(1937-2006) Iraq's dictator and fifth president. On 16 July 1979, Saddam Hussein became chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, the decision making body in Iraq before the 2003 American-led invasion. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party and played a key role in the 1968 coup which brought the party to power. In the early 1970s he nationalised oil and other industries. He suppressed internal opposition by Kurdish separatists, Shiite Muslims and dissidents. He took advantage of the Iranian Revolution (1979) to attack Iran in the first Gulf War (1980-88), and provoked a second by annexing Kuwait (1990). An international coalition army forced him to withdraw and to agree to the destruction of his stockpile of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missiles. His failure to cooperate in this led to an international crisis in 1997-98. Following the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003 and brought to trial. In November 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed on 30 December 2006.