Qusai Hussein

Qusai Hussein

Qusai Hussein at-Tikriti ( Arabic قصي صدام حسين التكريتي, DMG Quṣayy Ṣaddām Ḥusayn at-Tikrītī , sometimes also transcribed Kusai , Qusay, Kusay; * May 17, 1966 in Baghdad ; † July 22, 2003 in Mosul ) was the second oldest of five children of Saddam Hussein and his first wife Sadschida Talfah and the second most powerful man in Iraq.

Politics in Iraq

After the murder of Kamel Hannah, the father's favorite bodyguard and taster, in 1988, perpetrated by Qusai's brother Udai Hussein , the successor fell to Qusai Hussein and no longer to his older brother Udai, who was also temporarily in Switzerland for this crime was banished. Qusai headed the Security special police of Iraq . Especially after the Second Gulf War , Qusai took an active part in the persecution of Shiite insurgents in Basra and Karbala . 106 Shiite leaders were brought to Baghdad; Qusai "lets each of them step forward, sprays nerve poison on their faces with a spray can, which paralyzes the respiratory organs".

In May 2001, Qusai became a member of the regional command of the Ba'ath Party , the Revolutionary Command Council (RKR) and de facto vice-president (formally only chairman of an "emergency committee" to which the two vice-presidents Ramadan and Maʿruf belonged as advisors). The party congress confirmed this, but the expected takeover of his father's office in 2002 did not materialize, allegedly because Saddam Hussein feared that the country would be weakened as a result of the impending war with the United States.

After the Iraq war

On the eve of the US invasion of 2003, the Revolutionary Command Council assigned him as Commander-in-Chief with the defense of the Central-Eastern Zone, one of the four military districts of Iraq, which encompasses the capital, Baghdad . As such, Qusai continued the fight after the fall of Baghdad. According to Abid Hamid Mahmud at-Tikritis , Saddam Hussein's former private secretary, he and Udai and Qusai Hussein went into hiding in Iraq in the weeks after the fighting ended and then fled to Syria. The authorities there expelled them again, so that they had to continue to hide in Iraq.

Qusai was featured on the ace of clubs card (No. 2) on the most wanted Iraqis card game published by the US Department of Defense . For a tip on the whereabouts, a reward of 15 million US dollars was promised.

On July 22, 2003, he and his brother Udai were killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in a battle lasting several hours with American special forces and soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division . Shortly before that, the Americans had received information about their whereabouts. The soldiers found five dead, including the brothers and one of Qusai's two sons, 14 years old, as well as three other wounded.

According to media reports (e.g. BBC , New York Times ), many people in Baghdad celebrated the news of the brothers' death by firing shots in the air. However, since the news was initially doubted by many Iraqis, the US military first published photos of the dead and later presented the laid out and externally restored bodies to camera teams from independent international media.

The positive reactions to the death of the brothers can mainly be explained by the fact that they both led a cruel shadow rule next to their father. Udai, in particular, the older of the two, often attracted attention through inhuman parties and arbitrary murders. Western media also hailed the two brothers' deaths. George W. Bush spoke of "positive news".

Qusai Hussein was married with three children (two sons and a daughter, Zaina). The only 14-year-old son Mustafa Hussein, like his father and his brother Uda, perished in the battle on July 22, 2003 in Mosul .

literature

• Latif Yahia / Karl Wendel: I was Saddam's son , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-442-15249-6 .

Web links

Commons : Qusai Hussein  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Latif Yahia / Karl Wendel: I was Saddam's son . Munich 2003, p. 212.
2. ↑ Latif Yahia / Karl Wendel: I was Saddam's son . Munich 2003, p. 294.