50 Fun Facts About Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein was born in 1937 in a village near which Iraqi city?

He was buried in the same village, al-Awja, the day after his execution in 2006.

What does the name Saddam mean?

His father died before he was born, and he was raised largely by an uncle.

Which uncle became a father figure to Saddam and later mayor of Baghdad?

He was a veteran of the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War and the father of Saddam's first wife.

In which year did Saddam drop out of law school to join the Ba'ath Party?

The party had fewer than 300 members in Iraq two years earlier.

Which Egyptian leader's pan-Arab nationalism profoundly influenced the young Saddam?

Saddam later claimed his mantle, alongside those of Nebuchadnezzar and Saladin, during the Gulf War.

Which Iraqi prime minister did Saddam help try to assassinate on Al-Rashid Street in October 1959?

Saddam, meant only to give cover, opened fire early and the target survived with wounds to the arm and shoulder.

After the failed 1959 assassination, Saddam eventually fled to which city?

He finished high school there in 1961 and had a go at a law degree before returning to Iraq in 1963.

Who led the bloodless July 1968 coup that made Saddam vice president?

Saddam handled the follow-up purge, reportedly marching Prime Minister an-Naif to a plane at gunpoint.

Which enterprise did Saddam nationalise while vice president?

The oil money paid for free healthcare and schooling and a wave of infrastructure.

The 1975 agreement Saddam signed with Iran to settle border disputes was reached in which city?

The deal ended Iranian support for the Kurdish insurgency Saddam had been fighting.

On what date did Saddam formally become president after forcing al-Bakr to resign?

Al-Bakr had been negotiating a union with Syria that would have sidelined Saddam behind Hafez al-Assad.

How many alleged conspirators were removed at the videotaped Ba'ath assembly six days into his term?

Twenty-two of them were sentenced to death, and other senior party members formed the firing squad.

Which minority filled most senior posts under Saddam despite being about a fifth of Iraqis?

Key security posts were often reserved for his own relatives from around Tikrit.

Saddam received an award from which UN agency for Iraq's public-health and literacy campaigns?

Electricity reached nearly every city and free schooling ran up to university level.

Which US city gave Saddam a ceremonial key in 1980 after he donated to a local church?

The gift of nearly half a million dollars went to a Chaldean-Catholic congregation.

Where had Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile in Iraq before Saddam expelled him in 1978?

The Shia holy city gave Khomeini a following that Saddam tolerated until the Shah pushed for his removal.

On what date did Iraq invade Iran, starting the eight-year Iran-Iraq War?

Airstrikes hit Tehran's Mehrabad Airport before troops moved into oil-rich Khuzestan.

Which oil-rich, Arab-minority Iranian province was Iraq's initial objective in 1980?

Iraq had seized more than 25,900 square kilometres of Iranian territory by December that year.

Who destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor in an air attack on 7 June 1981?

The strike set back Saddam's nuclear ambitions during the second year of the war with Iran.

Which waterway dividing Iraq and Iran was the subject of the skirmishes that preceded the war?

The 1975 Algiers Agreement had supposedly settled its status.

Which numbered UN Security Council text did Iran finally accept in July 1988, ending the war?

Hostilities formally ended on 20 August 1988 after perhaps half a million deaths.

The Anfal campaign against the Kurds took its code name from what?

Chapter 8, al-Anfal ('the spoils'), lent its name to attacks that Human Rights Watch calls genocide.

Which Kurdish town was attacked with mustard gas and nerve agents on 16 March 1988?

Between 3,200 and 5,000 people died, most of them civilians.

Who headed the Anfal campaign, earning the nickname 'Chemical Ali'?

He was Saddam's cousin.

Roughly how much war debt did Saddam ask Kuwait to waive after the Iran-Iraq War?

Kuwait refused and then led OPEC opposition to the production cuts Saddam wanted.

Which US ambassador's 'no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts' remark was read as a green light to invade Kuwait?

The emergency meeting took place on 25 July 1990, eight days before the invasion.

On what date did Iraq invade Kuwait?

By 28 August Kuwait had been declared Iraq's 19th governorate.

Kuwait was formally annexed as which numbered governorate of Iraq?

Saddam insisted the emirate had only ever existed because of British interference.

The coalition air campaign against Iraq in the Gulf War began on which date?

The ground offensive that followed ejected the Iraqi army from Kuwait in February.

Approximately how many Iraqi soldiers were taken prisoner in the Gulf War?

Saddam nonetheless publicly claimed victory and later cited his survival as proof Iraq had won.

Which phrase, in Saddam's own handwriting, was added to the Iraqi flag during the 1993 Faith Campaign?

The campaign was overseen by vice president Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

Saddam commissioned a Quran written using how many litres of his own blood?

It was meant as thanks to God for saving him from various dangers and conspiracies.

Which currency did Iraq switch to for its oil sales under the Oil-for-Food programme from 2001?

About 26 billion euros for 3.3 billion barrels went into an escrow account in New York.

What official approval figure did the 2002 referendum on Saddam's presidency report?

Every one of 11,445,638 eligible voters supposedly voted yes; in 1995 the figure had been a mere 99.96 percent.

On what date did the US-led invasion of Iraq begin in 2003?

Baghdad fell on 9 April, marked by the toppling of Saddam's statue.

In which city were Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay killed in a gunfight with US forces in July 2003?

Saddam's 14-year-old grandson Mustafa died alongside them.

What was the code name of the mission that captured Saddam on 13 December 2003?

He was found in a hole in the ground near a farmhouse at ad-Dawr, close to Tikrit.

What nickname did the guards at his Baghdad detention facility give Saddam?

It stood for 'Very Important Criminal'; they let him tend a small garden near his cell.

Which FBI agent interrogated Saddam in custody?

Saddam described himself to interviewers as a 'firm, but just leader'.

Saddam was convicted for the 1982 killing of 148 Shia residents of which town?

The reprisals followed a failed attempt to assassinate him there.

By what method had Saddam asked to be executed, arguing it befitted a commander-in-chief?

He was hanged instead, at Camp Justice in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district.

Saddam's execution on 30 December 2006 fell on the first day of which festival?

Saudi Arabia condemned the timing as an insult to a holy day.

Which luxury item was Saddam known for wearing and gifting to allies?

He marked his 64th birthday in 2001 with a large state-sponsored celebration.

Saddam had the bricks of ancient Babylon stamped with his name beside that of which king?

He styled himself the modern successor of the Babylonian ruler and adopted Saladin as a national symbol.

To which country did Saddam's sons-in-law, the Kamel brothers, defect with his daughters in August 1995?

They returned after promises of a pardon and were killed within three days by clansmen who considered them traitors.

Which sporting body did Saddam's eldest son Uday run, alongside the Fedayeen Saddam militia?

Uday also controlled media companies including Iraqi TV and the newspaper Babel, but his erratic behaviour cost him his place as heir.

Which European leader hosted Saddam in Madrid in December 1974, one of his rare trips abroad?

He toured Granada, Córdoba and Toledo, and the following September met Jacques Chirac in Paris, cementing ties with French business.

How many negative votes were officially recorded in Saddam's 1995 referendum, out of 8.4 million voters?

The reported approval was 99.96 percent with 99.47 percent turnout; the 2002 rerun claimed a flawless 100 percent on both counts.

In which year did Saddam's government grant Iraqi women full suffrage and the right to run for office?

By the 1980s women made up 46 percent of teachers and 70 percent of pharmacists in Iraq.

What reportedly happened to Saddam's tomb in his home village of Al-Awja in March 2015?

A Sunni tribal group is said to have moved his body to a secret location beforehand; he had been buried three kilometres from his sons.