Execution of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, was executed on 30 December 2006. Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the Dujail massacre—the killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail, in 1982, in retaliation for a purported assassination attempt on Saddam.

The Iraqi government released an official video of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after the hangman's noose was placed over his head. International public controversy arose when a mobile phone recording of the hanging showed him surrounded by a contingent of his countrymen, who jeered him in Arabic and praised the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and his subsequent fall through the trap door of the gallows.

Saddam's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, on 31 December and was buried near the graves of other family members.

Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan marked the period from 30 December 2006 to 1 January 2007 as a three-day Eid celebration commemorating the execution of Saddam Hussein, consisting of Eid al-Adha and the New Year.