Trump praises Saddam Hussein for killing 'terrorists'

Donald Trump has praised late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for killing off "terrorists," reprising previous comments in support of dictators in the Middle East and earning a swift rebuke from White House rival Hillary Clinton.

The US "should not have destabilised Iraq, now a hotbed for the Islamic State group 13 years after the US-led invasion, said Trump, who showed lukewarm support for the war before it took place and later opposed it.

Shortly after the remarks, Clinton's campaign pounced on Trump's apparent support of the strongman, who was hanged in Iraq in 2006 for ordering the sectarian killings of nearly 150 Shiites two decades earlier.