An official video of the hanging of two of Saddam Hussein's aides Monday shows his half-brother lying headless after the drop unintentionally decapitated him.

The video, shown only to reporters, includes images of Barzan Ibrahim's severed head resting several metres from his body in a pool of blood. The head was still covered by a black hood put there only minutes before by his executioners.

Hanging above him is the former Chief of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar.

Before they dropped, the men, looking frightened, are shown side-by-side in red jumpsuits that identified them as condemned men.

Bandar, like Saddam, could be heard reciting the Muslim declaration of faith "There is no god but God."

The men were also very apologetic and asked God for forgiveness, reports CNN.

• Background: Hangings are designed to break the neck, choke or decapitate, experts say

"In a rare case, the head of Barzan was detached from his body during the execution," Ali al-Dabbagh told a Monday news conference in Baghdad.

Al-Dabbagh did stress that execution observers respected all laws and rules.

"Those present signed documents pledging not to violate the rules or otherwise face legal penalties. All the people present abided by the government's rule and there were no violations," he said, adding the hangings occurred at 3 a.m. "No one shouted slogans or said anything that would taint the execution. None of those charged were insulted."

Unofficial cellphone video showing Shiite guards taunting and insulting Saddam immediately before his death, acts that created an outcry.

The executions took place in the same former military intelligence building where Saddam met his end on Dec. 30. Earlier, Ibrahim had expressed a wish to be hanged at the same time as Saddam.

A court had found all three guilty on Nov. 5 of the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in the Iraqi city of Dujail. The deaths happened after an assassination attempt there on Saddam.

An Iraqi appeals court rejected Saddam's appeal on Dec. 26.

The influential group Human Rights Watch criticized how the trial was conducted, saying it violated the accused men's right to due process.

Shiites rejoice, Sunnis curse

Iraqi Shiites, targets of oppression under the regime of Saddam, celebrated the hangings on Monday.

In Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, there was rejoicing.

"They should have been put in a cage and handed over to the Iraqis," said Ali Jassim.

Another resident, Moussa Jabor, told Reuters that "this is the least he should get... execution is a blessing for him."

Some Shiites, although approving of the hanging, did express reservations.

"They deserved to be hanged. Justice has taken its course," said Issam Abdullah, a teacher.

"But the state has to explain what happened during Barzan's execution, especially the ripping off of his head."

In Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam and Barzan, a black banner was raised at the main mosque saying: "The people of Tikrit mourn the two martyrs... killed by sectarian hands."

At least 3,000 Sunnis gathered in Ouja, the village where Saddam was born and buried, for the mens' funerals. Some fired guns. Others wept or cursed the government.

"Where are those who cry out in demands for human rights?'' asked mourner Marwan Mohammed. "Where are the UN and the world's human rights organizations? Barzan had cancer. They treated him only to keep him alive long enough to kill him. We vow to take revenge, even if it takes years.''

Top UN officials including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Lousie Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights, had called for the Iraqi government not to execute Ibrahim and al-Bandar.

Ibrahim and al-Bandar were buried in a garden just outside a building in which Saddam himself was buried.

The two men

As head of Iraq's dreaded Mukhabarat intelligence service for Saddam, Ibrahim was likely involved in the torture and deaths of thousands of Iraqis.

In addition, he targeted regime opponents abroad for assassination and purged those suspected of disloyalty from the armed forces.

According to one execution witness, he said: "I did not do anything. It was all the work of Fadel al-Barrak."

He was referring to a man who ran two intelligence departments in Saddam's feared Mukhabarat.

Ibrahim became Iraq's representative to the United Nations in Geneva in 1989. He even sat on the UN's human rights committee at one point.

During his decade in Geneva, Ibrahim is believed to have managed clandestine bank accounts for his half-brother.

U.S. forces captured him in April 2003, not long after the March 19, 2003 invasion of Iraq.

As head of the Revolutionary Court, al-Bandar issued death sentences against the people killed in Dujail. He often presided over show trials against the Saddam regime's opponents.

With files from the Associated Press