(CBS/AP) Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after three years in U.S. custody, CBS News has confirmed. He died before dawn Saturday in Iraq, which was just before 10 p.m. Friday EST.
Saddam was convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill Saddam in 1982.
In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate the former dictator's death. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.
It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.
CBS News correspondent Randall Pinskton confirmed Saddam's death from his defense attorney. It had been reported by Arab television stations in Iraq.
On his last night alive, Saddam sat alone on death row with his Koran, the Muslim holy book, Pinkston reports. As his time waned, Saddam received two of his half brothers in his cell and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will.
The Pentagon said that U.S. fighting forces in Iraq are ready for any escalation of violence there.
"U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert anytime because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation," said spokesman Bryan Whitman.
A statement from President Bush issued by the White House Friday night acknowledged Saddam's execution, calling it "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an
important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror," the statement said.
CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that until being turned over to Iraqi control, Saddam remained in a jail cell in U.S. custody. The U.S. military had been prepared since early Friday morning to hand over Saddam to the Iraqi government, which wanted to execute the deposed dictator as soon as possible.
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*CBS News.com
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