Iraq has executed a top aide to former President Saddam Hussein.
Saddam's personal secretary and chief bodyguard Abid Hamid Mahmud was executed for crimes of genocide relating to the suppression of Shia religious parties during the 1980s. He was captured in 2003.
The BBC reports Mahmud came from the same village as Saddam and was a distant cousin, He was number 4 on a list of most-wanted Iraqi officials.
Saddam Hussein was executed in December 2006.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz and former Interior Minister Saadun Shaker are awaiting execution after they were given death sentences in October 2010.
The execution was the first high-profile hanging since that of Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", in January 2010.
