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Former vice president under Saddam Hussein hanged

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former vice president under Saddam Hussein, was hanged just before dawn Tuesday, according to a source close to Iraq's High Tribunal.

An official who witnessed the execution told The Associated Press measures were taken in order to prevent a repeat of what happened to Hussein's half brother, Barzan Hassan, who was decapitated on the gallows. Ramadan was weighed before the execution and the appropriate size rope was chosen, the official said.

Last month, Ramadan was sentenced to death by the Iraqi court for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 men and boys in Dujail. An appeals court upheld the sentence last week.

Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison in November on charges that included willful killing in the 1982 crackdown, but the next month, the tribunal's nine-member appeals chamber decided the original sentence was too lenient and ordered the court to resentence him.

The court's decision drew opposition from coalition officials and nongovernmental groups in Iraq, and some members of Iraq's legal advisory community suggested judges came under pressure from politicians.

Hussein, Hassan and another official from his regime -- Awad Bandar -- also were hanged for their roles in the Dujail crackdown.

Hassan and Bandar were executed side-by-side on January 15, and Hussein was hanged on December 30.

Bush: 'Good progress' in Iraq

Four years after President Bush ordered U.S.-led forces to attack Iraq, the president warned Monday that a "contagion of violence" could "engulf the region" if U.S. troops pull out too soon.

"There's been good progress," Bush said during brief remarks at the White House. "There's a lot more work to be done, and Iraq's leaders must continue to work to reach the benchmarks they have set forward."

U.S. and Iraqi forces have set up joint security stations throughout Baghdad, carried out "aggressive operations" against Sunni and Shiite extremists and uncovered large weapons caches, Bush said. (Watch Bush detail progress in Iraq, and why American troops need more time there )

At dawn in Iraq on March 20, 2003, the United States and its coalition partners unleashed missiles and bombs on Iraqi targets, including a failed "decapitation attack" aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Four years later, Bush pointed out that the world is rid of Hussein, and Iraqi voters have a democratically elected government.

Bush acknowledged, "It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home" and create consequences for American security that would be "devastating." (Read how Americans over 50 are increasingly against the war, a new poll suggests)

"If American forces were to step back from Baghdad, before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country," Bush said. "In time this violence could engulf the region."

According to the latest reports from the U.S. military, 3,220 American troops have been killed in the Iraq war, including seven civilian contractors.

"I'm grateful to our servicemen and women for all they've done," Bush said, "for the honor they've brought to their uniform and to their country."

Bush said fewer than half of U.S. reinforcements from his recent troop increase have arrived in Baghdad.

"The new strategy will need more time to take effect. And there will be good days and there will be bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds."

Bush then urged the Democratically controlled Congress to pass an authorization bill to pay for the war without using "funding for our troops as leverage to get special interest spending for their districts."

Sixteen dead in attacks

The latest reports of Iraq violence Monday included six explosions in oil-rich Kirkuk that killed at least 10 people and wounded 37, police said, and a bomb blast at a Baghdad mosque that left six dead.

The Kirkuk blasts included four car bombs and two roadside bombs, police said.

About 150 miles (240 kilometers) to the south of Kirkuk in Baghdad, a bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque, killing six people and wounding 32 others, a city police official said.

Attackers hid the bomb near an entrance to the mosque, the official said. The blast hollowed out a crater in the floor of the mosque, smashed windows, and damaged a wall, according to AP.

Gheith Jassim, a 32-year-old shop owner who works near the mosque, told AP he rushed to the attack site after the blast.

"When I arrived, I saw several wounded people being taken by ambulances and they were screaming from fear and injuries," Jassim told AP. "There were bloodstains on the wall and some carpets were burned."

Jassim told AP that some worshippers at the scene were cursing Sunni extremists.

"We are not saved from them even during prayers," he told AP. "They want to ignite Sunni-Shiite strife."

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the sectarian killing was "all but over."

"It has ended and I am quite sure about that. Although there are some people who still think in sectarian ways, it is over and al Qaeda is still trying -- with followers of the former regime -- to revive this phenomenon by killing some Shias here and Sunnis there, but this cannot be classified as a civil war."

Al Qaeda represents the biggest threat to peace, the prime minister said in an interview with ITV News' "Iraq Week." The interview was taped Sunday in Baghdad and aired Monday.

Other developments

A survey released Monday for ABC News, USA Today, the BBC and ARD German TV suggests that Iraqis have moved from optimism to fear, anger and distress in the four years since the war began, according to The Associated Press. (Watch how families, and especially children, cope at a Baghdad refugee camp ) Thirty-nine percent of Iraqi respondents to the poll said their lives are going well, compared to 71 percent in November 2005, AP reported. (Full story)

CNN's Ed Henry and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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