Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti,was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party,and later,the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization,the Iraqi Ba'ath Party,which espoused Ba'athism,a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is an Iraqi former diplomat and politician. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to 2001. He came to worldwide prominence around the 200 invasion of Iraq,during which he was the Minister of Information under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,acting as spokesman for the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and Saddam's government. He has also been nicknamed Baghdad Bob or Comical Ali for his notable and colorful television appearances as the Information Minister of Iraq.
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq,from 17 July 1968 to 16 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party –Iraq Region,which espoused Ba'athism,a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician. He served as the vice president of Iraq from 2014 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018. Previously he was interim prime minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and the president of the Governing Council of Iraq in 2003.
The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968,and was the ultimate decision-making body in Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the country,with the Chairman and Vice Chairman chosen by a two-thirds majority of the council. The Chairman was also then declared the President of Iraq and he was then allowed to select a Vice President. After Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq in 1979 the council was led by deputy chairman Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri,deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz,and Taha Yassin Ramadan,who had known Saddam since the 1960s.
Abdul Razzaq Said al-Naif was an Iraqi military officer and general and was briefly Prime Minister of Iraq during 1968 until he was deposed. He was assassinated on orders of Saddam Hussein.
Sectarian violence in Iraq developed as a result of rising sectarian tensions between the different religious and ethnic groups of Iraq,most notably the conflict between the Shi'i Muslim majority and the Sunni Muslim minority within the country.
Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed al-Muwali,aka Khadr al-Sabahi,is a former senior member of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Ahmed currently has a million dollar bounty placed on his head as one of Iraq's most wanted men accused of funding and leading resistance operations. He is the leader of al-Awda;an underground Ba'athist movement in Iraq.
A presidential referendum was held in Iraq on October 15,1995. It was the first direct presidential election under the rule of Saddam Hussein,who had seized power through the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) in 1979. Taking the form of a referendum with no other candidates,the election involved giving voters paper ballots that said:"Do you approve of President Saddam Hussein being the President of the Republic?" They then used pens to mark "yes" or "no". The next day,Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri,Hussein's deputy in the ruling RCC,announced the incumbent had won 99.96% of some 8.4 million valid votes cast. Officially,3,052 people voted against him,and turnout was 99.47%. The international community reacted with widespread incredulity to these figures.
After World War I,Iraq passed from the failing Ottoman Empire to British control. Kingdom of Iraq was established under the British Mandate in 1932. In the 14 July Revolution of 1958,the king was deposed and the Republic of Iraq was declared. In 1963,the Ba'ath Party staged a coup d'état and was in turn toppled by another coup in the same year,but managed to retake power in 1968. Saddam Hussein took power in 1979 and ruled Iraq for the remainder of the century,during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s,the Invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War of 1990 to 1991 and the UN sanction during the 1990s. Saddam was removed from power in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Ba'athist Iraq,officially the Iraqi Republic (1968–1992) and later the Republic of Iraq (1992–2003),was the Iraqi state between 1968 and 2003 under the rule of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. This period began with high economic growth,but ended with the country facing severe levels of socio-political isolation and economic stagnation. By the late 1990s,the average annual income had decreased drastically due to a combination of external and internal factors. UNSC sanctions against Iraq,in particular,were widely criticized for negatively impacting the country's quality of life,prompting the establishment of the Oil-for-Food Programme. The Ba'athist period formally came to an end with the 2003 invasion of Iraq,and the Ba'ath Party has since been indefinitely banned across the country.
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party,also referred to as the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath movement,is a neo-Ba'athist political party which was headquartered in Baghdad,Iraq,until 2003. It is one of two parties which emerged from the 1966 split of the original Ba'ath Party.
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party –Iraq Region,officially the Iraqi Regional Branch,is an Iraqi Ba'athist political party founded in 1951 by Fuad al-Rikabi. It was the Iraqi regional branch of the original Ba'ath Party,before changing its allegiance to the Iraqi-dominated Ba'ath movement following the 1966 split within the original party. The party was officially banned following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003,but despite this it still continues to function underground.
The 17 July Revolution was a bloodless coup in Iraq in 1968 led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr,Abd ar-Razzaq an-Naif,and Abd ar-Rahman al-Dawud that ousted President Abdul Rahman Arif and Prime Minister Tahir Yahya and brought the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power. Ba'athists involved in the coup as well as the subsequent purge of the moderate faction led by Naif included Hardan al-Tikriti,Salih Mahdi Ammash,and Saddam Hussein,the future President of Iraq. The coup was primarily directed against Yahya,an outspoken Nasserist who exploited the political crisis created by the June 1967 Six-Day War to push Arif's moderate government to nationalize the Western-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) in order to use Iraq's "oil as a weapon in the battle against Israel." Full nationalization of the IPC did not occur until 1972,under the Ba'athist administration. In the aftermath of the coup,the new Iraqi government consolidated power by denouncing alleged American and Israeli machinations,publicly executing 14 people including 9 Iraqi Jews on fabricated espionage charges amidst a broader purge,and working to expand Iraq's traditionally close relations with the Soviet Union.
Abdullah Sallum al-Samarra'i was an Iraqi Ba'athist politician and leading member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He was a member of the Regional Command from 1964 to 1970,when he was expelled.
Abd al-Khaliq al-Samarra'i was an Iraqi Ba'athist politician and leading member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He was a member of the Regional Command from 1964 to 1973,and considered a serious rival of Saddam Hussein for leadership of the civilian faction of the Ba'ath Party. He was arrested in 1973 for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the government,and executed in 1979 by Hussein.
Salah Al-Mukhtar is the foremost resisting Ba'athist leader of Iraq. He was Deputy General secretary of the Arab League and Saddam Hussein's ambassador to many countries.
Munif al-Razzaz was a Jordanian-Syrian physician and politician who was the second,and last,Secretary General of the National Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party,having been elected to the post at the 8th National Congress held in April 1965.
The 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge or Comrades Massacre was a public purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party orchestrated on 22 July 1979 by then-president Saddam Hussein six days after his arrival to the presidency of the Iraqi Republic on 16 July 1979.
Ali Salih al-Sa'di was an Iraqi politician. He was General Secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party from the late 1950s until the November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état. From February 8,1963 until the November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état,he was Deputy Prime Minister under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr,Minister of the Interior and as Commander of the National Guard.
