17 years ago (dawn on December 13, 2003), the US Marines carried out a surprise military operation.

It led to the arrest of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The statement of the US army at the time announced the participation of hundreds of soldiers of the First Division, the Cavalry Division and the Special Forces, in carrying out the siege and arrest of Saddam Hussein, and it was mentioned that he was found in an underground basement on a farm near Tikrit (the center of Salah al-Din province north of Baghdad), and weapons and cash were confiscated. Found in the same place.

But the American statement was the subject of suspicion of many Iraqis, who confirmed that Saddam was arrested in the fortified underground headquarters that he took for meetings and leadership.

Kamel: What was said about Saddam's presence in an underground bunker is not true (Al-Jazeera Net)


Before the arrest,


many sites were prepared in different parts of Iraq before the US invasion to be alternative headquarters for a number of senior officials, including Saddam, according to the journalist Mustafa Kamel.

On the nature of alternative places, Kamel told Al-Jazeera Net that some of them were deserted homes, and some were very simple farms or country houses.

Kamel adds that there is no doubt that the conditions of concealment necessitate the creation of shelters and basements of all kinds, but all that was said about Saddam's presence in an underground hideout is incorrect.

The journalist - who was the editor-in-chief of Al-Jumhuriya newspaper that speaks for the Iraqi state before the invasion - relates close to Saddam as saying that he did not spend two consecutive days in the same place, and he was very mobile, and therefore he came to the place where he was captured the day before his capture, which is A farm in Al-Dur area near Tikrit on the shore of the Tigris River.

Kamel notes that this place has a special symbolism for Saddam, as it is close to the place he crossed the Tigris River in 1959 when he participated in the assassination attempt on former Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim.

The head of the Political Decision Center for Studies, Hadi Jello Mari, explains that a person like Saddam has lived with huge challenges, over many years, and lived harsh conditions in stages of his life, and he can cope with emergency conditions such as those he faced prior to his arrest.

Some say that Saddam’s arrest was based on the tip-offs of those close to him (communication sites)


Al-Fajr al-Ahmar


The search for Saddam lasted about 8 months, starting from April 9, 2003 until December 13 of the same year, according to Iraqi historian Tareq Harb.

Harb adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the arrest of Saddam was based on a tip-off that reached a large American military force from a close associate of Saddam in Al-Dur, before the American civil administrator Paul Bremer announced the arrest of Saddam.

He continues that Saddam did not try to resist the force that arrested him, and his condition was not normal, and we do not know whether this caused him to take certain medications, or because he was in an underground tunnel for a long time.

Harb adds, when we saw him in court, he was balanced in power, discussing everything and stating his opinion, in contrast to the situation in which he was arrested with thick hair.

For his part, he completely ruled out the hypothesis of informing Saddam, stressing that he was found after tracking down one of his wife's relatives (Sajida Khairallah), Muhammad Ibrahim Omar al-Saltt, who was one of the last protection officers who appeared with him in April 2003 in the Adhamiya area in Baghdad. As the Americans arrested him, and by pressuring him, he confessed some information that apparently led to knowing the places where Saddam is expected to be, including this location where he was captured.

Sheikh Al-Nada: There are conflicting stories about how Saddam was arrested, but it is certain that he was in a house adjacent to the Tigris River (Al-Jazeera Net)


Chemical gases, and


Kamel confirms that he has reliable information from the site of the event, indicating that the US forces used large quantities of chemical gases during the cordon and raid, which negatively affected even the owners of neighboring farms.

He adds that the photos in which the former president appeared, it was clear that he was drugged and did not have sufficient awareness to control his movements, and who knew Saddam Hussein's character could not imagine this to be his normal state, and the strength of his character was clear during the trial and during the execution.

The journalist continues, "This case appeared on television during his discussion in the sessions of the Interim Governing Council, and some members of the Governing Council requested that Saddam Hussein be shown in the ugliest form when he was arrested in order to drop his prestige before his supporters.

For his part, Sheikh Falah Hasan Al-Nada - the eldest son of the leader of the Al-Bounasser tribe to which Saddam belongs - noted that the stories about the way Saddam was arrested are conflicting, but it is certain that he was in the house of Qais Namik al-Douri in the district of the role adjacent to the Tigris River.

Meanwhile, Jordanian lawyer Ziyad Najdawi - a member of Saddam Hussein’s defense team - points out that US forces, in cooperation with local agents, were able to reach one of Saddam’s companions, who was aware of the whereabouts of President Saddam, and not as the US forces brought him out. The hole in which he was photographed was in the house of Qais Namik al-Duri, which contains a shelter that has been established since the days of the Iranian war, as is the case in many Iraqi homes.

Al-Qassab believes that the arrest of Saddam was not a surprise because those close to him abandoned him (Al-Jazeera Net)

Political analyst Najm al-Qassab believes that the arrest of Saddam was not surprising, because all parties and all those close to him had abandoned him, even from his family and his clan.

Al-Qassab added to Al-Jazeera Net that Saddam believed that his apparatus would resist US forces for years, not months, and he did not believe that he would be arrested and those close to him would abandon him.

The political researcher and writer Kifah Mahmoud says, "I did not expect him to be arrested in this way. All my expectations were that he would lead his groups of resistance until he was killed, but it seems that we did not realize this man's real bed."

Mahmoud expresses to Al-Jazeera Net that he believed Saddam was waiting for something, or hoping for a change in the Americans ’orientations or some of their joints with him, but what happened ended everything he thought.

Harb: The search for Saddam took about 8 months before his arrest (Al-Jazeera Net)


Saddam’s holdings


Sheikh Al-Nada relates from the lawyers who defended Saddam that the forces that attacked Saddam’s hiding place found sums of money and light personal weapons consisting of a Kalashnikov rifle and a Brownink pistol "9 mm."

Al-Najdawi also reports that, on the day of his arrest, there was nothing with Saddam except his rifle, pistol, clothes, some food in the kitchen of the house, and the things that were sufficient for him to provide for life.

In this context, Kamel confirms that what was found with Saddam were simple personal requirements, and a sum of money in the range of 750 thousand dollars, which was being spent on some factions to prepare them to resist the American forces.

In the cell


and around Saddam Hussein’s place of detention - Najdawi says - he was held in one of the presidential palaces, which US forces turned into a place of detention.

He adds that the Americans dealt with him in general in a positive way, "to give the media an image that they respect human rights and respect the rules of international humanitarian law."

Saddam's lawyer reveals American attempts to hold meetings and sessions with Saddam in the place of captivity, including an American general, and they negotiated with him and gave him a choice between a fate like that of Napoleon or anyone else, if he did not ask the Iraqi resistance to stop its actions.

He continues that the investigative process was conducted by the American intelligence services, but he was talking and maneuvering, so they could only take what he wanted to give.

An archive photo of Saddam’s tomb, in which he was buried in Tikrit, before his transfer to an unknown location (Al-Jazeera Net)


An unknown


grave The grave of the late Iraqi president was in the Awja area near Tikrit, where he was buried after his execution in a banquet hall, according to Al-Nada.

He adds that by order of the Ministry of the Interior - at the time - his body was removed from this cemetery to the public cemetery, "but I don't really know where he was buried."

Meanwhile, Mari notes that the grave exists, but there is some kind of anxiety among those who watch it visit, in addition to a shift in the public mood, due to the size of the bitter events that have unfolded on the Iraqis.

Mahmoud thinks that the issue of Saddam’s grave is no longer symbolic as was expected, and what the Iraqis are facing today - including some of his supporters - did not make them care about his grave or its location.

Al-Jazeera Net tried to communicate with government officials during Saddam Hussein’s arrest, but they refused the statement. Former National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie explained his refusal to speak to us that “all politicians want to distance themselves from this historic event.”