Saddam's shadow lifted from Iraq

The 66-year-old did not give up without a struggle, recording numerous tapes calling on his people to rise up and eject the coalition ‘invaders’.

Saddam’s most recent call came on November 17, when he urged rebels to escalate attacks against the occupation and “agents brought by foreign armies” - an apparent reference to Iraqis supporting the coalition.

Following the broadcast, aired on Al-Arabiya television and believed to be genuine, the US-appointed Iraqi Government accused the news station of “inciting murder” and took it off the airwaves.

In an earlier tape, recorded in July, Saddam surfaced to mourn the loss of his sons Qusay and Uday and pronounced them “martyrs”.

They were killed by US troops on July 22 in a fierce gunfight in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Holding second and third place in the Allied pack of cards of most wanted, their deaths were a major coup.

Saddam called their murders “good news”.

“That is the hope of every fighter for God’s sake as another group of noble souls of the martyrs have ascended to their creator.”

Saddam, who came to power in 1979, lived and ruled by oppressing his people, building up an all-powerful apparatus to reinforce his authority.

Saddam, ironically meaning “the one who confronts” viewed himself as a second Saladin, the great defender of Islam against the Crusaders.

His regime employed a ruthlessness that came with a burgeoning paranoia and an obsessive need for absolute control.

Because of it he became the world’s most notorious and recognisable leader, his gun-toting, black-bereted moustachioed image visible everywhere.

At the same time he was one of the world’s most complex and unfathomable characters, a writer of romantic fiction and an admirer of one of the countries which brought him down, Britain.

He arrived to confront the world on April 28, 1937, in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, north of Baghdad, and grew up in a peasant family.

He was very young when his father died and his uncle Khayrallah took Saddam under his wing.

Saddam reportedly could not read by the age of 10 but it was his uncle, an army officer and Arab nationalist, who encouraged his education.

But the young loner did not plan on earning respect through academic diligence. He was already learning other skills that would become more important in his later life.

He was born into the al-Khatab clan, an extended family noted for its cunning and violence, and reportedly earned the respect of those around him in a way that would impress his clan – by shooting and trying to kill the teacher who beat him at school.

In those days, when Saddam used to go fishing with dynamite, all he apparently wanted when he grew up was a “Jeep, a hunting rifle and a pair of binoculars”.

He joined the fledgling Arab Socialist Baath or Renaissance Party in 1957, at a time of widespread anti-British and anti-Western sentiment.

A year later he played a part in the attempted assassination of a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim.

By then he was a trusted member of the Baath party, and when it swept to power in the 1960s he took his place at the top table.

After achieving power in 1979, he used fear and intimidation to cement his rule, proving himself willing to kill his own people if it would help his cause.

United Nations sanctions aimed at his regime increased his already deeply-entrenched “siege mentality”.

As the years went by, he came to trust no one, keeping around him the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Brigade Special Republican Guard, ready to take a bullet for their leader.

Even more important were the Amn al-Khas, the Special Security Service.

In case all else failed, Saddam kept a pistol stuffed in his belt.

While in power he developed a highly careful security regime, moving daily among his 24 palaces to avoid being attacked by enemies inside and outside his state.

He built up a complex system of underground bunkers, and used a number of look-alikes to confuse potential assassins.

While his “beloved” people suffered, Saddam enjoyed an opulent lifestyle.

He had alcohol, fresh steaks and seafood flown in twice a week. He liked wine with his meals, the drink of choice being Mateus rosé.

He was careful not to let anyone outside his most trusted circle of family and aides see him drinking, as alcohol is forbidden by Islam.

Britain, which took over running Iraq after the First World War, clearly influenced him.

He quoted Sir Winston Churchill, loved London buses, and had a penchant for Quality Street chocolates.

He was said to sleep only four or five hours a night, waking to swim in one of the pools built in his palaces, which helped his bad back. It also helped keep him in shape to satisfy his epic vanity.

At 6ft 2ins he was tall for an Arab and had a tattoo of three small blue dots on his right hand, given to village children when they are young.

He dyed his hair black and avoided using his reading glasses in public. Aides printed his speeches in huge letters, just a few lines per page.

Saddam was married for nearly 40 years to Sajida, daughter of his mentor uncle.

She bore him two sons and three daughters, and remained loyal to him, but he had relationships with other women.

He spent most of his time poring over reports from his secret police at his immaculately tidy desk, or meeting his high officials.

Now and again he would visit workers in factories but was so used to being fed what he wanted to hear from frightened ministers that he only saw what he wanted to see.

He closely monitored CNN, Sky, al-Jazeera and the BBC, but also enjoyed films, particularly those involving intrigue, assassination, and conspiracy. These included The Day Of The Jackal, The Conversation and Enemy Of The State.

In recent years the dictator wrote and published romantic fables, including Zabibah and The King And The Fortified Castle.

His latest book, Men And A City, sold well in Baghdad bookshops in the run-up to war.

Autobiographical, it told of his life up to the age of 22, including episodes designed to make his people fawn at his heroic drive, such as how he broke his hand falling from a donkey but went on to become a master horseman just a few years later.

The coalition’s war against the dictator dealt a fatal blow, not only to his regime, but also to his vanity and the place in history he so coveted.

One of the iconic images from the conflict was the destruction of a giant statue of Saddam in Baghdad.

Aided by Allied troops, Iraqis brought down the towering effigy, dancing and cheering as it collapsed.

Many took off their shoes and slapped the image – the ultimate offensive symbol in Islam.

A few days after the war officially ended in May, Saddam released a recorded tape, calling Iraqis to arms and urging them to fight to the death.

These tapes came sporadically over the months, aired via the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya.

But his final defiant words were not enough to avoid the relentless Allied hunt – seeking him out dead or alive.