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Biography

SADDAM

A Boy From Tikrit

Iraqi Flag

SaddamAt10

Excerpt from BBC NEWS -- Saddam's 63rd Birthday
Friday, 28 April, 2000, 17:11 GMT 18:11 UK
Saddam's birthday celebrations
Crowds celebrate at Saddam's home town of Tikrit

Iraq marked President Saddam Hussein's 63rd birthday on Friday with nationwide festivities in a lavish display of government-sponsored loyalty toward /their/leader. . . But while many senior Iraqi leadership figures attended celebrations at Saddam's home town of Tikrit, the president himself stayed away as he has done in recent years.

Instead Izzat Ibrahim, his deputy in the all-powerful Revolutionary Command Council, presided over the celebrations which featured dancing, songs and a huge flower-shaped cake.

Marquees lined the 170km (106 mile) route from Baghdad to Tikrit, where huge cauldrons of rice and stewed meat were cooked and streets were festooned with ribbons.

After cutting the cake to the tune of "Happy Birthday To You", Ibrahim said: "We ask God ... to prolong his life and make this an occasion of victory to us and to our nation against our enemies and the enemies of humanity."

At a Glance

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Date of Birth: April 28, 1937

CELEBRATION - April 28, 2000

Tikrit63rdBirthdayCelebration

Tikrit63rdBirthdayCelebration

Servant of God Victorious
Saddam receives Quran written in own blood
Saddam commissioned the work in 1997 to thank God for having escaped unharmed from a life full of dangers
September 24, 2000, 01:53 PM
BAGHDAD (AFP) Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has taken delivery of a copy of the Quran he ordered written in his own blood to thank God for escaping unharmed from his long political career, Iraqi newspapers reported Sunday.
The special-edition Quran, the Muslim holy book, took three years to finish and was handed over to Saddam during a ceremony Saturday at the Dar Al Nasser presidential palace in Baghdad, papers said.

The Iraqi leader commissioned the work in 1997 for his 60th birthday to thank God for having escaped unharmed from "a life full of dangers.. . .