Full name Saddam Hussein al-Majid al Tikriti. AKA ‘Great Uncle’, AKA ‘Lion of Babylon’, AKA ‘Lion of Iraq’, AKA ‘Beast of Baghdad’. Saddam translates to ‘One Who Confronts’.
Country: Iraq.
Kill tally: Approaching two million, including between 150,000 and 340,000 Iraqis and between 450,000 and 730,000 Iranians killed during the Iran-Iraq War. An estimated 1,000 Kuwaiti nationals killed following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. No conclusive figures for the number of Iraqis killed during the Gulf War, with estimates varying from as few as 1,500 to as many as 200,000. Over 100,000 Kurds killed or “disappeared”. No reliable figures for the number of Iraqi dissidents and Shia Muslims killed during Hussein’s reign, though estimates put the figure between 60,000 and 150,000. (Mass graves discovered following the US occupation of Iraq in 2003 suggest that the total combined figure for Kurds, Shias and dissidents killed could be as high as 300,000). Approximately 500,000 Iraqi children dead because of international trade sanctions introduced following the Gulf War.
Background: Following the First World War Iraq is placed under British mandate. Iraqi nationalists, who believed their assistance to the British during the war would be rewarded with independence, rebel. Complete independence is finally granted in October 1932.
The Iraqi military become increasingly involved in politics following independence, staging a coup d’état in 1936. A protracted period of political instability follows. Opposition groups, including the Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection) Party, begin to make inroads. Baath is committed to the socialism, Arab nationalism, and secularism. More background.
Mini biography: Born on 28 April 1937 in the village of al-Awja, near Tikrit, on the Tigris River in northwest Iraq, into a landless but influential Sunni family. He is a member of the al-Khatab clan. Hussein will later have his genealogy fabricated to claim direct descent from the prophet Mohammed.
Hussein’s father dies while his mother is pregnant with him. When an older brother also dies during the pregnancy Hussein’s mother tries to abort the foetus and commit suicide but is stopped by a neighbouring Jewish family.
After Hussein is born his still depressed mother places him in the care of his maternal uncle, Khairalla Msallat, an army officer, fervent Arab nationalist, and former Nazi sympathiser. When Hussein is three his uncle is imprisoned for participating in a failed coup. Hussein is returned to his now remarried mother but is mistreated by her and his stepfather.
1947 - When his uncle is released from jail Hussein runs away from home to live with him in Tikrit. Unable to read or write, Hussein now begins his formal schooling.
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