The rise and fall of Saddam Hussein
Hamburg (dpa) - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in the village of Uja, close to the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit. Milestones in the life of the 69-year-old include:
1957 - After leaving school Saddam joins the revolutionary pan- Arab Baath party.
1959 - Takes part in a failed assassination attempt on then Iraqi leader General Abdul-Karim Qassim. Flees Iraq and spends a number of years in exile in Syria and Egypt.
1962-1969 - Studies law in Cairo and Baghdad interrupted by a three-year prison sentence for his part in an attempt to overthrow then president Abdul Salim Karif. In 1968 the Baath party seized power in Iraq, Saddam rising within its ranks to become party secretary general in 1979.
July 16, 1979 - Saddam becomes Iraqi president and head of government.
September 22, 1980 - Begins Iran-Iraq War with airstrikes against Iran. Conflict lasts until August 20, 1988.
March 16, 1988 - Around 5,000 Kurds die in a poison gas attack by the Iraqi army on the city of Halabja.
August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades neighbouring Kuwait.
January 17, 1991 - International troops led by the United States begin the Gulf War against Iraq to liberate Kuwait. Allied forces move to within 150 miles of Baghdad before US President George Bush declares a ceasefire.
March 1991 - Saddam brutally represses a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq and a Shiite rebellion in the south.
February 23, 1996 - Two of Saddam's sons-in-law who defected to Jordan killed after returning to Baghdad. Saddam had given assurances that they were in no danger.
March 17, 2003 - A deadline imposed by the United States, Britain and Spain for Saddam to restore cooperation with UN weapons inspectors expires.
March 20, 2003 - The US-led Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with airstrikes against Baghdad. Baghdad falls on April 9, Saddam goes into hiding. Pictures of a colossal Saddam statue being toppled by international forces and Iraqis are broadcast around the world.
December 14, 2003 - US troops track the former dictator to the Tikrit region and eventually find him hiding in an underground hole.
June 30, 2004 - Saddam is formally handed over to Iraq authorities but remains in US military custody.
October 1, 2005 - The trial of Saddam and seven aides on charges related to the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail begins.
August 21, 2006 - Beginning of the former dictator's second trial on charges of genocide against the Kurds.
November 5 2005 - The Iraqi special tribunal announces its verdict in the Dujail trail, sentencing Saddam, his half-brother and a former aide to hang.
December 26, 2006 - Iraq's appeals court upholds the original verdict. // © 2006
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| A file picture released by the Iraqi News Agency (INA) 29 March 1998 of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein brandishing a Russian-made AK 47 assault rifle. Saddam Hussein who was captured 13 December 2003 by US forces and later put on trial will be executed within hours according to a report by Iraqi television Friday 29 December 2006 but it remained unclear if the US military had turned him over to Iraqi authorities so the death sentence can be carried out. Saddam and six of his former top government aides were found guilty on November 5 of ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail in retaliation for an attempt on Saddamжs life. EPA/INA |
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