Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged before dawn this morning, as the war in Iraq entered its fifth year.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former Vice President and head of Saddam's notorious paramilitary "Popular Army", was executed after being found guilty of crimes against humanity during the trial of the fallen dictator and his closest deputies last year.

He was the fourth member of the old regime to be hanged by Iraq's new Government.

Ramadan, 69, was executed at an Iraqi army and police base, which used to be the headquarters of Saddam’s military intelligence, in a Shia neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, according to Iraqi officials. He was delivered to Iraqi custody from US control one hour before he was put in the gallows.

Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told the Associated Press that the hanging went according to plan. Precautions were taken to avoid a repeat of the mocking which accompanied the execution of Saddam and the accidental decapitation of the dictator's half brother, Barzan Ibrahim.

Mr al-Hassani said that Ramadan was frightened at the moment of his hanging and recited two shahadahs -- the Islamic declaration of faith -- “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet" -- before his death. He died at 3.05am local time.

Ramadan, a former bank clerk who joined the Baath movement when it was still an outlawed organisation under British rule, became Iraq's Vice President in 1991. He was a member of the powerful Revolutionary Command Council since 1968 and described as Saddam's "enforcer" because of his command of the Popular Army.

In 2002, Ramadan made international headlines for suggesting that the invasion of Iraq could be avoided if Saddam and President George Bush were to settle their differences in a duel. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity for his part in the massacre of 148 Iraqis in the village of Dujail in 1982 after a failed attempt on the life of Saddam. He was initially sentenced to life imprisonment last November but an appeals court ruled that his punishment was too lenient.

When sentenced to death last month, Ramadan cried out: "I swear to God I am innocent. May God support me. May God take revenge against everyone who rendered me injustice." The US-based group, Human Rights Watch, also criticised the verdict, saying there wasn't enough evidence linking him to the crime.

Ramadan's execution came in the midst of opinion polls, candle-lit vigils and government statements to mark the fourth anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq, which began with a series of airstrikes and special forces operations on the night of March 19, 2003.

Last night Mr Bush said that a "contagion of violence" would spread out from the most dangerous regions of the country and engulf the entire Middle East if US forces were to withdraw before the security situation was brought under control.

“It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating,” he said.

The UN's refugee agency held a news conference today to raise awareness of the massive displacement of Iraqi civilians since the war began and the largest movement of refugees in the Middle East since the foundation of Israel in 1948.

More than 2 million Iraqis are now spread across neighbouring countries in the Middle East and a further 1.9 million have fled their homes but remain within Iraq's borders.

Ron Redmond, a spokesman for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the agency believed that 730,000 Iraqis had abandoned their homes during the dramatic worsening of sectarian violence in 2006 and that an estimated 4 million people now relied on food aid. An international conference to discuss the problem is scheduled for April 17.

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