Saddam's ex-vice president hanged

Baghdad: The former vice president under Saddam Hussein, Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged just before dawn on Tuesday, an official with the Prime Minister's office told The Associated Press.

An official who witnessed the execution said measures were taken in order to prevent a repeat of what happened to Hussein's half brother, Barzan Hassan, who was decapitated on the gallows. Ramadan was weighed before the execution and the appropriate size rope was chosen, the official said.

Last month, Ramadan was sentenced to death by Iraq's High Tribunal for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 men and boys in Dujail. An appeals court upheld the sentence last week.

Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison in November on charges that included willful killing in the 1982 crackdown, but the next month, the tribunal's nine-member appeals chamber decided the original sentence was too lenient and ordered the court to resentence him.

The court's decision drew opposition from coalition officials and nongovernmental groups in Iraq, and some members of Iraq's legal advisory community suggested judges came under pressure from politicians.

Hussein, Hassan and another official from his regime, Awad Bandar, also were hanged for their roles in the Dujail crackdown.

Four years after US President George Bush ordered US-led forces to attack Iraq, he warned Monday on that a "contagion of violence" could "engulf the region" if US troops pull out too soon.

"There's been good progress," Bush said during brief remarks at the White House. "There's a lot more work to be done, and Iraq's leaders must continue to work to reach the benchmarks they have set forward."

US and Iraqi forces have set up joint security stations throughout Baghdad, carried out "aggressive operations" against Sunni and Shiite extremists and uncovered large weapons caches, Bush said.

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