The Sun
SADDAM Hussein’s execution ended the depraved life of one of the world’s most bloodthirsty tyrants.
Gassing his own population, sending opponents to their death live on TV and a serial rapist, psychopathic son who tortured the national team’s footballers were all part of his twisted world.
Saddam was president of Iraq from 1979 until 2003 when the US and the UK invaded.
He was dragged out of a hiding hole, put on trial for crimes against humanity and sentenced to death in November 2006.
And on this day 15 years ago, he was hanged at a military base, with his execution infamously captured on mobile phone as his guards taunted him.
More than a decade and a half after his dark shadow was final lifted from Iraq, we look back at the life of the savage dictator and his family, who terrorised their own population for over two decades.
OPPONENTS TAKEN OUT AND KILLED ON TV
Ruthless Saddam had risen to power in Iraq through violence and intimidation.
After he cemented his rule in 1979, he put on chilling display of ruthlessness in which his opponents were taken out and then shot – live on national television.
About 100 members of his ruling Ba’ath Party were made to gather in a smoke filled room to listen to a speech denouncing a conspiracy against him.
He told the audience: “The dreams of the conspirators are many but be assured I will pick up my gun and fight to the end.”
The alleged ring leader of the plot, who had clearly been tortured, was then brought into the room.
He began reading a confession in which he begged to be executed for his crimes and then started naming co-conspirators.
One-by-one, 50 were made to stand up by plainclothes secret police officers and escorted out of the room.
Saddam himself calmly watched proceedings from the stage, smoking a cigar as he toyed with the terrified audience.
Professor Frederick Coolidge, a psychologist, said: “That fear that he evoked from these people, he enjoyed.
“He knew he was going to have unrivalled power.”
Others were then all handed guns and told to go and execute those who had been fingered in the plot.
Those petrified party members who had been kept guessing whether their names were to be read out, all began chanting “long live Saddam Hussein”.
For Saddam it was a case of job done.
One observer said: “Not even Hitler would have thought of that.”
GASSING HIS OWN POPULATION
Saddam ruled Iraq with an iron fist and brutally crushed any glimmer of opposition or hint of rebellion.
The dictator had begun a war with Iran in 1980 and in 1988 Iraq’s Kurds rose up against him.
In retaliation, Saddam ordered chemical weapons be used on the civilian population in the city of Halabja.
A combination of mustard gas and nerve agents was dropped, resulting in the death of 5000 people, many of them in excruciating agony.
Survivors recounted the horror what happened when the gas reached them, which at first seemed to smell like apples.
Victims took minutes die in agony as they coughed up green vomit, their faces found contorted from breathing the deadly gas.
Reports at the time talked of disorientated survivors, wandering among the corpses and crying out for their loved ones
Images of injured survivors with burned eyes and skin peeling off from their faces, arms, and legs in big pieces shocked the world.
PSYCHOPATHIC SON
Saddam’s sons Uday, 39, and 37-year-old Qusay both died in a shootout with US forces in July 2003.
For Iraqis, the death of Uday was a joyous moment when they could finally be free of the psychopathic whims of the 6ft 6in rapist monster.
He acquired a reputation for sadism that even made his father believe he wasn’t fit to succeed him as dictator.
Despite not knowing anything about the game, Uday took his duties as head of the Iraqi football federation seriously.
He demanded success from the national team’s players – or they would pay a heavy price.
Lost games meant being flogged with electric cable or being made to wash in raw sewage.
Other punishments include being forced to kick around a concrete football during 12 hour training sessions in the stifling heat.
After one lost World Cup qualifier, the squad had the soles of their feet beaten.
When not terrorising the national football team, Uday spent his time partying, acquiring a reputation for violence and hard drinking.
His two marriages ended when he beat up his wives and he would regularly rape women unlucky enough to catch his eye.
Uday once shot an uncle in the leg and bludgeoned one of his father’s bodyguards to death.
He live in a palace decorated in Arabian nights style complete with erotic murals and operated his own private torture chamber.
