Saddam Hussein was born in 1937 in Al-jawa, a village in north-central Iraq. He was raised by his widowed mother and other relatives. After moving to Baghdad in 1955, he joined the Baath Party, which opposed Iraq's government. In 1968, the party came to power through a coup. For years he was the power behind the ailing figure of the president, Ahmed Hassan Bakr. Saddam Hussein took over as Iraq's ...