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 United States "shouldn't have destabilized" Iraq, now a hotbed for the Islamic State group 13 years after the US-led invasion, said Mr Trump, who showed lukewarm support for the war before it took place and later opposed it.
"He was a bad guy - really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good," Mr Trump told supporters on Tuesday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. It was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism," the Republican firebrand added.
Shortly after the remarks, Ms Clinton's campaign pounced on Mr Trump's apparent support of a strongman who was hanged in Iraq in 2006 for ordering the sectarian killings of nearly 150 Shiites two decades earlier.