Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

On November 5, 2006, Saddam Hussein, the dismissed President of Iraq was sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi Interim Government. He was captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003. He was sentenced to death by court for crimes against humanity and for the merciless killings in a Shiite town in the 1980’s. He killed 148 people in the Shia town of Dujail as the people attempted to assassinate him in 1982 during Iran–Iraq War. The former leader was upset and furious as the sentence was being passed, and continued to shout, criticizing the court, the judge, and the US-led foreign force in Iraq. Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging until death on December 30, 2006. His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq’s former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar who were associated with the incident were also sentenced to death. After Saddam Hussein’s execution, Kurds beat giant drums rhythmically in traditional celebration, Shiite boys and men threw sweet and opened fire into the air in happiness. Bitter-faced Sunni men tightly holded Hussein’s portrait in one hand and a weapon in the other in sorrow. The United States largely supported and financed Hussein’s trial. US President George W Bush greeted the judgment as a “milestone” in the achievement of the Iraqi people “to replace the rule of a dictator with the rule of law”.