![]() These included the 1982 slaughter of Shias in the town of Dujail and the 1988 Halabja massacre, in which he used chemical weapons against a Kurdish town that dared to rise against him.įamilies of victims celebrated his death, while other Iraqis felt deeply saddened by the jarring footage of a vulnerable man who once was the president of their country.Ī number of Iraqis, many of whom were children in 2006, spoke to CNN about their memories and feelings on the day Hussein was executed 10 years ago.Īhmad was in her home in Mosul when Saddam Hussein was executed. Hussein, who ruled Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow and capture by a US-led coalition in 2003, was accused by an Iraqi court of committing numerous massacres during his rule. It’s a day that will forever be entrenched in the memory of Iraqis who watched their ruthless leader walk towards the gallows and have a noose tightened around his neck. Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.On the morning of the start of Eid al-Adha on December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged to death for committing crimes against humanity. A soldier at the scene described him as “a man resigned to his fate.”Īfter standing trial, he was executed on December 30, 2006. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. soldiers raided a villa in which they were staying in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.įive months later, on December 13, 2003, U.S. On July 22, 2003, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, who many believe he was grooming to one day fill his shoes, were killed when U.S. After declaring Saddam the most important of a list of his regime’s 55 most-wanted members, the United States began an intense search for the former leader and his closest advisors. Obsessed with security, he is said to have moved among them often, always sleeping in secret locations.ĭespite proclaiming in early March 2003 that, “it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression,” Saddam went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape, and his government soon fell. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. ![]() During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. Saddam took over for his cousin 11 years later. He participated in several coup attempts, finally helping to install his cousin as dictator of Iraq in July 1968. After moving to Baghdad as a teenager, Saddam joined the now-infamous Baath party, which he would later lead. Saddam Hussein was born into a poor family in Tikrit, 100 miles outside of Baghdad, in 1937. Saddam’s downfall began on March 20, 2003, when the United States led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, which had controlled the country for more than 20 years. After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured on December 13, 2003.
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