Saddam hussein which country

Saddam forced the ailing President to retire a decade later, and had himself sworn in as leader of the republic. To ensure his control, Saddam ordered the execution of dozens of top ranking soldiers. In an attempt to wrest the Shatt-al-Arab waterway from Iran, Saddam, armed by the West, declared war on Tehran in The battle ended in a stalemate, eight years later, with an estimated one million declared dead. His soldiers crossed the Kuwaiti border in August , only to be bombed into retreat by a huge US-led coalition four months later.

The campaign was known as Desert Storm. Since the international coalition did not attempt to topple Saddam, his regime continued to brutally suppress Kurds and Shiites. Although Saddam survived attempted coups in and , and a major defection in , UN sanctions hurt Iraq and prevented its resurgence as a power in the Gulf. However, the United Nations failed to compel Saddam to comply with a string of special resolutions obliging Iraq to destroy its nuclear, chemical and biological stockpiles and research facilities under supervision.

During the s, Saddam repeatedly challenged the Security Council over the implementation of these resolutions, never giving an inch strategically but always leaving enough wriggle room for last-minute tactical concessions when confronted with the threat of force. As Saddam continued to defy the warnings, the United States - together with a number of key allies - launched an attack which quickly toppled Iraq's Ba'athist regime. Iraq - International Crisis Group. Iraq analysis - Reidar Visser.

Restoring Iraq's wetlands. Republic of Iraq Capital: Baghdad. Barham Salih has been a leading Kurdish politician for decades. Image source, Getty Images. Read full media profile. He participated in several coup attempts, finally helping to install his cousin as dictator of Iraq in July Saddam took over for his cousin 11 years later. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country.

Obsessed with security, he is said to have moved among them often, always sleeping in secret locations. In the early s, Saddam involved his country in an eight-year war with Iran, which is estimated to have taken more than a million lives on both sides. After he invaded Kuwait in , a U.

Throughout the s, Saddam faced both U. With Iraq continuing to face allegations of illegal oil sales and weapons-building, the United States again invaded the country in March , this time with the expressed purpose of ousting Saddam and his regime.

Five months later, on December 13, , U. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. After standing trial, he was executed on December 30, Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.