Global InformationSaddam Hussein information
Saddam Hussein | |
|---|---|
صدام حسين | |
 Saddam in August 1998 | |
| 5th President of Iraq | |
| In office 16 July 1979 – 9 April 2003 | |
| Prime Minister |
|
| Vice President |
|
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by |
|
| Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council | |
| In office 16 July 1979 – 9 April 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Prime Minister of Iraq | |
| In office 29 May 1994 – 9 April 2003 | |
| President | Himself |
| Preceded by | Ahmad Husayn Khudayir as-Samarrai |
| Succeeded by | Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum (as Acting President of the Governing Council of Iraq) |
| In office 16 July 1979 – 23 March 1991 | |
| President | Himself |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by | Sa'dun Hammadi |
| Secretary General of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party | |
| In office January 1992 – 30 December 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Michel Aflaq |
| Succeeded by | Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri |
| Regional Secretary of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch | |
| In office 16 July 1979 – 30 December 2006 | |
| National Secretary |
|
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by | Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri |
| In office February 1964 – October 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Vice President of Iraq | |
| In office 17 July 1968 – 16 July 1979 | |
| President | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Preceded by | Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr |
| Succeeded by | Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri |
| Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch | |
| In office February 1964 – 9 April 2003 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 April 1937[a] Al-Awja, Saladin Governorate, Kingdom of Iraq |
| Died | 30 December 2006 (aged 69) Camp Justice, Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Resting place | Al-Awja |
| Political party |
|
| Spouses | Sajida Talfah (m. 1963)Samira Shahbandar (m. 1986) |
| Children |
|
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Iraq |
| Branch/service | Iraqi Armed Forces |
| Rank | Marshal |
| Battles/wars |
|
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti[c] (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
Saddam was born in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, to a peasant Sunni Arab family.[8] He joined the Ba'ath Party in 1957, and later in 1966 the Iraqi and Baghdad-based Ba'ath parties. He played a key role in the 17 July Revolution and was appointed vice president of Iraq by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. During his time as vice president, Saddam nationalised the Iraq Petroleum Company, diversifying the Iraqi economy. He presided over the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War (1974–1975). Following al-Bakr's resignation in 1979, Saddam formally took power, although he had already been the de facto head of Iraq for several years. Positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up about a fifth of the population.[9]
Upon taking office, Saddam instituted the Ba'ath Party Purge. Saddam ordered the 1980 invasion of Iran in a purported effort to capture Iran's Arab-majority Khuzistan province and thwart Iranian attempts to export their own 1979 revolution. The Iran–Iraq War ended after nearly eight years in a ceasefire after a gruelling stalemate that cost somewhere around a million lives and economic losses of $561 billion in Iraq. At the end of the war, he carried out the brutal Anfal campaign against Kurds, recognized by Human Rights Watch as an act of genocide. Later, Saddam accused its ally Kuwait of slant-drilling the oil reserves in Iraq and occupied Kuwait, initiating the Gulf War (1990–1991). Iraq was defeated by a multinational coalition led by the United States. The United Nations subsequently placed sanctions against Iraq. Saddam suppressed the 1991 Iraqi uprisings of the Kurds and Shia Muslims, which sought to gain independence or overthrow the government. Saddam adopted an anti-American stance and established the Faith Campaign, pursuing an Islamist agenda in Iraq. Saddam's rule was marked by numerous human rights abuses, including an estimated 250,000 arbitrary deaths and disappearances.
In 2003, the United States and its coalition of allies invaded Iraq, falsely accusing Saddam of developing weapons of mass destruction and of having ties with al-Qaeda. The Ba'ath Party was banned and Saddam went into hiding. After his capture on 13 December 2003, his trial took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted by the Iraqi High Tribunal of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'a and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed on 30 December 2006.
Saddam has been accused of running a repressive authoritarian government, which several analysts have described as totalitarian, although the applicability of that label has been contested.
- ^ Con Coughlin, Saddam: The Secret Life Pan Books, 2003 (ISBN 978-0-330-39310-2).
- ^ "National Progressive Front". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Eur (2002). The Middle East and North Africa 2003. Psychology Press. p. 494. ISBN 978-1-85743-132-2.
- ^ من الأرشيف: إذاعة أم المعارك 1991م (in Arabic), retrieved 11 January 2023
- ^ Shewchuk, Blair (February 2003). "Saddam or Mr. Hussein?". CBC News.
This brings us to the first, and primary, reason many newsrooms use 'Saddam' – it's how he's known throughout Iraq and the rest of the Middle East.
- ^ Burns, John F. (2 July 2004). "Defiant Hussein Rebukes Iraqi Court for Trying Him". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2004.
- ^ "Saddam Hussein". Encyclopædia Britannica. 29 May 2023.
- ^ "Saddam Hussein". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
- ^ Karsh, Efraim; Rautsi, Inari (2002). Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography. Grove Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8021-3978-8.
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