Cairo (AP) -- Iraq's prime minister was smiling as he boldly signed Saddam Hussein's death warrant.

As the second-in-command of the Shiite Dawa party, Nouri al-Maliki had just closed what may have been the final chapter in a decades-old battle between the Islamic group and Saddam's now outlawed secular Baath party.

The war so fierce that it left thousands dead and sent thousands more into exile.

"Let the families of Iraqi martyrs killed in mass graves, Anfal, Halabja or those executed in the cells of the dead regime be happy. The mothers, orphans and widows should celebrate the death of the buried dictator," al-Maliki said in a statement released after the execution.

Long fight

The parties' rivalry dates back more than four decades.

The two groups have traditionally held opposing views on how Iraq should be run, with Dawa calling for an Islamic Shiite state, and the Baath party having a secular, pan-Arab ideology.

During his rule, Saddam's regime banned Dawa and sentenced its members to death. Others were expelled to Shiite Iran, where they found sanctuary and financial support.

Saddam invaded Iran in 1980, triggering an eight-year war that killed one million people on both sides.

Saddam's execution on Saturday was perhaps the most significant event in the battle between the two groups since April 9, 1980, when the founder of Dawa, the Shiite cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was executed along with his sister.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric who leads a feared Shiite militia as well as a political faction in al-Maliki's governing coalition, is a distant relative of the executed theologian.