Saddam Hussein

British  

/ sæˈdæm /

noun

1. See Hussein

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Hussein, Saddam Cultural  

1. Dictator of Iraq who seized power in 1979. With the intent of making Iraq the dominant power in the oil-rich Persian Gulf, Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. The latter invasion provoked a military response from the United Nations, led by the United States, which drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991. (See Persian Gulf War.)

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Although widely loathed outside the Arab world and feared by most Arab governments, Hussein retains some of his appeal to the Arab masses because of his resolute defiance of the United States and western Europe.

Hussein's cruelty and deviousness have become legendary. He has ruthlessly suppressed both Shi'ite Muslims and Kurds within Iraq; in 1987 and 1988 he authorized poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages.

Example Sentences

Bush’s 48-hour ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq had just expired.

From Salon

In Iraq, after a U.S. invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, sectarian leaders stepped into the vacuum.

From Los Angeles Times

But the MEK was long considered a terrorist group by Washington and enjoys little support inside Iran, where it is reviled for allying with Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the devastating 1980-88 war.

From Barron's

Iraq was a state with deep sectarian divisions that was largely dominated by a single dictator: Saddam Hussein.

From Los Angeles Times

Khomeini, then 76, needed a new bolthole after being expelled from his exiled base in the Iraqi city of Najaf by the country's dictator Saddam Hussein.

From Barron's