Uday The oldest of the two sons of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti founded the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary group that was devoted to Saddam’s Ba’athist regime. Many people believed Uday, who was notorious for his extravagant and unpredictable, violent behavior, would succeed his father. However, Qusay, his younger brother, who had developed a reputation for being calm and collected in public, eventually succeeded Uday. Uday, who was born while his father was incarcerated, appears to have been a good student throughout his scholastic career and graduated with an engineering degree. He became well-known as a result of numerous accusations of rape, homicide, torture, and corruption. Uday lost his father’s favor in 1988 when he murdered Kamel Hana Gegeo, who had been his favorite servant. He was initially detained and given an execution sentence before being sent to Switzerland. He returned to Iraq in 1990, where he held a number of roles throughout the years, including chairman of both the Iraqi Football Association and the Iraqi Olympic Committee. Uday managed to escape an attempted murder in 1996, but it left him with a persistent disability. Iraq was attacked in 2003 by a coalition headed by the United States on the grounds that it was storing WMD. In the subsequent conflict, known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein was overthrown and Iraqi troops were soundly defeated. After a three-hour gunfight, Task Force 20 murdered Uday at Qusay’s home in Mosul along with Qusay and Qusay’s son Mustapha.
Early Youth & Life
On June 18, 1964, in Tikrit, Iraq, Uday Hussein was born to Saddam and his first wife Sajida Talfah. Qusay, who was born on May 17, 1966, was roughly two years younger than him. When Uday was born, Saddam was still detained for trying to kill General Abd al-Karim Qasim, the 24th Prime Minister of Iraq. Every time Sajida went to see him, she would bring the infant along, hiding notes from other Ba’athists in the child’s diapers. Raghad, Hala, and Rana were the three girls that Uday and Qusay had.
He had always looked up to his father. When Uday was five years old, he took part in a family gathering in a public space where he saw a number of “spies,” most of whom were Iraqi Jews, be executed. His father took pride in raising his boys to be tough by allowing them to witness the execution of “traitors” and the torture of “enemies of the nation”.
Uday greatly respected his father, but they never developed a personal relationship. On the other side, he had a close relationship with his mother, Sajida. His interactions with both of his parents may have influenced his character, according to scholars.
He was a successful student in high school and subsequently enrolled in the medical program at Baghdad University. But three days later he departed and started going to the nearby College of Engineering, which is only a kilometer away.
He finished from Baghdad University with an engineering degree and summa cum laude, taking first place out of 76 students. Many of his teachers have since admitted that he struggled to keep up passing grades and was only able to graduate valedictorian because of his father’s reputation.
Uday developed into an aggressive, ruthless, and insane adult. Uday, who was only 15 at the time, reportedly took part in the 1979 massacre of Iraqi cabinet ministers, which took place shortly after his father assumed office as president of Iraq.
During the Iran-Iraq War in 1983, Uday expressed a desire in enlisting in the military. To learn military tactics, he enrolled at the Al-Bakr Military Academy. He learned how to operate a helicopter there and frequently caused trouble by taking on missions without the proper training.
He eventually caused numerous deaths on his own side and destroyed vehicles, forcing Saddam to impose a new prohibition on flying. Rumor has it that Mohammed el-Dury, a military planner and adviser in the Foreign Ministry, wrote his master’s thesis on Iraq’s strategy during the Iraq-Iran War rather than him.
Uday Hussein’s Career
Uday Hussein started a youth radio station, a youth television station, and a youth newspaper in 1985. He started Babel, a daily newspaper, in 1990, and it ultimately turned into the voice of Ba’athism. At first, he was prepared to succeed his father, but Saddam himself had grown tired of his increasingly violent and extravagant way of living.
Uday’s father’s favor was irrevocably lost in October 1988 following the murder of Kamel Hana Gegeo, Saddam’s personal valet and food taster. Some contend that Sajida requested that Gegeo be killed because he had introduced Saddam to Samira Shahbandar, who subsequently served as both the dictator’s mistress and second wife.
In front of horrified partygoers, Uday beat Gegeo with a club, stabbed him with an electric carving knife, and, according to some accounts, ultimately shot him to death during a celebration honoring Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Gegeo’s devotion and fidelity to Saddam, who was incensed by the incident, were undeniable. Uday was incarcerated and given an execution sentence. He was even subjected to torture while incarcerated, and Saddam commanded the destruction of his priceless car collection. King Hussein of Jordan personally intervened to secure his release, and he was then sent to Geneva, Switzerland to work for the UN mission representing Iraq. His frequent arrests for fighting led to his deportation from Switzerland in 1990.
Uday started working on winning his father’s approval once he was back in Iraq. He was appointed head of both the Iraqi Football Association and the Iraqi Olympic Committee by Saddam. When athletes and football players didn’t meet his expectations, Uday tormented them. In addition, he founded the sports team Al-Rasheed and recruited all of the best football players in the nation for the squad. Before breaking up in 1990, they ruled Iraqi club football and won a number of tournaments.
As the secretary of the Iraqi Union of Students, Uday also established the paramilitary group Fedayeen Saddam, which at its peak had between 30,000 and 40,000 members. He shot and injured Watban Ibrahim, Saddam’s half-brother, in 1995 after being relieved of his duties as interior minister.
General Hussein Kamel and his brother Saddam Kamel were forced to leave Iraq with their families and travel to Jordan as a result of this. Six months after their return, Uday set a trap, and the Kamel siblings were both killed in it.
Uday narrowly avoided an attempt on his life in December 1996. He was ambushed by a gang of gunmen as he was traveling to a party in Baghdad, and they started shooting at his vehicle. When he was finally transported to the hospital, the physicians anticipated that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life because he had been hit by seven to thirteen bullets. He was treated at Ibn Sina Hospital and managed to survive, but he had to live the remainder of his life with a significant limp.
Two bullets were still impaled in his spine and could not be removed despite numerous surgeries. He endured years of ongoing discomfort. According to some reports, he reportedly found it painful to even put his socks on in the morning.
After the failed attack, his psychotic behavior only got worse. While Saddam was terrible, Uday was worse, something the Iraqis have always known. He was notorious for breaking into weddings and other events to “discover” women who he would later violate. He kidnapped women off the streets and committed rapes on them. If the women’s families ventured to object, he tortured and killed them.
If his friends or bodyguards bothered him in any way, he even killed them. Qusay was formally proclaimed to be their father’s replacement in 2000. Uday attempted to kill Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, in an effort to win back Saddam’s favor, but he was unsuccessful.
US invasion of Iraq in 2003
On March 20, 2003, a coalition headed by the US invaded Iraq on the grounds that it was storing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and that there was solid evidence linking the Iraqi government to Al-Qaeda. By May 1, the conflict was over, and the entire nation was in ruins.
Unexpectedly, Uday outperformed Qusay as a military leader during the conflict. Fedayeen Saddam was the most active part of the government during the conflict, in contrast to the latter who was uncertain and uneasy and ordered the Republican Guard to flee.
Uday Hussein’s Death
Uday left Baghdad with his father, brother, and brother’s kids after Baghdad fell. In the end, Uday and Qusay sheltered together in a home in Mosul, a city in northern Iraq. On July 22, 2003, Task Force 20 and members of the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army encircled the home and demanded their surrender.
On the Iraqi playing cards with the most desired suit, Uday was represented by the Ace of Hearts. When they remained inside, the US troops opened fire, killing their bodyguard, Uday, Qusay, Qusay’s son, Mustapha, 14, and all of them.
Later, the American troops used dental records to identify the identities of the dead bodies, and graphic images of their bodies were made public. The night the brothers died and several evenings after there were celebrations in Baghdad. The informant who had informed the US troops about the brothers in Mosul received a combined $30 million award on behalf of both brothers.
Personal Influence & Life
Qusay and Uday Hussein had a tumultuous partnership. As kids, they were quite close, and as adults, they continued to appreciate each other’s company. That altered when Qusay took over for Uday after Saddam replaced him. Qusay’s growing stature in their father’s administration caused Uday to grow resentful of his sibling and distance himself from him.
Uday allegedly had three marriages. He had plans to wed an accomplished Iraqi family while he was a student at the university. His father, who firmly thought that marriage should take place within the clan and strengthen family ties, rejected the idea. Saddam ordered Uday to wed Nada, his first cousin “Chemical” Ali Hassan al-daughter, Majid’s in 1983. Even though the families were close, the marriage did not last, and they ultimately got divorced.
While Uday’s marriage to Nada is still frequently contested, his subsequent coupling is well known. Uday wed Saja in an Islamic ceremony while he was still living in Geneva. Saja is the daughter of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who was then his father’s half-brother and envoy to the UN. It was a shaky friendship between them. He constantly mistreated her emotionally and physically and was blatantly unfaithful.
She ultimately took off again for Switzerland. Years later, in the ruins of Uday’s 40-room Baghdad palace, a note in a blue velvet box was discovered during the US invasion. In a heartbreaking note, Saja had stated in 1996 that she would accept Uday’s return almost on any condition and encouraged him to be “loyal and faithful” to her.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, vice president of the Revolutionary Command Council, approved the union of his daughter Suha with Uday in order to prove his allegiance to Saddam. The union was predictably doomed, and ultimately al-Douri petitioned Saddam to call off the union. Eventually, it was approved.
There is also mention of a fourth union in the Middle Eastern media. Uday reportedly wed Sevim Torun, a beauty queen who was six years older than him, sometime in the 1980s. Due to Uday’s abusive behavior, she escaped to Turkey while pregnant with his child.
Most reports claim that Uday didn’t have any children. But a few reputable international news organizations, like The Independent, claimed that he had three sons—two with Nada and one with Suha. On the other side, Middle Eastern news sources claim that he also had a son with Sevim. Some in the western media have even conjectured that because his marriage to Suha was never legally completed, there was never a child born to them.
Estimated Net Worth
One of the wealthiest and most well-liked politicians is Uday Hussein. Our analysis of Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider revealed that Uday Hussein has a net value of $5 million.
Trivia
Uday fiercely denied rumors that he had changed his religion to Shia Islam.