Arab television stations have reported that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location early this morning.

State-run Iraqiya TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). It was witnessed by a doctor, lawyer and officials. It was also filmed.

Similar reports were also released by Al-Arabiya television and US-backed Al-Hurra television station, citing government sources.

Senior US military officials and Saddam's lawyer confirmed the execution.

According to BBC , US troops and Iraqi security forces are on high alert for any violent backlash.

AP reported that also hanged were Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court.

Iraqiya television news announcer said "criminal Saddam was hanged to death and the execution started with criminal Saddam then Barzan then Awad al-Bandar."

The station earlier was airing national songs after the first announcement and had a tag on the screen that read "with Saddam's execution marks the end of a dark period of Iraq's history."

Crimes against humanity

Saddam Hussein, 69, was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on Nov 5 after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town Dujail.

On Tuesday an Iraqi Court of Appeal upheld Saddam's death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail in 1982.

The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

Saddam was being held at the American military prison known as Camp Cropper in Iraq. US and Iraqi authorities have said he must be handed over to Iraqi officials prior to his execution.

The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a US-led invasion.

It was reported earlier that the Iraqi government rushed through the procedures to hang Saddam by the end of the year and before the Hari Raya Haji holiday that starts on Saturday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

The government had kept details of its plans shrouded in secrecy amid concerns it could spark a violent backlash from his former supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war.

Reuters reported that the execution will delight Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who faced oppression during Saddam's three-decade rule, but may anger some in his resentful Sunni minority.