11 September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, the US named Iraq a "rogue state".

UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq in November 2002 and resumed their search. Iraq destroyed a number of missiles and said it had neutralised its stocks of anthrax.

HAVE YOUR SAY As an Iranian, I hated Saddam for what he did to my country. But, as a human being, I feel sorry for him Farhad Assar, Edinburgh Send us your comments

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reported that Iraq had accelerated its co-operation and there was no evidence of a new weapons programme, but the US and UK declared the diplomatic process over.

Coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, despite not securing a new UN resolution authorising such action.

Saddam Hussein's reign was brought to a violent end and he disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April, becoming the US military's most wanted fugitive in Iraq.

Captured

His two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed by US troops in a raid on a house near Mosul, northern Iraq, on 22 July.

The US said Saddam Hussein offered no resistance

And in December 2003, US officials announced that the former president had been captured near Tikrit.

While world leaders and many Iraqis welcomed the capture, there were angry protests in towns throughout the Iraqi area known as the Sunni Triangle.

Saddam Hussein was transferred to the Iraqi authorities on 30 June 2004 following the handover of sovereignty to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's interim government. His trial opened in Baghdad the next day.

Trial

Saddam Hussein was defiant. He challenged the legality of the proceedings, which he said were brought about by the "invasion forces", and refused to sign the charge sheet without his lawyers present.

Saddam Hussein was filmed on a visit to the town of Dujail in 1982

The case was chosen by prosecutors because they believed it would be the easiest to compile and prosecute.

Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty when his trial opened in Baghdad on 19 October, 2005.

His co-defendants included Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former head of Iraq's intelligence service and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former Revolutionary Court chief judge.

All three were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November 2006 after a year-long trial.

The former president was executed 56 days after the death sentence was passed, after Iraq's highest court rejected an appeal on 25 December.

Saddam Hussein's rule was characterised by a mixture of megalomania and paranoia. His monuments were everywhere.

He even had Nebuchadnezzar's palace rebuilt, with his own name printed on the bricks.

Scared for his own security, he slept in a different place every night and used up to eight doubles.

Beneath the surface, his power was wielded through the armed forces and a complex web of intelligence organisations.

Though he failed in his ambition of unifying the Arabs under his leadership, Saddam Hussein remained, even after being put on trial, defiant as ever.

It is not known who filmed the latest footage of the execution Mobile images

The grainy images are believed to have been filmed on a mobile phone.

Unlike on the silent, official film showing a subdued Saddam Hussein, the execution is a charged, angry scene.

In it people chant the name of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and tell Saddam Hussein to "go to hell", while the former leader mocks their bravery.

And unlike the official film, which was released on Saturday, the new video shows the moment that the gallows trapdoor opens, sending Saddam Hussein to his death.

Some of the guards started to taunt him - by shouting Islamic words Judge Munir Haddad, execution witness Witness to Saddam death

It also has images of Saddam Hussein's face as he swings dead from the noose.

The amateur footage first appeared on websites and then excerpts began airing on major news channels.

It is not known who filmed the video and whether its release was officially sanctioned. However, it is clear that the seemingly quiet, dignified send off, portrayed on the official video does not tell the whole story.

Shot from below the gallows, the video begins with Saddam Hussein, surrounded men by masked men, being led out onto the trapdoor.

The darkened scene is frequently lit up by flashes from people taking photographs.

As he shuffles forward, the crowd of witnesses standing below can be heard talking in conversational tones, but as the noose is placed around his neck the crowd becomes more agitated, with some shouting out insults.

"Do you consider this bravery? Saddam Hussein, on new video Hanging sparks media storm Pictures of aftermath

One of the unseen observers shouts "go to hell", others chant the name of Shia cleric Moqtada al Sadr and of Mohammed Bakr Sadr, his uncle who was murdered by Saddam Hussein's agents.

In response Saddam Hussein is sarcastic, asking "do you consider this bravery?"

He begins intoning the shahada, the Islamic creed, saying "there is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God. There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad" - at which point he is cut off as the trapdoor opens and he falls.

Matching accounts

Noise breaks out, and a voice shouts out "the tyrant has fallen, damn him!" as the camera swings around wildly for a few seconds before settling on a close up image of Saddam Hussein still swinging on the noose, his lifeless face upturned, eyes open.

I feel saddened by the death of Saddam, not because he deserved to live but because it is taking place under US occupation of Iraq Nafeesa Zafar, Pakistan Saddam death: Your reaction

Arab news channels have run abridged versions of the crudely shot film, stopping short of the moment of execution.

The latest video tallies with an account of the event given by one of the witnesses present.

In an interview with the BBC's John Simpson, Judge Munir Haddad said that as Saddam Hussein was led up the steps to the gallows he was reciting "God is Great!" and also some political slogans like: "Down with the Americans!" and "Down with the Invaders!"

"We're going to Heaven and our enemies will rot in Hell!" he said, according to Judge Haddad, and called for forgiveness and love amongst Iraqis, but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians.

"Some of the guards started to taunt him - by shouting Islamic words. A cleric who was present asked Saddam to recite some spiritual words. Saddam did so, but with sarcasm. These were his last words," Judge Haddad said.

By Ian Pannell BBC News, Cairo

Although the news of Saddam Hussein's execution was widely anticipated in the region, it has been greeted with a mixture of surprise and anger in some quarters - and notable silence in others.

Some Palestinians are mourning Saddam Hussein's demise

For many ordinary people in the Arab world, Saddam Hussein was admired if not particularly loved.

He was an active and strident supporter of the Palestinian cause and many regarded him as a strong leader who dared to defy both America and Israel. Images of the former leader having the noose pulled around his neck will shock many.

Libya has declared three days of national mourning.

Lawmakers and members of the militant Palestinian group, Hamas, have condemned the execution, with one calling it "a political assassination" that "violated international laws".

There is little reason to think the execution will change much in a region that heads into 2007 in a precarious state.

Opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq was almost unanimous in the region. So perhaps it was no surprise that his trial was also regarded as unfair, as an exercise in 'victor's justice'.

Many Arab governments and people saw the legal process as instigated and controlled by Washington.

Despite the insistence that the trial, verdict and now execution was a purely Iraqi affair, few in the Middle East will believe that.

'Victory for Iraqis'

Saudi Arabia said it was surprised and dismayed at the timing of the execution on the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid al-adha. There was also criticism at how quickly the trial was over amid accusations it had been politicised.

But for those who crossed swords with Saddam, his execution is welcome news.

Iran fought a long and bloody war with Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides. The country's deputy foreign minister called it a "victory for Iraqis". Hamid Reza Asefi predicted it would lead to more violence in the short-term, but would ultimately benefit the country.

Official reaction in Kuwait has been muted

But the response from Kuwait, a country Saddam invaded in 1990, was more muted. The state-owned news agency reported the only official reaction which was that this was "a matter for Iraqis".

Most other governments in the region have remained completely silent. To be fair, this is the first day of Eid al-Adha, the most important holiday in the Islamic calendar. Even so, it seems many have chosen not to step onto what is widely regarded as extremely delicate territory.

There are real worries that the instability in Iraq will be made worse by Saddam's execution.

Sectarian tensions across the Middle East have risen since the US-led occupation and the fear is that this news could make that even worse.

However, while it is possible that the troubles of the region could be affected by a single event - the execution of Saddam Hussein is unlikely to be it.

There is violence and instability in Iraq, continuing tension between Israelis and Palestinians, a peace process that (at best) is at a stand-still and an ongoing political crisis in Lebanon.

The optimism many felt this time last year that real political change may finally start to trickle through the Middle East has all but vanished.

The execution of Saddam Hussein may prompt some reflection and probably plenty of analysis, but there is little reason to think it will change much in a region that heads into 2007 in a precarious state.

Saddam Hussein,

Saddam Hussein

Charged with crimes against humanity for involvement in the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Charges included the murder of a total of 157 people, the illegal arrest of 399 people, torturing women and children and the destruction of farmland.

Saddam Hussein was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

Awad Hamed al-Bandar

Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti,

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti

Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraqi vice-president until 2003.

Taha Yassin Ramadan

Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, senior Baath official in Dujail region. Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Mizhar Abdullah Ruaid, senior Baath official in Dujail, son of co-defendant Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid. Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Ali Daeem Ali

Ali Daeem Ali, senior Baath official in the Dujail region.

Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Mohammed Azawi Ali

Mohammed Azawi Ali

Charged with involvement in the Dujail killings. Acquitted due to a lack of sufficient evidence against him.

Saddam Hussein wrote the letter on the day he was sentenced

In the past, I was, as you all know, in the battlefield of jihad and struggle.

God, exalted by He, wished that I face the same again in the same manner and the same spirit in which we were before the revolution but with a problem that is greater and harsher.

Oh beloved, this harsh situation, which we and our great Iraq are facing, is a new lesson and a new trial for the people by which to be judged, each depending on their intention, so that it becomes an identifier before God and the people in the present and after our current situation becomes a glorious history.

It is, above all, the foundation upon which the success of the future phases of history can be built.

In this situation and in no other, the veritable are the honest and faithful and the opposing are the false.

When the insignificant people use the power given to them by the foreigners to oppress their own people, they are but worthless and lowly. In our country only good must result from what we are experiencing.

To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity: Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgement, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.

His heart aches for the poor and he does not rest until he helps in improving their condition and attends to their needs.

His heart contains all his people and his nation, and he craves to be honest and faithful without differentiating between his people except on the basis of their efforts, efficiency, and patriotism.

'Sacrifice'

Here I am speaking today in your name and for your eyes and the eyes of our nation and the eyes of the just, the people of the truth, wherever their banner is hoisted.

You have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.

This is how you want your brother, son or leader to be... and those who will lead you (in the future) should have the same qualifications.

Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or, He will postpone that... so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.

In spite of all the difficulties and the storms which we and Iraq had to face, before and after the revolution, God the Almighty did not want death for Saddam Hussein.

But if He wants it this time, it (Saddam's life) is His creation. He created it and He protected it until now.

Thus, by its martyrdom, He will be bringing glory to a faithful soul, for there were souls that were younger than Saddam Hussein that had departed and had taken this path before him. If He wants it martyred, we thank Him and offer Him gratitude, before and after.

'The enemies'

The enemies of your country, the invaders and the Persians, found that your unity stands as a barrier between them and your enslavement.

They planted and grounded their hateful old and new wedge between you.

The strangers who are carrying the Iraqi citizenship, whose hearts are empty or filled with the hatred that was planted in them by Iran, responded to it, but how wrong they were to think that they could divide the noble among our people, weaken your determination, and fill the hearts of the sons of the nation with hatred against each other, instead of against their true enemies that will lead them in one direction to fight under the banner of God is great: The great flag of the people and the nation.

Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly co-existence...

I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice ...

I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and peoples...

'Forgiveness'

Anyone who repents - whether in Iraq or abroad - you must forgive him...

You should know that among the aggressors, there are people who support your struggle against the invaders, and some of them volunteered for the legal defence of prisoners, including Saddam Hussein...

Some of these people wept profusely when they said goodbye to me...

Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer... God is Great... God is great... Long live our nation... Long live our great struggling people...

Long live Iraq, long live Iraq... Long live Palestine... Long live jihad and the mujahideen.

Saddam Hussein

President and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahid Armed Forces

[Additional note:]

I have written this letter because the lawyers told me that the so-called criminal court - established and named by the invaders - will allow the so-called defendants the chance for a last word.

But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence - dictated by the invaders - without presenting the evidence.

I wanted the people to know this.