DUBAI: The execution of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein drew mixed reactions across the Middle East, with some saying he got what he deserved and others hailing him as a martyr.

Iran, which Saddam fought in an eight-year war in the 1980s, welcomed his hanging.

“I congratulate the great Iranian nation, especially the martyrs’ and veterans’ families, that the man who was the perpetrator of serial crimes and killing of our best young men has been sent to hell,” said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament’s security committee.

“The execution verdict of the court that tried Saddam has made thousands of Iranian, Iraqi and Kuwaiti victims happy,” said foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.

Saddam attacked Iran in 1980 in a bid to grab control of its oil-rich west, sparking a conflict that cost around one million lives.

Ties have warmed considerably between Iran and Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam, with Tehran now a close ally of the Baghdad government.

An Iraqi judge who witnessed the execution said Saddam ended his life with a defiant attack on Iran, which has been accused of backing Shia militias.

“I warn you not to trust the Iranian coalition, because they are dangerous,” Judge Moneer Haddad quoted Saddam as saying.

Another neighbour Saddam invaded was Kuwait -- his forces occupied the emirate in August 1990 and were expelled in the 1991 Gulf war. There, there was grim satisfaction at the news of his hanging.

“Saddam was an enemy to the Iraqi people and the Islamic nation,” acting Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah told reporters.

Israel, which came under Iraqi missile attack in 1991, hailed Saddam’s execution.

“Saddam Hussein brought about his own demise. This was a man who caused a great deal of harm to his people and who was a major threat to Israel,” Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio.

Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh called Saddam “a man who paid some $20,000 to the families of suicide bombers in Israel during the most intense time of the intifada (Palestinian uprising) and who was preparing a nuclear weapon to use against us”.

But the ruling Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called Saddam’s hanging a “political assassination” that violated “all international laws”.

“Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. “(His) hanging... is a political assassination that violates all international laws that are supposed to protect prisoners of war.”

Libya declared three days of national mourning and cancelled all festivities for Eidul Azha, the JANA news agency said.

Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity for the execution of 148 Shia civilians following an attempt on the then president’s life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the early 1980s.

Egypt’s opposition Muslim Brotherhood called the timing of Saddam’s execution inhumane.

“Today, on the day of the Eidul Azha, the timing was wrong. All customs say this is the day of forgiveness,” the group’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Mahdi Akef told AFP. “To execute him today is below any humane standards,” he said.

The 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called for calm after the hanging and urged prominent Iraqi clerics to “implement the Mecca Document... by urging the Iraqi people to remain united”.

The Arab League described the execution as a “tragic end” to Saddam’s regime, and expressed hope it would not “contribute to further deterioration in the security situation”.

Saddam’s two older daughters, who live in Jordan, reacted with grief and stoicism.—AFP