Saddam Hussein's Record of Infamy Ends

Saddled with a war debt estimated at $75 billion and angered by Kuwait's oil policies, including alleged slant drilling to tap reserves under the two countries' disputed border, Hussein invaded the emirate on Aug. 2, 1990, and declared it a province of Iraq. When he ignored subsequent withdrawal demands by the U.N. Security Council, President George H.W. Bush formed a broad coalition -- including several Arab states -- to evict him. In January 1991, the coalition launched an assault dubbed Operation Desert Storm.

During more than a month of intense aerial bombardment, mostly by U.S. and British planes and missiles, Hussein ordered the firing of Iraqi missiles at Israel, hoping to break the coalition by provoking Israeli retaliation. But Israel heeded U.S. calls to refrain from striking back, and the coalition held together.

In February 1991, a U.S.-led ground force drove Hussein's army out of Kuwait and occupied southern Iraq. As they were withdrawing, the Iraqis carried out Hussein's orders to torch Kuwait's oil wells, leaving behind a looted country choking under a pall of thick black smoke. The fires burned out of control for months, causing widespread pollution.

Following his defeat, Hussein accepted a peace deal that required him to dismantle any banned weapons programs and submit to "no fly zones" in the southern and northern parts of the country. U.N. sanctions also restricted imports, and oil exports were put under the control of a U.N. "oil-for-food" program.

Nevertheless, Hussein claimed victory in what he dubbed "the mother of all battles." He moved to mercilessly crush rebellions by Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, who had been encouraged by Bush to rise up against the Iraqi dictator. U.S. forces refrained from intervening militarily, and thousands of Shiites were killed in the south, while large numbers of Kurds were forced to flee their homes in the north.

After Bush lost his bid for reelection, Hussein allegedly attempted to have him assassinated during a private visit to Kuwait in April 1993. President Bill Clinton retaliated with a missile strike on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters.

More U.S. strikes followed in late 1998 when Hussein barred U.N. weapons inspectors from visiting certain sites.

In the meantime, Hussein kept a tight grip on power, reportedly putting down several attempts to depose him. Two of his sons-in-law, both top military officers, defected to Jordan in 1995 and were later killed when they were persuaded to return to Iraq.

Among the leading participants in Hussein's reign of terror were his two sons, Uday and Qusay. In particular, Uday, the eldest of Hussein's children, earned a reputation as a sadist and a psychopath who committed murders and rapes with impunity. However, he crossed the line when, in a drunken rage, he bludgeoned his father's personal valet to death at a 1988 party, allegedly for having introduced Hussein to a younger woman, Samira Shahbandar, who became his second wife. Hussein briefly imprisoned his son for the murder before dispatching him to the Iraqi Embassy in Switzerland, which later expelled him.

Shahbandar was married at the time she and Hussein met, but her husband was persuaded to divorce her. She and Hussein had one son, Ali.

Hussein was also linked with two other women. There were unconfirmed reports that he married one or both of them, but neither is known to have borne him any children.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush soon turned his attention to Iraq, suspecting Hussein of harboring weapons of mass destruction that could one day be used in an even more devastating strike on U.S. soil. He declared the country part of an "axis of evil" and renewed a push for Iraqi disarmament.