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Obituary: Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003During more than two decades as leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein's violent methods and uncompromising stance thrust his country onto the world stage.

Saddam Hussein's road to absolute power began in Tikrit, central Iraq, where he was born in 1937.

His stepfather beat him as a child, introducing him to the brutality and bullying which would mark his own life.

Joining up with the clandestine Baath party in 1956, he participated in a failed attempt to assassinate military ruler General Abdul Karim Qassem.

In a country where politics was always a violent game, his talents took him swiftly to the top.

Saddam Hussein (left) with General al-Bakr (centre)Saddam was forced to flee Iraq in 1959 and spent four years in exile in Cairo.

Back in Iraq, he rose through the party ranks. When it finally seized power from Abdul Rahman Mohammed Aref in 1968, Saddam Hussein emerged as the number two figure behind Gen Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.

Now the power behind the throne, he took over when Bakr was quietly shunted aside in July 1979 and began the reign of terror that was to keep him in power for so long.

Saddam Hussein took the posts of prime minister, chairman of the Revolution Command Council and armed forces commander-in-chief.

Within a year, he launched Iraq into a massive and risky adventure.

Iran-Iraq conflict

Seeing himself as the new leader and champion of all Arabs, Saddam Hussein poured his army across the border into western Iran in September 1980, hoping to defuse a potential threat from the new Islamic revolution.

The disastrous war lasted eight years and claimed a million lives.

The president strengthened Iraq's military capabilityThe US quietly backed him, ignoring Iraq's human rights record and atrocities like the killing of 148 people in the mostly Shia town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against him in July 1982, and the gassing of 5,000 Kurdish villagers of Halabja in March 1988.

After the ceasefire with Iran that August, Saddam Hussein's constant striving for regional supremacy intensified.

His experts produced special long-range missiles and pursued ambitious nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes.

Invasion

But war with Iran had crippled the Iraqi economy and the Iraqi leader desperately needed to increase his oil revenues.

In August 1990, he accused Kuwait of driving the price of oil down, invaded and annexed the emirate.

1991: Kuwait's oilfields ablazeWeeks of US-led bombing, during what Saddam Hussein had famously described as the "Mother of All Battles", reduced Iraq's infrastructure to ruins, and wrought havoc among front-line troops.

Operation Desert Storm, the subsequent ground assault in January 1991 to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait left thousands of Iraqi soldiers dead, wounded or captured.

Retreating troops set fire to the country's oil wells, turning day to night and precipitating a vast ecological disaster.

Kurds flee

But this time, the Iraqi president's blunders did lead to consequences at home. Encouraged by the first US President George Bush to rise up, the Shia of southern Iraq revolted.

But the Western powers did nothing, as Saddam Hussein ruthlessly restored his grip on the south.

Tide of humanity: Kurdish refugeesIn the north, he attacked the rebellious Kurds. Millions fled into the freezing mountains and the West was forced to impose a "safe haven", maintained by a constant air umbrella, over the area.

The following year, the Western powers imposed a no-fly zone in the south, to give some sort of protection to the Shia.

To add to his humiliations, after his ejection from Kuwait, the Iraqi leader was forced to agree to the elimination of all his weapons of mass destruction by the UN.

'Regime change'

Stringent international sanctions remained in full force in the years after the Gulf War, causing a near-collapse of the Iraqi currency and leading to infighting in the power structure.

The first Gulf War destroyed much of Iraq's infrastructureHis two sons-in-law defected, but both were murdered after being persuaded to return to Iraq.

President George W Bush's election in 2000 increased the pressure. Washington now talked openly of "regime change".

And, following the 11 September 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, the US named Iraq a "rogue state".

UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq in November 2002 and resumed their search. Iraq destroyed a number of missiles and said it had neutralised its stocks of anthrax.
HAVE YOUR SAY
As an Iranian, I hated Saddam for what he did to my country. But, as a human being, I feel sorry for him
Farhad Assar, Edinburgh
Mr Bush remained suspicious, claiming that the Iraqi leader was building and hiding weapons to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilised world.

Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix reported that Iraq had accelerated its co-operation and there was no evidence of a new weapons programme, but the US and UK declared the diplomatic process over.

Coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, despite not securing a new UN resolution authorising such action.

Saddam Hussein's reign was brought to a violent end and he disappeared after the fall of Baghdad on 9 April, becoming the US military's most wanted fugitive in Iraq.

Captured

His two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed by US troops in a raid on a house near Mosul, northern Iraq, on 22 July.

The US said Saddam Hussein offered no resistanceAnd in December 2003, US officials announced that the former president had been captured near Tikrit.

While world leaders and many Iraqis welcomed the capture, there were angry protests in towns throughout the Iraqi area known as the Sunni Triangle.

Saddam Hussein was transferred to the Iraqi authorities on 30 June 2004 following the handover of sovereignty to Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's interim government. His trial opened in Baghdad the next day.

Trial

Saddam Hussein was defiant. He challenged the legality of the proceedings, which he said were brought about by the "invasion forces", and refused to sign the charge sheet without his lawyers present.

Saddam Hussein was filmed on a visit to the town of Dujail in 1982In July 2005, the tribunal laid the first charges against Saddam Hussein and seven other former regime members for crimes against humanity in Dujail.

The case was chosen by prosecutors because they believed it would be the easiest to compile and prosecute.

Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty when his trial opened in Baghdad on 19 October, 2005.

His co-defendants included Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former head of Iraq's intelligence service and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former Revolutionary Court chief judge.

All three were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November 2006 after a year-long trial.

The former president was executed 56 days after the death sentence was passed, after Iraq's highest court rejected an appeal on 25 December.

Saddam Hussein's rule was characterised by a mixture of megalomania and paranoia. His monuments were everywhere.

He even had Nebuchadnezzar's palace rebuilt, with his own name printed on the bricks.

Scared for his own security, he slept in a different place every night and used up to eight doubles.

Beneath the surface, his power was wielded through the armed forces and a complex web of intelligence organisations.

Though he failed in his ambition of unifying the Arabs under his leadership, Saddam Hussein remained, even after being put on trial, defiant as ever.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/1099005.stm Published: 2006/12/30 05:37:04 GMT

Saddam timeline

YOUNG ACTIVIST, 1957-1968

From beginnings as a young activist, Saddam Hussein rose to become a highly controlling deputy to the Iraqi president.

Saddam Hussein’s family are from TikritIn 1957, Saddam Hussein, a youth from a village near Tikrit in the north of Iraq, joined the fledgling Iraqi Baath Party which expounded a socialist brand of pan-Arab nationalism.

Britain had administered Iraq under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1932 and exercised strong political and military influence long afterwards. Anti-Western sentiment was strong.

The young Saddam Hussein was involved in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate Brigadier Abdel Karim Qasim, who overthrew the British-installed Iraqi monarchy in 1958.

карта ИракаSaddam Hussein fled to Egypt after the plot against Brigadier Qasim failed, then returned when the Baath party staged a coup in 1963 - only to be jailed within months when Brigadier Qasim's former ally, Col Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif, seized power from the Baathists.

But Saddam Hussein escaped in 1966 and was elected assistant general secretary of the party, which then staged a successful coup in 1968.

General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, also from Tikrit and a relative of the 31 year-old Saddam Hussein, took power.

The two worked closely together and became the dominant force in the Baath party, with Saddam Hussein gradually outstripping the president's leadership.

HARDLINE DEPUTY, 1968-1979

As deputy to the ailing General Bakr, Saddam Hussein instituted widespread reforms and built up a ruthless security apparatus.

Saddam with Yasser Arafat in 1979The two leaders' early moves caused concern in the West.

In 1972, at the height of the Cold War, Iraq signed a 15-year treaty with the Soviet Union.

It also nationalised the Iraqi Petroleum Company, which had been set up under British administration and was pumping cheap oil to the West.

Saddam Hussein put his relativesSoaring oil revenues resulting from the 1973 oil crisis were invested in industry, education and healthcare, raising Iraq's standard of living to one of the highest in the Arab world.

In 1974, Kurds in the north funded by the US-backed Shah of Iran rebelled.

The conflict pushed Baghdad to the negotiating table, where Iraq agreed to share control of the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway with Iran.

The Shah cut off the Kurds' funds and the Iraqi regime put down their uprising.

Saddam Hussein extended his grip on power, stationing relatives and allies in key government and business roles.

In 1978, membership of opposition parties became punishable by death.

The following year, Saddam Hussein forced General Bakr's resignation - officially due to ill health - and assumed the presidency.

He executed dozens of his rivals within days of taking power.

WAR BREAKS OUT, 1980

After the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution, relations between Iran and Iraq deteriorated. Iraq invaded, starting a costly eight-year war.

In September 1980, Iraq responded to a series of border skirmishes with Iran by mounting a full-scale ground invasion of the oil-rich Iranian border province of Khuzestan.

Iraqi troops fighting in IranBy the end of the month, Iraq had abrogated its 1975 treaty with Iran and reclaimed the Iranian-controlled part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Both countries had started bombing campaigns.

The Iranian revolution had replaced the Western-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's radical Shia Islamic regime.

The Ayatollah sought to export his ideology to other Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, where the ruling Sunni elite had long struggled to contain a restive Shia majority.

карта военных действийA wave of support for Ayatollah Khomeini swept Iraq's Shia community – stirring up opposition which went as far as an assassination attempt on then Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in April 1980.

Views differ, however, as to whether it was the domestic Shia unrest, the desire to defend the Middle East from Ayatollah Khomeini's radical ideology, or simply power-hungry opportunism, that led Iraq to attempt to invade its neighbour.

ISRAELI BOMBING, JUNE 1981

As fighting between Iran and Iraq raged, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor being built near Baghdad. Despite the anti-Zionism of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamist regime, Israel backed Iran in the war.

Tuwaitha was a key nuclear centreIn the 1970s, Iraq had tried to persuade France to sell it a nuclear reactor similar to the one used in the French weapons programme.

France had refused, but agreed to sell and to help build the 40 megawatt Osirak research reactor at the Tuwaitha nuclear centre near Baghdad.

Israel said that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.

Fearing Iraq might eventually target Israel, then Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent several F-16s to bomb the Osirak reactor, reducing it to rubble in seconds.

налёт израильской авиацииThe Israeli military says the raid "put the nuclear genie of Baghdad back into his bottle".

But the bombing was widely condemned at the time, even by Israel's traditional ally the US, which backed a UN resolution censuring Israel.

CHEMICAL WARFARE, 1983-1988

Iraq is known to have used the blister agent mustard gas from 1983 and the nerve gas Tabun from 1985, as it faced attacks from "human waves" of Iranian troops and poorly-trained but loyal volunteers. Tabun can kill within minutes.

Up to 5,000 died at Halabja, northern IraqIn 1988 Iraq turned its chemical weapons on Iraqi Kurds in the north of the country.

Some Kurdish guerrilla forces had joined the Iranian offensive.

On 16 March 1988, Iraq dropped bombs containing mustard gas, Sarin and Tabun on the Kurdish city of Halabja.

Estimates of the number of civilians killed range from 3,200 to 5,000, with many survivors suffering long-term health problems.

This baby in Halabja was bornChemical weapons were also used during Iraq's "Anfal" offensive - a seven-month scorched-earth campaign in which an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 Kurdish villagers were killed or disappeared, and hundreds of villages were razed.

A UN security council statement condemning Iraq's use of chemical weapons in the war was issued in 1986, but the US and other western governments continued supporting Baghdad militarily and politically into the closing stages of the war.

WESTERN SUPPORT 1980-1988

The West's relations with Iraq warmed throughout the war, culminating in military intervention on the Iraqi side.

Western countries helped arm IraqThe West feared the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini's radical Islamism and wanted to prevent an Iranian victory.

The US removed Iraq from its list of nations supporting terrorism in 1982.

Two years later it re-established diplomatic relations, which had been severed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Iraq's principal arms source was its long-time ally the USSR.

But several western nations, including Britain, France, and the US, also supplied weapons or military equipment to Iraq, and the US shared intelligence with Saddam Hussein's regime.

But the Iran-Contra scandal - revelations that the US had been covertly selling arms to Iran in the hope of securing the release of hostages held in Lebanon - caused friction between the US and Baghdad.

In the closing stages of the war, Iran and Iraq turned their military power on commercial oil tankers in the Gulf to sabotage each others' export profits.

US, British and French warships were sent to the Gulf, where several Kuwaiti tankers facing Iranian attacks were given US flags and military escorts.

As the "tanker war" progressed, the US warships also destroyed a number of Iranian oil platforms and - accidentally, according to Washington - shot down an Iranian airbus carrying 290 civilians.

TRUCE AND DEBT, 1988

On 18 July 1988, Iran accepted a UN-proposed truce, in the face of continuing - and increasingly Western-backed - Iraqi offensives.

UN troops were sent to police the truceA ceasefire came into effect a month later, on 20 August, and UN peacekeepers were sent in.

By the end of the war, neither nation's boundaries were significantly changed, but both countries felt the devastating human and economic cost of the eight-year war.

The conflict claimed an estimated total of 400,000 lives and is thought to have left another 750,000 injured. Bodies were still being found as recently as 2001.война Ирана и Ирака

Some estimates put the economic cost of the war to each side at more than $400bn each in damage and loss of oil revenues.

Even so, only three years later in 1991, about a month after Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait, Iraq agreed to honour its 1975 treaty with Iran.

KUWAIT INVASION, 1990

At 0200 local time on 2 August 1990, Iraqi forces poured across the border into Kuwait and took control of Kuwait City.

The invasion triggered a military build-upThe comparatively small military forces of the oil-rich Gulf state were quickly overwhelmed.

The Kuwaiti ruler, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, fled into exile in Saudi Arabia.

Saddam Hussein claimed the Iraqi invasion was in support of a planned uprising against the Emir, but murders and abuses of Kuwaitis who resisted the occupation were common.

US Gulf War commander

Several hundred foreign nationals were held as human shields at Iraqi and Kuwaiti factories and military bases, but were released before the allied campaign against Iraq.

The invasion came amid an Iraqi economic crisis stemming from post-war debt.

Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of keeping oil prices low and pumping more than its quota from the two countries' shared oil field.

Iraq had never accepted its British-drawn borders, which established Kuwait as a separate entity.

And when Kuwait refused to waive Iraq's war debts, Saddam Hussein invaded.

The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions and passed a series of resolutions condemning Iraq.

An international coalition was formed, hundreds of thousands of troops massed in the region.

The US put together a battle plan, with General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander-in-chief of US Central Command, at the military helm.

In November 1990, with diplomatic attempts to solve the crisis abandoned, the UN set Iraq a deadline for withdrawal from Kuwait and authorised the use of "all necessary means" to force Iraq to comply.

DESERT STORM, 1991

On 17 January 1991, US, British and allied planes launched a massive campaign of missile strikes and aerial bombing.

Tracer fire lights up the Baghdad skylinePresident Bush Snr declared: "We will not fail."

Saddam Hussein announced: "The mother of all battles is under way.''

Cruise missiles were used for the first time in warfare, fired from US warships in the Gulf.

Footage filmed from the missiles' noses as they homed in on their targets was transmitted across the world.Cruise missiles were used for

US, British and Saudi Arabian fighter planes, bombers and helicopters set out to destroy hundreds of targets.

These ranged from military headquarters and airfields, to bridges, government buildings, media outlets, communications centres and power plants.

Allied planes flew more than 116,000 sorties over the following six weeks, dropping an estimated total of 85,000 tons of bombs.

About 10% of these were so-called smart bombs, which are guided to their targets by a laser beam pointed from a second aircraft.

SCUD MISSILES, 1991

On Thursday 17 January, Iraq launched its first Scud missile strikes on Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel.

28 died when a Scud struck DhahranAnother Scud fired at US forces in Saudi Arabia was shot down by a US Patriot missile – the first of many mid-air interceptions.

Israel said it would not be drawn into retaliation, relying instead on batteries of US Patriot missiles hastily stationed on its territory.

A frenzied US mission to track down and destroy an unknown number of mobile Scud launchers in Iraq began as more missiles were fired at the two countries.

The most devastating attack was on 25 February, during the ground war, when a Scud struck a building at Dhahran US base in Saudi Arabia, killing 28 US military personnel.

In total, 39 Scud missiles were fired into Israel, causing damage but few casualties.

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES, 1991

The civilian death toll - dubbed collateral damage by US military officials - rose as allied forces continued to fly tens of thousands of sorties.

Iraq used civilians as human shieldsFrightened refugees arriving at the border with Jordan reported civilian deaths and said water and electricity supplies in Baghdad had been cut off.

Controversy flared about a destroyed factory, which Iraq claimed had been a baby milk plant. The scene outside the Amirya

US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, said the US was sure it was a biological weapons facility.

On Wednesday 13 February, a US stealth bomber dropped two laser-guided bombs on what the allies had pinpointed as an important command and control bunker.

But it turned out to be a shelter used by Iraqi civilians during the air raids. At least 315 people were killed, 130 of them children.

Meanwhile Saddam Hussein exploited the allies' mistakes to maximum propaganda effect, and also detained more Kuwaiti civilians as human shields at key military and industrial sites in Iraq.

GROUND WAR, 1991

On Sunday 24 February 1991, allied forces launched a combined ground, air and sea assault which overwhelmed the Iraqi army within 100 hours.

Oil wells blazed as the troops went inThe previous day Iraq had failed to meet a deadline for withdrawal and had set fire to hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells.

Allied troops swept into Iraq and Kuwait from several points along the Saudi Arabian border. Hundreds of tanks raced north to take on the Iraqi Republican Guard.

More forces took control of the highway running south from Basra to Kuwait, cutting off supply lines to Iraqi troops in Kuwait as marines and Saudi-led coalition troops pushed into the emirate itself. The "Highway of Death"

By 26 February, Iraq had announced it was withdrawing its forces from Kuwait, but still refused to accept all the UN resolutions passed against it.

Iraqi tanks, armoured vehicles, trucks and troops fleeing the allied onslaught formed huge queues on the main road north from Kuwait to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Allied forces bombed them from the air, killing thousands of troops in their vehicles in what became known as the "Highway of Death".

An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 Iraqis were killed during the ground war alone.

IRAQI CEASEFIRE, 1991

On 27 February 1991, jubilant Kuwaitis welcomed convoys of allied troops into the city.

Thousands of Iraqi prisoners surrenderedSpecial forces went in first, followed by Kuwaiti troops and then US marines.

At 2100 US time, President George Bush Snr announced a ceasefire from 0400 the following day.

Allied forces across Iraq had by this time captured tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers.

Many were hungry, exhausted and demoralised and surrendered with little resistance. The US estimated that 150,000 Iraqi soldiers had deserted.

Kuwaitis welcomed the allied forcesThe allies had lost 148 soldiers in battle, and another 145 in deaths described as "non-battle".

Estimates of Iraqi deaths range from 60,000 to 200,000 soldiers. Heaps of Iraqi corpses were buried in mass graves in the desert.

On 2 March the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution establishing the terms of the ceasefire.

These required Iraq to end all military action, to rescind its annexation of Kuwait, to disclose information about any stored chemical and biological weapons, to release all international prisoners and accept responsibility for the casualties and damage done during its occupation of Kuwait.

The next day, Iraqi commanders accepted the ceasefire terms formally at a meeting with US military leaders in a tent at the captured Iraqi military base of Safwan.

Saddam Hussein did not attend.

IRAQI UPRISINGS, 1991

Almost immediately after Iraq accepted the ceasefire, uprisings began to spread from dissident areas in the north and south of the country.

1.5 million Kurds fled IraqShia Muslims in Basra, Najaf and Karbala in southern Iraq took to the streets in protest against the regime.

Kurds in the north persuaded the local military to switch sides. Suleimaniyeh was the first large city to fall.

Within a week the Kurds controlled the Kurdish Autonomous Region and the nearby oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

In mid-February, President Bush Snr had called on the Iraqi people and military to "take matters into their own hands".

восстания в ИракеBut the hoped for US support never came. Instead, Iraqi helicopter gunships arrived.

INDICT, a group campaigning for Iraqi leaders to be tried for war crimes, says civilians and suspected rebels were executed en masse, and hospitals, schools, mosques, shrines and columns of escaping refugees were bombed and shelled.

According to the US, which has been criticised for allowing Saddam Hussein to continue using the military helicopters, between 30,000 and 60,000 people were killed.

In the north, 1.5 million Kurds fled across the mountains into Iran and Turkey. As the harsh conditions created a humanitarian catastrophe, the UN launched Operation Provide Comfort, air-dropping aid supplies to the refugees.

ENVIRONMENTAL COST, 1991 ONWARDS

A legacy of the 1991 Gulf War was one of the world's worst ever environmental disasters.

The post-war clean-up took a decadeAs the allies bombed Iraq, Saddam Hussein's occupying forces opened the taps of Kuwait's oil wells, spewing some eight million barrels of oil into the Gulf.

The Iraqis also set fire to at least 600 oil wells, creating a huge black cloud of smoke over Kuwait.

It took teams led by the oil industry fire expert Red Adair at least six months to put out the blazes and cap the wells.

And 320 "oil lakes" were left in the desert, which took much of the following decade to clean up. Sea birds, coral reefs and rare turtles were all casualties. Pollution hit sea wildlife severely

Kuwaiti doctors also suspect the choking pall of smoke of causing a significant rise in cancers, heart disease and respiratory problems.

In Iraq, concerns have been raised about the pollution caused by the allied forces' use of ammunition and shells enhanced with depleted uranium.

Iraq claims that the radioactive dust left behind when these explode has caused a nine-fold increase in cancer near the southern city of Basra.

Veteran Shaun Rusling has ledSome Gulf War veterans blame DU for illnesses they have suffered since returning from the Gulf.

These claims have not been proven, but even if the radioactivity is not to blame, depleted uranium is a highly toxic heavy metal and has left a legacy of pollution.

CONTAINMENT, 1991 - 1998

The US and UK used no-fly zones on top of UN-backed economic sanctions and weapons inspections as a policy of "containment".

US and UK planes patrol the no-fly zonesA UN mandate for weapons inspections was established in a resolution passed in April 1991.

The first operation by the inspections body, Unscom, took place in June, setting in train seven years of monitoring.

Many prohibited weapons and production facilities were destroyed and dismantled.

The inspectors discovered facilities that Iraqi officials had previously denied having and uncovered prohibited weapons that they had attempted to hide.

Inspectors prepare to destroyA no-fly zone in the north of Iraq was declared in March 1991 to protect Iraqi Kurds after Saddam Hussein's regime had put down their uprising.

A similar zone was established in 1992 in the south, after Iraq continued offensives against the Shia Muslims there.

British and US aircraft have patrolled these zones ever since, bombing air defences when Iraqi radar has locked onto the planes.

The northern no-fly zone was extended in 1996 following an Iraqi offensive in support of one of two Kurdish factions which were then fighting each other.

In June 1993, US President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in response to an assassination attempt on George Bush Snr in Kuwait two months earlier.

Some of the suspects arrested in connection with the attempted car bombing reportedly confessed that they had been working for Iraqi intelligence.

OIL-FOR-FOOD, 1991-2002

Oil-for-Food was introduced by the UN to counter the impact of economic sanctions on the people of Iraq.

Iraqi women mourn their childrenThe sanctions came on top of damage to the country's infrastructure from the war and the effect has been devastating.

But it has been difficult to ascertain how much sanctions are responsible for the poverty and deprivation Iraqis have suffered since the Gulf War.

Unicef estimated in 1999 that child mortality in Iraq had doubled since before the Gulf War.

But reports of Iraqi children dying in poorly equipped hospitals have also been manipulated to powerful effect by Saddam Hussein.

It became clear that the elite had access to luxuries and Iraqi military spending remained high.

Oil-for-Food has given IraqisIn 1991 the UN first offered to allow Iraq to sell a small amount of oil in return for humanitarian supplies. But it was not until the offer was increased to $2bn in 1995 that Saddam Hussein accepted.

The programme meant ordinary Iraqis had access to monthly basic food rations, although the first shipments of food did not arrive until March 1997.

In 1998, the co-ordinator of the programme, Denis Halliday, resigned, saying sanctions were bankrupt as a concept and damaged innocent people.

And his successor, Hans von Sponeck, quit his post in 2000, saying sanctions had created "a true human tragedy".

In 1999 the ceiling on the amount of oil Iraq can export was completely lifted, although strict controls remain on imports of "dual use" items which could potentially be used in the manufacture of prohibited weapons.

DESERT FOX, 1998

In December 1998, the US and Britain launched a three-day bombing campaign on Iraqi targets.

The aim was to 'degrade' Iraqi weaponsThe previous months had seen a mounting crisis in relations between the UN weapons inspections body, Unscom, and the Iraqi regime.

Iraq had obstructed inspectors, denying them access to so-called "presidential palaces" and refusing to co-operate.

It repeatedly accused the body of spying for the US and Israel.

The UN later acknowledged that inspectors had been passing information on to US intelligence services.

An Iraqi child amid bomb damageIn the middle of December, Unscom chief Richard Butler reported that Iraq had continued to obstruct inspectors.

Within hours, UN staff were evacuated from Baghdad and airstrikes launched.

The official aim of the cruise missile and bombing attacks on some 100 targets across Iraq was to "degrade" Saddam Hussein's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction.

As well as facilities associated with chemical and biological weapons production, the targets included sites housing the regime's secret police and elite Republican Guard forces, airfields, air defence sites and a Basra oil refinery.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said 62 military personnel had been killed and 180 injured.

US President Bill Clinton faced criticism at home and abroad for undertaking military action at a time when he was under fire over his relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

INSPECTORS BARRED, 1998 - 2002

Within days of Operation Desert Fox, Iraq said it would not let Unscom inspectors back in.

Fears about weapons programmes grewCalls for the body to be restructured or replaced grew as the row about its role in US and other countries' intelligence gathering increased.

In June 1999, Unscom head Richard Butler stepped down as his contract ended.

Six months later, Unscom's successor body, Unmovic, was established, but Iraq refused it entry.

With no inspections in Iraq, uncertainty grew about possible new weapons programmes.

SECOND WAR AND SADDAM'S DOWNFALL, 2003

In November 2002, after weeks of wrangling, the UN Security Council passed resolution 1441. It was designed to force Iraq to give up all weapons of mass destruction and threatening "serious consequences" if it did not comply. Iraq accepted the terms of the resolution and weapons inspections resumed.

The toppling of SaddamIn early February 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN that inspections were not achieving the disarmament of Iraq. The US and UK pressed for a new resolution authorising military action against Iraq. France and Russia opposed this resolution, and threatened to veto it.

The resolution never came to a vote and early on 20 March, the US-led campaign to topple Iraqi Saddam Hussein began.

President George W Bush addressed the American nation and vowed to "disarm Iraq and to free its people".

Hundreds of thousands of coalitionThe beginning of the campaign drew a barrage of criticism from world leaders, including those of France, Russia and China. There were also massive public demonstrations against the war in major cities across the globe.

The first aerial attack on Baghdad was on a much smaller scale than had been expected for the opening of the conflict. It was thought to have been mounted at short notice when US military planners spotted an opportunity to target five members of the Iraqi regime, including Saddam Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay.

Ground forces invaded from Kuwait, with UK troops moving to secure key southern towns and US forces moving on towards Baghdad. They did, though, meet pockets of resistance from Iraqi troops.

As troops advanced on Baghdad, Saddam Hussein issued statements of defiance, while his officials warned that the capital would be their graveyard.

In early April, US forces reached the outskirts of Baghdad and took the international airport. Shortly after, the government of Saddam Hussein lost control over the capital. US tanks were able to drive unhindered into public squares in the centre of Baghdad and in a symbolic moment, an American armoured vehicle helped a crowd of cheering Iraqis pull down a huge statue of Saddam Hussein. The hunt was then on for the Iraqi leader, whose whereabouts remained a mystery.

President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on 1 May.

SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED, DECEMBER 2003

On 13 December 2003, the former Iraqi president was tracked down to a hole in the ground near his hometown of Tikrit and captured in a swoop by US forces.

Saddam Hussein was found with a long, grey beardWithin hours of receiving a tip-off, the US had positioned 600 troops ready for "Operation Red Dawn".

Intensive searches of farmland near the town of al-Dawr revealed Saddam Hussein in an underground hide-out, about six to eight feet (1.8m to 2.5m) deep, after several months on the run.

He was armed with a pistol, but surrendered without a fight and confirmed his identity to the troops.

The entrance to the hole where"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!" announced Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, prompting scenes of jubilation in many parts of the country.

Images of the former president having his unkempt hair searched for lice and his mouth inspected were televised across the world.

"In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over," said US president George Bush, although he warned that it did not mean the end of violence in Iraq.

He vowed that Saddam would "face the justice he denied to millions".

IRAQ IN TURMOIL 2003-

In the months following President Bush's declaration that major combat operations had ended, Iraq descends into disorder and chaos.

Car bombings are an everyday threatLooting and lawlessness rack large swathes of the country. A insurgency comprised of disparate tribal militias, Saddam loyalists and foreign Islamic radicals begin a guerrilla campaign of attacks directed at coalition forces, Shia and Kurdish Iraqis, and Westerners.

Citing a lack of manpower, the US army does little to stop the looting while the dissolution of the Iraqi army and Ba'ath party structure leaves many areas of the country in a state of anarchy.

In August 2003, a truck bomb destroys the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad killing 23 people including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, prompting the organisation to withdraw from Iraq.

Despite the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003, violence continues unabated.

Jordanian born militant Zarqawi was linked to dozens of murders and kidnappingsIn March 2004, a wave of suicide bomb attacks on Shia pilgrims attending a religious festival in Karbala leaves 140 dead. April to May sees a Shia uprising against the coalition by forces loyal to Moqtada Sadr, while US troops lay siege to the town of Falluja which had fallen under the control of Sunni militants.

In June, photographic evidence emerges of Iraqi detainees being abused by US military guards in Baghdad's Abu Graib prison.

The same month, the US hands power to an interim Iraqi administration headed by Iyad Allawi. But in August fighting breaks out in Najaf, and in November the US begins another major operation against insurgents in Falluja.

Jordanian born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi rises to prominence as the self-styled leader of "Al-Qaeda in Iraq". Zarqawi orchestrates a high-profile campaign of kidnappings and attacks, including the beheadings of American Nick Berg and Briton Ken Bigley - grim footage of which is published on the internet.

In January 2005 hopes of a watershed come as 8 million Iraqis vote in the country's first free elections for a Transitional National Assembly.

However, violence continues to spiral as the year progresses, with increasing numbers of sectarian killings and attacks on coalition forces. Some cities become no-go areas for all but the heaviest armed troops.

In July a report by the non-governmental group Iraq Body Count suggests that some 25,000 people may have died since the 2003 US-led invasion.

The following month the political process hits an impasse when the draft constitution is endorsed by Shia and Kurdish representatives, but not the significant Sunni minority.

In January 2006 the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance emerges as winner of the country's first elections for a full term assembly, but fails to gain an overall majority.

Four months of political deadlock follow, only ending when newly re-elected President Talabani asks Shia compromise candidate Nouri Maliki to form a new government

Violence and lawlessness continue to increase. In May and June, the UN estimates that around 100 civilians are being killed every day.

The death of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi in a US airstrike in June does little to deter the wider insurgency.

In October US Major General William Caldwell paints a gloomy picture of the deteriorating security situation in Baghdad, revealing a 22% increase in attacks despite a fresh military initiative.

In November, more than 200 people are killed in a wave of car bombings in mostly Shia areas of the capital in the worst attack in the city since 2003. Some media organisations around the world begin to openly refer to Iraq being in a state of "civil war".

The following month, the Iraq Study Group delivers a report to President Bush that the situation in the country is "grave and deteriorating".

It warns that Iraq is facing the prospect of sliding chaos, which could trigger the collapse of the government and possibly a humanitarian crisis.

SADDAM HUSSEIN ON TRIAL 2005-06

Nearly two years after his capture by US forces, Saddam Hussein appears before Iraq's Special Tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity.

Saddam Hussein refused to recognise the court's authorityThe charges relate to the killing of 140 men in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1988, following a failed assassination attempt.

The deposed Iraqi leader cuts a belligerant figure in court, repeatedly clashing with the judge, refusing to follow procedure and questioning the tribunal's legitimacy.

The defence argue that the Dujail men were sentenced to death after a fair trial and that such an action was a legitimate response against people seeking to assassinate a head of state.

During the trial, three of Saddam's lawyers are assassinated, prompting a boycott of the court by their colleagues, while Saddam himself goes on hunger strike.

A second trial began in August 2006Critics of the trial argue that the court is not following legal standards by only requiring a conviction based on it being "satisfied" of Saddam's guilt rather than proving it beyond reasonable doubt, while there are also concerns that some prosecution witnesses appear to have been coached.

In August a second, separate trial opens relating to the 1987-88 anti-Kurdish offensive "Operation Anfal", in which more than 100,000 people are thought to have died.

Saddam refuses to enter a plea in this case and again questions the court's legitimacy.

On 5 November, the judge in the Dujail trial finds Saddam Hussein guilty and sentences him to death by hanging.

The execution is carried out on 30 December 2006.

A crime against humanity is a term in international law that refers to acts of persecution or any large scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offence above all others.

The Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum states that crimes against humanity "are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. However, murder, extermination, torture, rape, political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but may fall short of meriting the stigma attaching to the category of crimes under discussion."

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