Over more than two decades of authoritarian rule, Saddam Hussein led his nation toward modernity and then to ruin by invading two neighboring countries, attacking his own citizens with chemical munitions and brutally repressing all who opposed him.

He defied United Nations weapons inspectors, presided over the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, pitted his Sunni Muslim Arab minority against the country's majority Shiites and demanded the cultish celebration of his own image.

It was a record of infamy that ended today with his execution by hanging for crimes against humanity - a punishment carried out by Iraq's U.S.-backed, Shiite-led government after a lengthy trial.