Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court were hanged before dawn on Monday, Iraqi prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said.
The pair went to the gallows two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that drew worldwide criticism.
Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shi'ite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.
"They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said.
The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on December 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day".
Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to delay the executions.
"In my opinion we should wait," Talabani said on Wednesday at a news conference with US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.
"We should examine the situation," he said without elaborating.
Saddam's execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government.
Images of the execution, recorded on a mobile phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted at the gallows.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Tuesday that Khalilzad had asked him to delay Saddam's execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.
A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed.
Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defence team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed.
"The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam's execution to an office inside the prison at 1am. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn," Ibrahim reportedly said.
He said the two men were also told to write their wills.
Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi.
"Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang," he said.
Ghazawi quoted as al-Bandar as saying he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam".
Ibrahim, the lawyer said, "was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world".
After Saddam's execution but before Ibrahim and al-Bandar's, Human Rights Watch released a report that called the speedy trial and subsequent hanging of Saddam proof of the new Iraqi government's disregard for human rights.
"The tribunal repeatedly showed its disregard for the fundamental due process rights of all of the defendants," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.
In light of recent developments concerning the hanging and decapitation of Barazan, here is some background info on this method of execution. Regards Azinorum
How hanging is supposed to work
(Reuters) -- Two of Saddam Hussein's aides were hanged before dawn Monday, the Iraqi government said, and the head of his half-brother Barzan Hassan was pulled from his body during the execution.
Here are some details on how the process should work:
1. Hanging is the suspension of a person by a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. Throughout history it has been used as a form of capital punishment in various forms. The method used in Iraq is modeled on the 19th-century method of execution used in Britain, which formed the Iraqi state after World War I.
2. Four types of drop have been used in hanging: the short drop, suspension, standard and long drop. In all but the last, subjects can remain conscious for minutes and eventually die of strangulation and/or loss of blood to the brain.
3. The 19th-century long drop through a trap door is intended to be more humane, generating enough force from the tightening of the rope and the twisting of the noose knot under the jaw to break the neck. A calculation is made based on the convict's weight, height and build of the drop needed to break the neck. The distance is typically 1.5-2.5 metres (5-9 feet).
4. When the neck breaks and severs the spine, the subject immediately loses consciousness. Brain death follows in minutes. But if the drop is too short, the subject can be strangled. If it is too long, the subject can be decapitated.
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BREAKING NEWS! Barazan & Awad executed this morning!! - 
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