13 December 2003: Saddam Hussein Captured Near Tikrit

On December 13, 2003, American forces captured Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq who had eluded them for eight months since the fall of Baghdad. The dictator who had ruled Iraq with an iron fist for nearly 24 years was found hiding in a small underground bunker near his hometown of Tikrit. The dramatic capture marked a significant milestone in the Iraq War and brought one of the twentieth century most notorious leaders to justice.

Operation Red Dawn, named after the 1984 action film, was conducted by approximately 600 soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, supported by special operations forces. Intelligence gathered over months of painstaking work had led them to a farmhouse compound near ad-Dawr, south of Tikrit. When soldiers arrived at the location around 8 p.m. local time, they initially found only one person at the site, but a thorough search revealed a hidden entrance to an underground space.

Saddam Hussein was discovered in a cramped hole measuring approximately six to eight feet deep and just wide enough for a person to lie down. He was disoriented, disheveled, and had grown a long gray beard that made him initially unrecognizable. A pistol lay nearby, but the man who had sent hundreds of thousands to their deaths offered no resistance. I am Saddam Hussein, I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate, he reportedly said. The soldier who found him replied, President Bush sends his regards.

The capture electrified both Iraq and the watching world. President George W. Bush addressed the nation, declaring, The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq. But the capture of this man was crucial to the rise of a free Iraq. While some hoped the arrest would quell the growing insurgency, violence in Iraq would continue and even intensify in the years to come.

Saddam Hussein was held in custody and eventually faced trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal for crimes against humanity, including the massacre of 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail in 1982. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, a sentence carried out on December 30, 2006. The capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003, closed one chapter of Iraqi history while the complex aftermath of the war continued to unfold for years thereafter.