Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) was an Iraqi political leader who set himself up in 1979 via a bloody purge as dictator of Iraq, ruling until unseated by the U.S. led invasion of the Iraq War in 2003. Following his arrest after the Iraq War, Hussein was tried by the new government and executed, by hanging, on 30 December 2006. Saddam's full name was Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti.

Saddam Hussein also had two grown sons at the time of the 2003 Iraq war. Qusay Hussein (1966–2003) was his younger son who had become heir-apparent and was chief of the Iraqi Republican Guard. Uday Hussein (1964-2003) was the elder son and still a part of the inner circle. He organized and led Saddam's Fedayeen irregulars for the Iraq War, wreaking havoc by conducting unskilled but fanatical raids on U.S. supply lines. Uday also spearheaded the Iraqi Olympic committee and was known for torturing athletes who lost. Some of Uday's cruelty has been attributed to constant pain from wounds suffered in a 1995 assassination attempt.

Uday and Qusay were killed fighting with U.S. troops on July 22, 2003.

Security organization

Hussein was concerned with the threat of coup d'etat and assassination attempts and built a complex security organization to protect him. Parts of the security organization also dealt with extremely sensitive matters such as weapons of mass destruction; they were the key to the concealment and bluffing operations with United Nations inspectors such as UNSCOM.

Essentially, there were five rings of protection, ranging from personal bodyguards to large formations capable of putting down military coups. The innermost rings were headed by persons of family or clan loyalty, but, even so, the organizations were split and cross-checked one another.

The Fedayeen

A potent, if in an unexpected way, part of the Iraqi defenses during the Iraq War were the Saddam Fedayeen ("Saddam's Men of Sacrifice"), directed by Saddam's son, Uday Hussein and the operational control of Gen. Iyad Futiyeh Rawi. They were estimated to have 30,000 to 40,000 fighters, although it was difficult to distinguish between the irregulars of the Fedayeen and Arab, especially Syrian, mercenaries. The group was started about 1995 and was used by Uday for personal purposes, smuggling both on behalf of the regime and for private enterprise. The Fedayeen were widely reported to operate a death squad that conducted extra-judicial executions. It was accused of an anti-prostitution campaign that beheaded women. "Many of the victims were not engaged in prostitution, but were targeted for political reasons," according to a March 20 State Department report. They may also act as enforcers of loyalty in regular military units

Members were mostly young men in their teens or twenties, with light infantry weapons such as rifles, machine guns, and had light antitank weapons, such as recoilless rifles and grenade#rocket propelled grenade|rocket propelled grenades, which could not damage the main armor of a tank but could hurt lighter vehicles, or, with a lucky shot, damage the thinner side or top armor of a tank. Some of their weapons, such as machine guns or recoilless rifles, were mounted on unarmored pickup trucks, called "technicals" after similarly armed vehicles in Somalia. Irregulars also drove explosive-laden civilian vehicles to be used in suicide attacks.

Members dressed in civilian clothing. Pentagon officials said on March 24, 2003 that the Fedayeen, who are considered very loyal to the regime, also act as enforcers in regular army units, threatening to kill soldiers who try to surrender.

Some were first encountered on April 5, 2003, by the first Iraq War, major combat phase#First Thunder Run|Thunder Run task force. They were usually in civilian clothes"They seemed to have no training, no discipline, no coordinated tactics....nor did the Iraqis seem to understand the lethal and accurate firepower of the M1 Abrams (tank)|M1 Abrams tanks and M2 Bradley (armored fighting vehicles)|M2 Bradley infantry firghting vehicles." They would hide in brick bunkers or behind thick trees, and were unaware that not just the armored vehiches' main guns, but their heavy machine guns, easily penetrated their cover. They would also hide among civilians and, when their fire was returned, noncombatants were killed.

Use against the U.S.

U.S. forces had expected them to be used in house-to-house fighting in cities. Instead, apparently without regard to casualties, they moved from fruitless attacks on tanks outside the cities, to much more significant attacks on the less well defended resupply convoys. A significant amount of U.S. combat power had to be diverted to protecting those convoys.