Last Updated: Monday, 15 December, 2003, 14:42 GMT
BBC News Online looks at how the operation to capture former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein unfolded.
SADDAM HUSSEIN'S HIDING HOLE
1050: Tip-off received, two targets identified and given codenames
1800: 600 troops move towards 'Wolverine 1' and 'Wolverine 2'
2000: Targets searched, Saddam Hussein not found
2030: Hole found, Saddam Hussein captured with no resistance
Saddam Hussein was captured after a tip-off led American troops to a small, underground hole concealed next to farm buildings near the former leader's hometown of Tikrit.
Soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the hole, when Saddam Hussein emerged and surrendered, Colonel James Hickey who led the raid said.
The critical piece of information, obtained at 1050 local time on Saturday, came from an individual who had been arrested the previous day in Baghdad, he said.
("My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate "
Saddam Hussein )
Squalor of secret refuge
By 1800, under the cover of darkness, some 600 troops from the US 4th Infantry Division began moving towards two locations considered likely hide-outs near the town of al-Dawr.
Their mission to kill or capture Saddam Hussein, they assaulted the targets - codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2 - at about 2000 but did not find the former leader.
They then sealed off the area and conducted a wider search, discovering a small walled farm compound containing a metal lean-to structure and a mud hut.
Underground hide-out
Searching the compound, troops discovered a so-called "spider hole", camouflaged with bricks and dirt and covered with polystyrene and a carpet.
Saddam Hussein was found in a carefully hidden hole
Colonel Hickey said that the soldiers looked into the hole and saw a figure inside it.
"Two hands appeared. The individual clearly wanted to surrender," he said.
Saddam Hussein was pulled out at 2036, "disoriented" and "bewildered", according to Major General Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division.
He put up no resistance although armed with a pistol.
"My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate," he told the US troops in English, according to Major Bryan Reed, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.
"Regards from President Bush," US special forces replied, Major Reed recounted.
Two other people, believed to have formed Saddam Hussein's small entourage, were also captured and taken away for interrogation.
'Very rudimentary'
The underground chamber the former Iraqi leader had secreted himself in was six-to-eight feet (1.8 metres - 2.4 metres) deep, with enough space for a person to lie down, and an air vent and extractor fan.
Tikrit: Saddam Hussein's home town
Major General Odierno said the farm where the former leader was found consisted of "two very small rooms in an adobe hut".
He said one was a bedroom that was cluttered with clothes, including new T-shirts and socks and a "very rudimentary" kitchen, with running water.
Saddam Hussein would have moved from the building into the hole whenever coalition forces were in the area, Major General Odierno added.
He said the hole was very close to the Tigris river, within view of some of the captive's palaces.
"I think it was rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces that he has built, where he robbed all the money from the Iraqi people," Major General Odierno said.
'Ultimate information'
Although the area had been searched before, it was likely Saddam Hussein had not been there, as he was thought to have moved often and at short notice.
The spokesman said it was likely he had been there for a short time when the "ultimate information" came from a member of a family brought in for questioning.
No mobile phones or other communications equipment were found, suggesting that Saddam Hussein was providing "moral support" and was no longer co-ordinating the Iraqi resistance, Major General Odierno added.
Top US military commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said the former dictator was "talkative and co-operative", had no injuries and was in good health.
Endgame
Along with the former Iraqi dictator, troops discovered $750,000 cash in $100 bills, two AK-47 machine guns and a briefcase of documents.
A white and orange taxi was parked near the compound.
The former Iraqi leader was removed at 2115 and taken to an undisclosed secure location, General Sanchez said.
He showed a news conference a videotape of a dishevelled and heavily-bearded Saddam Hussein being examined by an American doctor.
Saddam Hussein did not put up any resistance
The mission came after a intense intelligence-gathering operation in the Tikrit area over several months.
American forces gradually built up a picture of Saddam Hussein's likely whereabouts through tip-offs, interrogations of detainees and rigorous analysis of information.
The tip-off on Saturday came as the first piece of so-called "actionable intelligence", pointing troops to a specific location.
Analysts have suggested that Saddam Hussein hid near his home town Tikrit - his political and tribal powerbase - in the hope that remaining local supporters would shelter him from coalition forces.
But it must be speculated that the $25m reward offered by the US for information leading to his capture may well have played a part in undermining these traditional loyalties - and sealing his fate.
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DUJAIL
Hussein executed with 'fear in his face'
December 29, 2006
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged before dawn Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign.
The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.
"This dark page has been turned over," Rubaie said. "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. ... The [Hussein] era has gone forever."
Al-Iraqiya state television aired videotape of Hussein's last moments several hours after the execution.
The video showed Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, being led into a room by three masked guards.
The broadcast only showed the execution to the point where the noose was placed over Hussein's head and tightened around his neck. No audio was heard.
Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, said the former leader was "strangely submissive" to the process.
"He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."
Rubaie said that Hussein carried with him a copy of the Quran and asked that it be given to "a certain person." Rubaie did not identify that person.
On Al-Arabiya television, Rubaie said the execution took place at the 5th Division intelligence office in Qadhimiya. He said Hussein refused to wear a black hood over his head before execution and told him "don't be afraid."
White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said President Bush was asleep when the execution took place and was not awakened. The president had been briefed by national security adviser Stephen Hadley before retiring and was aware the hanging was imminent, Stanzel said.
The White House issued a statement praising the Iraqi people for giving Hussein a fair trial.
"Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule," Bush's statement read. "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial."
The execution took place outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, Rubaie said, and no Americans were present.
"It was an Iraqi operation from A to Z," he said. "The Americans were not present during the hour of the execution. They weren't even in the building."
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Execution of Saddam Hussein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The execution of Saddam Hussein took place on December 30, 2006. He was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him.[1]
Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led Allied Coalition. After his capture in ad-Dawr, near his hometown Tikrit, he was incarcerated at Camp Cropper. On November 5, 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
On December 30, 2006, he was taken to the prison to be executed. The Iraqi government released an official videotape of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after his head was in the hangman's noose. International public controversy arose when an unauthorized cell phone recording of the hanging showed him falling through the trap door of the gallows. The unprofessional and undignified atmosphere of the execution drew criticism around the world from nations that both oppose and support capital punishment.
On December 31, 2006, Saddam Hussein's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, and was buried near the graves of other family members.
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