Torture and terror kept citizens in fear

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S reign of terror included genocide, mass executions, torture and a catalogue of human rights abuses.

The regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people horrified the world - in 1988, poison gas was used on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing more than 5,000 civilians and leaving a legacy of environmental poisoning that still affects newborn babies.

Up to 180,000 Kurds “disappeared” in the north of the country while Shia Muslims - a different sect from the Sunnis which traditionally make up Iraq’s ruling class - and Marsh Arabs in the south also faced mass deportation and execution.