Saddam: A Dramatic History

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Saddam Hussain, who for months eluded and tormented US-led forces occupying his country, was finally in their hands Sunday, and facing trial. Even after his fall on April 9, many ordinary Iraqis shrank from cooperating with the occupier for fear of his return.

Saddam had remained elusive, a thorn in the side of a US military whose troops were regularly attacked in operations said to have been masterminded and funded by the former leader.

US generals and coalition officials, while claiming confidently that all was well and reconstruction gathering pace, were forced to recognise that low-level war was still raging as the US combat toll since May 1 headed towards 200.

But Saddam, the poor boy born in a mudhut village who came to live in the grandest of palaces, was found Saturday cowering at the bottom of a hole on an isolated farm, after daring to defy the US hyperpower one time too many.

He had paid the ultimate price in defeat, his statues trampled into the dust, his gloating ubiquitous portraits torn to shreds and set ablaze after the occupation of his capital in April.

The 66-year-old Arab nationalist, who declared his determination to die at home and taunted enemies with outrageous bravado, was seen after his capture, bearded and dishevelled.

Those years after he seized absolute power in 1979 saw the cradle of civilisation and a modern Arab power transformed into an impoverished, outlaw state that had squandered fabulous oil and human wealth.

At first supported by the US in his military adventures when Iran's clerical regime was the target, the tide turned against him in the West when thousands of Kurds were gassed to death 15 years ago, during the Iran-Iraq war.

Saddam guided Iraq through the 1980-1988 bloodbath with Iran and the rout of the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, emerging each time to claim Pyrrhic victories astride the corpses of his people.

He defied attempts through the United Nations to ensure his disarmament, crushing UN sanctions and four nights of US and British missile strikes in December 1998.

Saddam first made a name trying to murder Iraqi leader Abdul Karim Kassem in 1959.

Wounded in the leg, he fled abroad but returned four years later and was jailed in 1964. Within two years he had escaped and resumed clandestine work for the nationalist Ba'ath Party cause.

In 1968 he took part in the coup which brought the party to government, marking the start of his affair with power.

As party deputy secretary general and vice-president of the all-powerful Revolution Command Council (RCC), he was already considered the regime's real force behind president Ahmad Hassan Al Bakr.

Bakr lost his grip over the next decade as Saddam strengthened his own and the president finally retired for health reasons.

Saddam seized power on July 16, 1979, becoming state president, general secretary of the party and of the RCC.

"He who inspires fear," but once failed to win a place for officer training, assumed all the trappings of state, taking the title of field marshal and commander-in-chief of an army he led to decimation.

He brooked no dissent, extending frequent purges of senior figures to family and friends. Even potential opponents seldom lasted long. Those who failed to find exile lie buried.

The cruelty of the state is amply documented by rights groups. Informers were encouraged, the media muzzled and few if any dared voice criticism.

He ended his career by refusing to leave the country before the US-UK war on his country. Instead he decided to fight the invasion. Probably, he may remembered in history as the one Arab leader who resisted the US-Israeli hegemony while other leaders submitted to the will of the world superpower.