Timeline: Saddam’s life
Saddam Hussein was born in April 1937 in the village of Tikrit in central Iraq.
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| Saddam in exile in Egypt [AFP] |
April 1937: Saddam Hussein is born in the village of Tikrit in central Iraq.
October 1956: Saddam joins the Baath party.
October 1959: He takes part in an assassination attempt against Iraq’s ruler, General Abdul Karim Qassem. He flees Iraq and spends four years in exile in Egypt.
February 1963: He returns to Baghdad after the Baath party comes to power in a military coup. The Baathists are defeated nine months later. Saddam is jailed and elected – while in prison – as the Baath party deputy secretary-general.
July 1968: The Baath party seizes power from Abdul Mohammed Aref. Saddam is the party’s number two.
March 1975: He signs a border agreement with Shah of Iran. The latter then supported Kurdish rebellions.
July 1979: Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr steps down and Saddam becomes president.
September 1980: War starts between Iraq and Iran. Iraq is backed by the US during the eight-year war, in which a million people die.
March 1988: The Iraqi army bombs Halabjah and gases 5,000 Kurdish villagers.
August 1988: A ceasefire is signed between Iran and Iraq.
August 1990: Saddam invades and annexes Kuwait.
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| Saddam brandishing an assault rifle during a visit to villages in northern Iraq [AFP] |
January 1991: US-led operation “desert storm” drives the Iraqi army out of Kuwait.
October 1995: Saddam wins a presidential referendum, official figures giving him more than 99 per cent of the votes.
September 2001: George Bush, the US president, calls Iraq “a rogue state”.
October 2002: Saddam wins 100 per cent of votes in another presidential referendum.
December 2002: He apologises for invading Kuwait. Kuwait does not accept the apology.
February 2003: Saddam denies being in possession of any chemical or nuclear weapons and denies that he has any links with al-Qaeda.
20 March 2003: A US-led coalition invades Iraq, despite not securing a UN resolution authorising it to do so.
9 April 2003: US troops enter Baghdad.
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| Saddam as a young member of the Baath Party [AFP] |
22 July 2003: Uday and Qusay Hussein, Saddam’s sons, are killed by US troops in a raid on a house in Mosul.
13 December 2003: US officials announce the capture of Saddam.
19 October 2005: Start of Saddam’s trial for the 1982 killing of 148 Shia men in Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on the president.
21 August 2006: Start of the Anfal. Saddam is accused of killing thousands of Kurdish civilians in 1988.
5 November 2006: Saddam is found guilty and sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.
26 December 2006: The Iraqi court of appeal upholds the death sentence against Saddam.