Draft:Saddam Hussein
| Saddam Hussein | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Saddam Hussein |
| Other Names | {{{other_names}}} |
| Personal Details | |
| Birth Place | Tikrit, Iraq |
| Brith Date | 28 April 1937 |
| Death Place | Iraq |
| Death Date | 30 December 2006 |
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (born 28 April 1937 – executed 30 December 2006) was the President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He was a prominent member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party and played a key role in the 1968 coup that led to the long-term rule of the Ba'ath Party.
Biography
Saddam Hussein was born on 28 April 1937 CE into a poor family in the village of Al-Awja, overlooking Tikrit, 150 kilometers north of Baghdad. His father was killed before Saddam was born, and his mother married another man, giving Saddam three half-brothers. Until the age of 10, Saddam was under the care of a violent stepfather and an unkind grandfather. His grandfather forced him to sell watermelons at the Tikrit train station on the Baghdad to Mosul railway. At the age of 10, he went to live with his uncle Khairallah Talfah, who was an army officer.
Saddam joined the Ba'ath Party on the verge of turning 20 and quickly became one of its active members. In 1959 CE, Saddam was wounded while participating in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Abd al-Karim Qasim, the then President of Iraq. He subsequently fled to Egypt via Syria and returned to Iraq four years later after the overthrow of Abd al-Karim Qasim. Then, in 1968 CE, with the Ba'ath Party's victory in a coup, a regime came to power in Iraq whose most prominent figure was the 31-year-old Saddam. In 1976, Saddam reached the rank of General in the Iraqi Armed Forces. In 1979 CE, by sidelining Ahmed Hassan al-Baker from power, he officially began his 24-year dictatorial rule.
Shortly after assuming the presidency of Iraq in July 1979, Saddam Hussein convened a meeting with Ba'ath Party leaders. During that meeting, he suddenly arrested 68 members of the session on charges of treason, 22 of whom were immediately executed.
Assassination Attempt
In 1982 CE, an assassination attempt was made against Saddam Hussein in the town of Dujail, 40 kilometers north of Baghdad. In response, security forces attacked the town, killing and executing over 160 residents, among whom were several children. Approximately 1,500 townspeople were sent to prison to be tortured. The penalty for all residents was the destruction of 1,000 square kilometers of their agricultural land; no one was allowed to replant for ten years.
Wives and Children
Saddam married for the first time in 1963 to Sajida Talfah, his elder uncle's daughter, who was a teacher. The result of this marriage was two sons named "Uday Hussein" and "Qusay Hussein" and three daughters named "Rana Hussein", "Raghad Hussein", and "Hala Hussein".
Saddam also married two other times. He married Samira Shahbandar in 1986 after forcing her to divorce her husband. (It is said that Samira was his favorite wife). His third wife was Nidal al-Hamdani, the director general of the Solar Energy Research Center at the Scientific Research Council of Iraq, who, like Samira, was forced to leave her husband.
War with Iran
The Iran–Iraq War, or the Eight-Year War, known in Iran as the Imposed War and Holy Defense, lasted nearly eight years. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, border conflicts between Iran and Iraq began, and the war officially started on 22 September 1980 CE. The war ended after about 8 years in August 1988 CE with the acceptance of a ceasefire by both sides, leaving one million casualties and $1190 billion in damages to the two countries [citation needed]. Saddam Hussein is a prime example of a bloody and ruthless dictator who imposed a devastating war on the nation of Iran, and his hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people, even the people of his own land.
Persian Gulf War
The end of the war with Iran coincided with the outbreak of conflict between Iraq and Kuwait. Saddam believed that since the Iran–Iraq War had benefited the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf region, Arab governments should forgive Iraq's debts. Kuwait did not agree, and relations between the two countries became tense. A few hours after the breakdown of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait over the division of oil revenues from a border region, the Iraqi army attacked Kuwait on 2 August 1990 CE and occupied the country. With this attack, Iraq caused an international crisis and did not accept the warning of the Security Council. In 1991 CE, the United States, with a coalition of other countries, attacked Kuwait and then Iraq, driving the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
Invasion of Iraq
After the Persian Gulf War, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution regarding Iraq, demanding Saddam destroy all his weapons of mass destruction. In 2003, the United States and its coalition allies attacked the country due to the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; later it was stated that at the time of the United States attack, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The government and army of Iraq were destroyed within three weeks following the attack by the United States and its allies on 20 March 2003. The United States attempted at least twice to assassinate Saddam via air strikes, but on both occasions, the target was not hit. Saddam was last seen in a video film showing him in the suburbs of Baghdad. When Baghdad fell to coalition forces on 9 April, no one saw Saddam again.
Capture
Saddam Hussein's hiding place was unknown for several weeks after the fall of Baghdad and the end of major conflicts. Saddam Hussein was placed at the top of the "Most Wanted List". Many other leaders of Iraq were arrested, but extensive efforts to arrest him were fruitless. His sons, Uday and Qusay, who were considered his political successors, were killed in July 2003 after a clash with American forces and based on a report from an informed Iraqi source.
The Islamic Republic News Agency of Iran (IRNA) reported on 14 December 2003, quoting Jalal Talabani, that Saddam Hussein had been arrested. This report was later confirmed by other members of the governing council, United States military sources, and Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Shortly after, Paul Bremer, the American interim governor of Iraq, announced the news of his arrest at a press conference in Baghdad as follows: "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him." He had been arrested at 8:30 local time on 13 December in an operation named Red Dawn, in a hole in a house in the village of Adwar near Tikrit.
Trial
Saddam Hussein along with 11 other Ba'ath Party leaders was legally handed over to the interim government of Iraq on 30 June 2004 (9 Tir 1383 SH) to be tried on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Finally, on Sunday, 5 November 2006 (14 Aban 1385 SH), Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging. His claim that he was still a military member and should be executed by firing squad if proven guilty was ignored by the court.
Execution
Saddam Hussein was hanged on 30 December 2006, corresponding to 9 Dey 1385 SH, at 6:07 local time. His execution ceremony was carried out at Camp Justice, a protected area in northern Baghdad, which was previously used by Saddam himself for torturing and executing Iraqi citizens.
Burial
Saddam's body was handed over to the leaders of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe for burial in his birthplace village, Al-Awja in Tikrit. Saddam Hussein's corpse was buried near the burial site of his sons Qusay and Uday. In March 2015, his tomb was destroyed during clashes between Iraq government forces in the war with ISIS in Tikrit[1].