On December 13, 2003, the United States military executed Operation Red Dawn, concluding one of the largest manhunts in modern military history. This tactical breakdown explores how Task Force 121—an elite joint special operations team consisting of Delta Force, Navy SEAL Team 6, US Army Rangers, and the 160th SOAR "Night Stalkers"—finally captured deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the infamous "Ace of Spades". Having eluded a multi-billion-dollar digital dragnet by reverting to analog human couriers and tribal loyalties near his hometown of Tikrit, the "Butcher of Baghdad" thought he was safe from the tracking systems that had driven the initial "Shock and Awe" campaign.
Following an intense shootout in Mosul where the 101st Airborne eliminated Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, with TOW missiles, intelligence operations zeroed in on the Al-Muslit bloodline. The interrogation of his close confidant Muhammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit ("The Fatman") revealed the dictator's precise hiding spot at a desolate farmstead in Al-Dawr. Backed by an entire armored squadron of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, special forces cordoned off targets Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. Watch how elite operators cleared a hidden, unventilated spider hole, pulling out a disheveled Saddam Hussein to face a tribunal that ultimately sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
Following an intense shootout in Mosul where the 101st Airborne eliminated Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, with TOW missiles, intelligence operations zeroed in on the Al-Muslit bloodline. The interrogation of his close confidant Muhammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit ("The Fatman") revealed the dictator's precise hiding spot at a desolate farmstead in Al-Dawr. Backed by an entire armored squadron of Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, special forces cordoned off targets Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. Watch how elite operators cleared a hidden, unventilated spider hole, pulling out a disheveled Saddam Hussein to face a tribunal that ultimately sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
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00:00December 13th, 2003, 1800 hours.
00:04Beneath the freezing dirt of central Iraq, inside a cramped, unventilated 6 by 8 foot subterranean cavity,
00:12the deposed ruler listens for any faint vibrations coming from directly above his head.
00:18Saddam Hussein knows there are hundreds if not thousands of American soldiers looking for him,
00:24and if they find him, he's dead.
00:27For months he has managed to evade apprehension.
00:30Entire divisions have searched for him and millions of dollars have been spent trying to find him.
00:35Yet lead after lead and attempt after attempt have all ended the same way, in failure.
00:41Saddam has always seemed to be one step ahead of his enemies, but tonight is different.
00:47Armed with fresh, precise and highly reliable intelligence,
00:50the US believes that Saddam is, at last, within reach,
00:53and has deployed some of its finest operators to find him,
00:56and bring an end to one of the largest manhunts in modern military history.
01:01Together they form Task Force 121,
01:04an elite and covert joint special operations team that includes members of Delta Force,
01:09Navy SEAL Team 6, US Army Rangers, and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment,
01:15also known as the Night Stalkers.
01:16Backing them up is an entire armored cavalry squadron,
01:20a wall of heavy mechanized steel to secure the perimeter.
01:24As the minutes pass, Task Force 121 draws closer to its targets,
01:28a couple of simple huts, codenamed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2.
01:33On the surface, there's nothing special about these locations.
01:36Nobody would expect that one of history's most infamous and brutal dictators
01:39would be hiding out in a place like that.
01:41But that's exactly what America and its allies are banking on.
01:45The stakes couldn't be higher.
01:47And every second matters.
01:49Because if Saddam gets even a whisper that the Americans are on the way,
01:52he'll once more disappear like a ghost into the labyrinthine networks of the Iraqi underground.
01:57The operators check their night vision optics,
02:00transforming the blackness of their surroundings into various shades of green.
02:03They verify their weapons, disable their safeties, and hold their breath,
02:08knowing that the next few hours are do or die.
02:11They're about to either achieve their most important objective
02:14or allow the butcher of Baghdad to slip through their fingers yet again.
02:18It all comes down to this.
02:19For Saddam, being buried in the dirt was a catastrophic inversion of the power he wielded just months prior,
02:26suffocating in an unventilated box.
02:28He was no longer the untouchable architect of a coercive, million-man state apparatus.
02:33That empire began in the exact same Tikrit soil he was now hiding beneath.
02:37Born into poverty in 1937,
02:40his political trajectory was forged through calculated elimination rather than diplomacy.
02:44Joining the Ba'ath Party at 20,
02:46he operated as a street-level enforcer,
02:49neutralizing rivals and organizing militia cells.
02:52By 1968, he was the tactical muscle behind the coup that seized the Iraqi government,
02:57spending the next decade quietly centralizing military authority
03:00and erasing internal threats.
03:02Assuming full control of Iraq in 1979,
03:05he established a totalitarian dictatorship,
03:08a regime built on the bedrock of fear, paranoia and violence.
03:12This allowed him to effectively maintain a stranglehold of the country for several decades,
03:16which he controlled via a coercive state apparatus
03:19built on overlapping intelligence services, secret police and loyalist enforcers.
03:23His title may have been president,
03:25but Saddam effectively went on to rule Iraq as something closer to a king or emperor.
03:29Those who opposed him weren't merely arrested, but erased.
03:33Their loved ones often suffered too,
03:35being quietly assassinated with bodies dropped callously into unmarked graves.
03:40Meanwhile, the Iraqi military expanded enormously,
03:43and in 1980, he launched a war of attrition against neighboring Iran.
03:47That war lasted nearly eight years
03:49and became one of the bloodiest conventional conflicts of the late 20th century,
03:53causing at least hundreds of thousands of deaths,
03:56with estimates varying wildly.
03:57In 1990, another invasion, this time in Kuwait,
04:01culminated in the first Gulf War,
04:03which Iraq lost to a US-led coalition force.
04:06After quelling attempted uprisings,
04:08Saddam managed to consolidate his grip on power.
04:11By 2003, Washington's patience had flatlined.
04:15The invasion was green-lit on intelligence claims
04:17that Iraq was holding weapons of mass destruction.
04:19While post-war reality would eventually fracture those reports,
04:23In the moment, the directive was absolute.
04:25The regime had to be ripped out by its roots.
04:28Removing a dictator from power is no simple feat, though.
04:32Saddam Hussein had already survived decades of assassination attempts,
04:35military coups, and international airstrikes.
04:38He leveraged his immense power to safeguard his future,
04:41relying on heavily fortified bunkers,
04:43palace compounds, safe houses,
04:45and trusted loyalists to survive repeated threats.
04:48This, combined with his close-knit circle of extremely loyal followers,
04:52made the prospect of capturing him a near-impossible challenge.
04:56But the US couldn't back down.
04:58As long as Saddam remained alive and at large,
05:01coalition planners feared he could still rally loyalists
05:03and feed a growing insurgency.
05:05It was up to America and its allies to bring this nightmare to an end.
05:09March 19, 2003.
05:11US President George W. Bush gives the green light
05:14for Operation Iraqi Freedom,
05:16and his Iraqi counterpart, Saddam Hussein,
05:18prepares to face something he's never faced before,
05:21a full-scale invasion of his country
05:22by the strongest military on the planet.
05:25For the US and its allies, the objectives are clear.
05:28They must depose Saddam's government, identity,
05:31and eliminate any Iraqi WMDs,
05:33find and drive out terrorists from the country,
05:36and free the people of Iraq from their country's murderous regime,
05:39so that they could, at last,
05:40transition towards something safer, brighter, and better for all of them.
05:44This couldn't be a slow campaign
05:46or a war of gradual grinding attrition.
05:48It had to be fast, explosive, and impactful,
05:51and the US decided to set the tone from their very first moments
05:54with a bombastic shock and awe campaign,
05:57designed to effectively paralyze Iraq's command and control infrastructure
06:00within the opening hours of the conflict.
06:02The faster Saddam's military was blinded and deafened, better,
06:06because that would make it much harder
06:08for the enemy to organize any sort of serious defense or counterattack.
06:11To do that, coalition couldn't afford to get bogged down
06:14in lengthy battles across southern or western Iraq.
06:17They needed to punch deep inside the country,
06:20striking right at the heart of the regime's sphere of power,
06:23the Iraqi capital city, Baghdad.
06:25And that's exactly what they did.
06:27Having received word that Saddam himself
06:29was visiting a compound in the Dora farming community in southern Baghdad,
06:33US forces prepared their opening salvos.
06:35Shortly before 5 a.m. local time,
06:38two F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters
06:40from the 8th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron
06:42entered Iraqi airspace,
06:44speeding straight for Baghdad,
06:46relying on their speed and stealth technologies
06:48to evade the country's air defenses.
06:50Arriving in the Dora area,
06:52the Nighthawks released their payloads,
06:54a set of four satellite-guided 2,000-pound GBU-27
06:58bunker-busting bombs,
06:59headed straight for the Iraqi compound.
07:01At the very same time,
07:03numerous US ships and submarines
07:05stationed in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf,
07:07including the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Cowpens
07:10and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Donald Cook
07:13and USS Porter,
07:15launched almost 40 long-range Tomahawk missiles
07:17at key sites across the country.
07:19One of the bombs missed its target,
07:21but the other three struck successfully,
07:23damaging the main building
07:24and destroying all of its surrounding structures.
07:26Unfortunately, it transpired that Saddam
07:28wasn't in the air at the time,
07:30with conflicting reports about whether or not
07:31he had actually been there earlier on.
07:33Regardless, the operation had begun,
07:35and it was only going to get more dramatic
07:37in the hours to follow.
07:39Indeed, later the same day,
07:41the shock and awe campaign began in earnest.
07:43Members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
07:47climbed aboard MH-60L Black Hawk
07:49and AH-6M Little Bird helicopters,
07:52supported by A-10 Thunderbolt IIs.
07:54Scouring the southern and western borders of Iraq,
07:57they identified and engaged dozens of observation posts.
08:00Within hours, over 70 of these targets
08:03had been taken out,
08:04and the Iraqi military has effectively been blinded,
08:07paving the way for American, British,
08:09and other Allied troops to cross the border
08:11and begin their march to Baghdad.
08:13They traveled not on foot,
08:15but in vast armored columns,
08:16stretching for miles on end.
08:18Thousands of vehicles, including Abrams' tanks,
08:21Bradley fighting vehicles,
08:22towed howitzers, mortars, and more,
08:24surged into Iraq.
08:26Above them, Coalition aircraft
08:27rapidly assumed control of the skies,
08:30with the likes of fighter jets,
08:31bombers, attack helicopters,
08:32and surveillance aircraft
08:33carrying out round-the-clock operations,
08:36seeking and destroying as many assets
08:38as they possibly could.
08:39The Iraq War had begun.
08:41America's shock and awe campaign
08:43proved remarkably effective.
08:45In the opening days of the conflict,
08:47hundreds of bombs, missiles,
08:48and other munitions found their targets.
08:50Military headquarters collapsed into piles of rubble.
08:53Communications networks were severed.
08:55Air defenses were dismantled,
08:57and the countless other key nodes
08:58of the Iraqi armed forces
08:59were cut off from one another and eliminated.
09:02On paper, the country still had an enormous army,
09:05with literally hundreds of thousands of personnel.
09:07However, in reality,
09:08it could barely put up a fight in those opening exchanges,
09:11as there was so much chaos,
09:12so much disruption,
09:13and so much going on,
09:14it was impossible for Baghdad's commanders
09:16to devise or implement
09:17any effective plan of action.
09:19Because modern warfare
09:21isn't just about the number of tanks you have,
09:23or the amount of air defenses you install.
09:25It's also heavily dependent on logistics,
09:27and Coalition forces
09:28were quite literally smashing those logistics to pieces,
09:31nullifying much of Iraq's strength in the process.
09:34Meanwhile, as aerial assets
09:36cleared the way ahead of them,
09:37US forces rushed onward
09:38with unrelenting speed and efficiency.
09:40They didn't want to waste time
09:42systematically clearing out
09:43every town and city along the way,
09:45so instead,
09:45they bypassed most of the major population centers,
09:48leaving them behind
09:49for secondary units to deal with
09:51as they beelined for Baghdad.
09:53Their journey wasn't without its challenges.
09:54They faced some resistance along the way, of course,
09:57posed by the likes of Iraqi army formations,
09:59Saddam's own Republican guard units,
10:01and various paramilitary forces, too.
10:03Some of them fought fiercely
10:05and died for the cause they believed in.
10:07Others simply waved the white flag,
10:09recognizing they stood little chance
10:11against the unmatched strength
10:12of the American military machine.
10:14American troops also had to deal with
10:16the often difficult and unpredictable conditions
10:18of the location in which they were fighting.
10:20Dust storms caused chaos, for example,
10:23with convoys getting separated
10:24and vehicles struggling to find their way.
10:27Supply lines also had to stretch further and further
10:29as the force advanced,
10:30creating logistical headaches
10:31that threatened to disrupt
10:32the entire operation.
10:34Every mile gain brought new challenges
10:37to the table,
10:37but the U.S. troops remained fixed
10:39on their objective
10:40to get to Baghdad as quickly as possible.
10:43It was the only thing that mattered
10:44and they wouldn't let anything stop them.
10:46On the opposing side,
10:47the Iraqi government leveraged
10:49its control of state media
10:50to construct and maintain
10:51a narrative of optimism.
10:53They claimed that the American troops
10:54were being wiped out
10:55and that victory was imminent,
10:56but those lies were shattered
10:58when the mere couple of weeks
10:59into the operation,
11:00U.S. forces arrived
11:01at the outskirts of Baghdad.
11:03There, Saddam's most elite
11:05Republican Guard forces awaited them
11:07and had been preparing
11:08for their arrival,
11:09establishing defensive rings
11:10around the city,
11:11setting up artillery,
11:12rolling out tanks
11:13and mobilizing thousands of troops.
11:15They had the home field advantage,
11:17but they weren't counting
11:18on the kind of tactics
11:19or advanced equipment
11:20that the Americans
11:20were bringing their way.
11:21With their superior range,
11:23optics and air superiority,
11:24the U.S. forces engaged
11:26and destroyed Iraqi positions
11:28before they even knew
11:28what hit them.
11:29And on April 3rd,
11:31troops closed in
11:31on Baghdad Airport,
11:33otherwise known as
11:34Saddam International Airport.
11:35It was one of the best
11:36defended Iraqi positions
11:38in the entire country,
11:39and two American soldiers
11:40were killed early on
11:41by mortar fire.
11:42Still, by the end of the day,
11:44after a brutal
11:44back-and-forth firefight,
11:46the 1st Brigade,
11:473rd Infantry Division,
11:48claimed control of the airport,
11:49which would go on to become
11:50a major U.S. base of operations
11:52for years to follow.
11:53The day that followed
11:54would prove pivotal.
11:56Baghdad was a massive city,
11:57home to several million people
11:59and comprised of
12:00numerous dense neighborhoods,
12:02labyrinth-like streets,
12:03government-controlled complexes
12:04and vast industrial zones.
12:07Even for the world's
12:07most advanced military,
12:08it would be an incredibly
12:10complicated battlefield
12:11to navigate.
12:11But the U.S. was still
12:13focused on speed
12:14and efficiency.
12:15It had no intention
12:16of moving through the city
12:17street by street,
12:18sweeping one building
12:19after another
12:19and progressing gradually
12:20toward its target.
12:21Instead, it wanted to go
12:23right for Baghdad's throat
12:24right away.
12:25And so it began to execute
12:26its now iconic
12:27thunder runs
12:28on the country's capital.
12:30This tactic consisted
12:31of armored columns,
12:32often including
12:32Abrams and Bradleys,
12:34defying the rules
12:34of conventional warfare
12:36by rushing through
12:36the city streets
12:37straight towards the center.
12:39They looked reckless,
12:40but every thunder run
12:41was actually calculated
12:42with remarkable precision,
12:43with air support ready
12:45and waiting to help out
12:46if the situation deteriorated.
12:47Once again,
12:48Iraq had no real response
12:50to the American approach.
12:51They tried to fight back,
12:53firing machine guns
12:53and rocket-propelled grenades
12:55from fortified buildings,
12:56but stopping massive
12:57mechanized assaults
12:58moving at high speed
12:59proved far more difficult
13:00than anyone could have imagined.
13:01And the battle for Baghdad,
13:03which some had expected
13:04could last weeks
13:05or even months,
13:06was over in just six days.
13:08The Hussein regime
13:09officially met its end
13:10on April 9th,
13:11symbolized by the tearing down
13:13of the 39-foot-tall statue
13:15of Saddam Hussein
13:15in Baghdad's Fyados Square.
13:17Both U.S. Marines
13:18and jubilant Iraqi civilians
13:20participated in this event,
13:22with many Iraqis going on
13:23to smash the statue's remains
13:25with sledgehammers.
13:26Headlines across the world
13:27were dominated by the news
13:29that the Iraqi capital
13:30had fallen.
13:30The American operation
13:32appeared to have been
13:33a huge success.
13:34Yet, as the dust began to settle
13:36and the smoke began to drift away
13:37on the Baghdad breeze,
13:38it became painstakingly clear
13:40that one of the United States'
13:42primary objectives
13:43had still not been accomplished.
13:44His regime may have fallen,
13:46but Saddam himself
13:47was still at large.
13:49Somehow,
13:49he and his sons,
13:50Uday and Kusai,
13:51had disappeared.
13:53A new stage of the war,
13:54the manhunt for Saddam Hussein,
13:56was about to begin.
13:57Some observers expected
13:59that the capture of Saddam Hussein
14:00would occur almost inevitably
14:01in the days following
14:02the fall of Baghdad.
14:03After all,
14:04how far could he go?
14:05How well could he hide
14:06after all his power
14:07had been stripped from him?
14:09Well, it turned out
14:09that he could hide
14:10far better than many
14:11had anticipated.
14:12In the days following the battle,
14:14U.S. forces hunted for leads,
14:15using all of the tools
14:17at their disposal
14:18to snag just a sliver
14:19of information
14:19about the dictator's whereabouts.
14:21But nothing came.
14:22No confirmed sightings,
14:24no verified locations.
14:26It was as though
14:27the former ruler of Iraq,
14:29one of the most famous
14:29and recognizable men
14:31on the face of the earth,
14:32had entirely dropped off
14:33the grid without a trace.
14:35Then the rumors
14:36and theories started to spread.
14:38Perhaps he was hiding out
14:39in one of his many
14:40underground bunkers.
14:41Maybe he'd fled
14:42to western desert regions
14:43of Iraq.
14:43Or maybe he'd managed
14:44to leave the country entirely
14:46and was hiding out
14:47in another friendly territory
14:48like Syria.
14:49In order to get some
14:50semblance of control
14:51over the situation,
14:52start to arrange the pieces
14:53of the puzzle
14:54it was gradually collecting,
14:55the U.S. military
14:56created a rather
14:57out-of-the-ordinary
14:58tracking tool,
14:59a set of playing cards.
15:01The most wanted
15:02playing cards,
15:03to be precise.
15:04Over 50 high-ranking
15:05Iraqi officials
15:06were assigned numbers
15:07and suits within the deck,
15:08with Saddam himself
15:09sitting at the very top
15:10as the Ace of Spades.
15:12And while other units
15:13focused on hunting down
15:14the lesser leaders,
15:15the search for the Ace of Spades
15:16was given to the best
15:17of the best,
15:18Task Force 121.
15:20This wasn't just
15:21any military unit.
15:22It combined the very best
15:23elements of the American military.
15:25Initially,
15:26they leveraged the full weight
15:27of a multi-billion dollar
15:28intelligence apparatus,
15:29deploying advanced
15:30signal interception
15:31alongside the lethal
15:32precision of Delta Force
15:34and the experience
15:35of SEAL Team 6.
15:36Together,
15:37they formulated a plan
15:38to hone in on Hussein's location.
15:40They knew that even though
15:41the king had been forced
15:42from his throne,
15:43he still had a large
15:44following of loyal subjects
15:45who would continue
15:46to help him
15:46however they could.
15:48As long as he remained
15:49at large,
15:49and as long as he had
15:50that level of support,
15:51he would remain a threat.
15:52There would always be a chance
15:53of him bursting back
15:54onto the scene someday,
15:55reclaiming power
15:56and recommencing
15:57his reign of chaos once more.
15:59Understanding this,
16:00Task Force 121
16:01postulated that Saddam
16:02would most likely
16:03be leveraging his loyal networks
16:04to move around,
16:05assuming he was using
16:06the likes of encrypted
16:07satellite phones
16:08to call in favors,
16:09and paramilitary escorts
16:10to help them get
16:11from place to place.
16:12The Task Force's job,
16:13therefore,
16:13was to intercept those networks,
16:14to catch them off guard
16:15and try to get one step
16:16ahead of them.
16:17They did everything they could
16:18to achieve this objective.
16:20They found,
16:21detained,
16:21and interrogated
16:22former regime leaders.
16:23They analyzed
16:24reams of intelligence.
16:26They deployed radars,
16:27satellites,
16:27and other tracking systems
16:29to look for any anomalies,
16:30any suspicious signs,
16:32any hints that something big
16:33might be happening.
16:34They intercepted convoys
16:35and raided bases.
16:36Anytime an important piece
16:37of intelligence came in,
16:39they acted on it.
16:40Yet,
16:40time after time,
16:41America's actions
16:42failed to bear fruit.
16:43Wherever they went,
16:44whatever they did,
16:45they always seemed
16:46to be too late.
16:47This was primarily
16:48because Saddam had made
16:49the sensible decision
16:50to effectively abandon
16:51modern technologies entirely.
16:53So,
16:54while the Task Force operatives
16:55were monitoring the airwaves
16:56and intercepting radio transmissions,
16:58the man they were hunting
16:59was actually relying
17:00on more analog methods
17:01of communication and transport.
17:03He had neutralized
17:04the digital dragnet
17:05by reverting to closed loops
17:06of human couriers,
17:08counting on old tribal loyalties
17:09and close connections
17:10in and around his hometown
17:11to remain off the radar.
17:13In July 2003,
17:15the US finally got a break.
17:17A close friend of Saddam's family
17:19supplied reliable intelligence
17:20about the location
17:21of Saddam's two sons,
17:22Uda and Kusai.
17:23They were holed up
17:24in a fortified safe house
17:25in the northern city of Mosul.
17:27Perhaps Saddam was there with them,
17:29or perhaps someone there
17:30would at least
17:31be able to guide them to him.
17:32Task Force 121,
17:34supported by elements
17:35of Task Force 20
17:36and the 101st Airborne,
17:37moved in for the kill.
17:39They surrounded the safe house
17:40on the morning of July 22nd,
17:42ordering the Husseins
17:42to emerge and surrender.
17:44They didn't respond,
17:45and the US didn't wait around.
17:48Operators breached the doors,
17:49expecting a rapid surrender.
17:50Instead,
17:51they hit a wall of lead.
17:52An intense firefight broke out
17:54with three Special Forces soldiers
17:55wounded in the process.
17:57The US then brought out
17:58the big guns,
17:59raining down hell on the safe house
18:00with M2 Browning machine guns,
18:0284 anti-tank weapons,
18:03and Mark 19 grenade launchers.
18:05Two hundred reinforcement troops
18:07also arrived to assist.
18:09A few hours later,
18:10the house was rocked
18:11by a salvo of 10 BGM-71 TOW missiles,
18:14which left much of the structure
18:15in ruins.
18:16As the American soldiers
18:18scoured the rubble,
18:19they found the bodies
18:20of Uda and Kusai.
18:21Saddam soon heard the news
18:23and issued a statement,
18:24calling his sons and his grandson,
18:25who was also killed
18:26in the attack,
18:27Martyrs.
18:28Two big names
18:29in the most wanted deck
18:30had been eliminated.
18:31But the Ace of Spades
18:33was still out there,
18:34and the US appeared
18:35no closer to finding it.
18:37Weeks turned into months,
18:38with the US following
18:39one dead-end lead after another.
18:41In total,
18:43between July and December 2003,
18:44the task force carried out
18:4612 unsuccessful raids,
18:47as well as 600 additional operations
18:49aimed at tracking down
18:50Saddam Hussein,
18:51which included
18:52approximately 300 interrogations.
18:54Nothing were.
18:56But slowly,
18:57the task force assembled
18:58more and more data,
18:59and much of that data
19:00pointed to one particular location,
19:02to Crete.
19:03The place where Saddam was born
19:05and spent his formative years.
19:06The place where he had
19:07the closest ties,
19:08and the place where
19:09many of his most loyal followers
19:10and regime members
19:11had also come from.
19:12It made sense.
19:14Like a wounded animal,
19:15Saddam had seemingly retreated
19:16to the one place
19:17he felt the safest,
19:18relying on the people
19:19he trusted the most
19:20to protect him.
19:21But the US was closing in.
19:23Having realized
19:24that the former president
19:25was most likely
19:26in the Decrete region,
19:27Task Force 121
19:28began to close the net,
19:29focusing its search
19:30on that particular area.
19:31It began a serious
19:33surveillance operation,
19:34tracking the movements
19:35of anyone
19:35who might have a connection
19:37to the deposed dictator.
19:38Eventually,
19:39they honed in
19:40on Saddam's inner circle,
19:41the Al-Muslim bloodline.
19:43The breakthrough
19:44wasn't a sudden confession,
19:45but a chain of interrogations.
19:47A detainee named
19:48Basim Latif
19:49pointed investigators
19:51to another loyalist
19:52until they finally
19:53zeroed in on
19:53Muhammad Ibrahim Omar
19:55al-Muslim.
19:56Also known to Task Force 121
19:58as the Fat Man
19:59and the Source,
20:00Omar was one of Saddam's
20:01relatives and bodyguards
20:03as well as a close confidant.
20:04If the US could find him,
20:06it could at last
20:07end this seemingly endless search.
20:09Task Force 121
20:10launched a lightning raid
20:11on a safe house in Baghdad
20:12where Omar was hiding.
20:14The American operators
20:15moved so fast
20:16that he had no time to flee
20:17and no opportunity to react.
20:19He was taken quickly
20:20to a secure interrogation facility
20:22where he was questioned.
20:23Omar reportedly resisted
20:25and wasn't even tempted
20:26by the multi-million dollar reward
20:27offered for any information
20:29leading to Saddam's capture,
20:30but in the end,
20:31he broke.
20:32By the next morning,
20:33in fact,
20:34he told the US
20:34exactly what it wanted to know.
20:36Not just a rough outline
20:37of where Saddam might be,
20:38but an exact location
20:39of where he was hiding
20:40at that very moment.
20:42A dusty,
20:43desolate farmstead
20:44out by Al-Douar.
20:45The clock was now ticking.
20:47The intelligence was fresh
20:48and seemed reliable,
20:49but with a target
20:50as paranoid as Saddam,
20:51the US had to act fast.
20:53If the dictator
20:53had any inkling
20:54or if anyone else
20:55managed to alert him
20:56that Omar had been captured,
20:57he could flee the area
20:58in the blink of an eye,
20:59vanishing once more
21:00into the vast Iraqi deserts.
21:02With no time to waste,
21:03a huge strike force
21:04was assembled,
21:05with 600 troops dispatched
21:07to the area
21:08indicated by Omar.
21:09Back on the evening
21:10of December 13, 2003,
21:12the assault force
21:13is closing in on Al-Douar.
21:14There are two structures
21:15that have been singled out
21:16as having particular importance,
21:18codenamed Wolverine 1
21:19and Wolverine 2,
21:20respectively,
21:21a reference to the 1984 movie
21:23Red Dawn,
21:24which is also chosen
21:25as the name
21:25of the operation itself.
21:27It's believed that Saddam
21:28is hiding in one
21:29of these two locations
21:30and the US has no intention
21:31of letting him get away.
21:33It has brought
21:34all of the assets necessary
21:35for a comprehensive capture,
21:37with backups
21:37and reinforcements ready
21:38to burst into action
21:39if anything goes wrong.
21:41A perimeter is established
21:42so that even if Saddam
21:43attempts to flee by vehicle,
21:45he'll have no way out
21:46and will inevitably run
21:47into a wall of American steel
21:48one way or another.
21:49This is it,
21:50the moment everything
21:51has been building to.
21:53With the perimeter secured,
21:54the elite operators
21:55of the task force
21:56move in to finish the job.
21:57They move swiftly,
21:59relying on their night vision goggles
22:00to navigate the darkness
22:01with ease.
22:02They approach Wolverine 1
22:04and force their way inside
22:05with bated breath,
22:07hoping and expecting
22:08to see the dictator
22:08huddled in a corner.
22:10But no,
22:11the place is empty.
22:12A second team moves in
22:13at Wolverine 2
22:14and encounters
22:15the same disappointment.
22:16Both locations
22:17have been checked.
22:18Both have yielded nothing.
22:20Saddam is still at large,
22:21but the US still has
22:22strong reason to believe
22:23that he's in the area.
22:24He had very little time
22:26to make any sort of getaway.
22:27So rather than withdrawing,
22:29the task force is told
22:30to conduct a wider search,
22:31checking every surrounding building,
22:33every structure,
22:34everything.
22:35Saddam has to be there somewhere.
22:37Eventually,
22:38some of the troops
22:38come across another basic hut.
22:40It looks like all the others
22:41in the area.
22:42But when one soldier
22:43kicked away a scrap
22:44of flooring material,
22:45he discovered
22:45one distinct difference,
22:46a small square opening
22:48in the ground,
22:49a spider hole,
22:50the perfect location
22:51for a wanted dictator
22:52on the run to hide out.
22:54But before the soldier
22:55could even begin his search,
22:56a pair of hands emerged
22:57from the spider hole,
22:59the hands of Saddam Hussein.
23:01Saddam made no attempt
23:02to flee or fight.
23:03He knew that his time
23:04on the run had come to an end.
23:05The game was up
23:06and he surrendered himself
23:07to his enemies.
23:08When he emerged
23:09from his hiding hole,
23:10he looked almost unrecognizable
23:12to the all-powerful,
23:13all-conquering dictator
23:14he had once been.
23:15Gone were the sharp suits,
23:16military outfits
23:17and flawlessly groomed face.
23:19In their place
23:20stood a dirty
23:20and disheveled individual.
23:22His hair was long and wild,
23:24his beard had grown out
23:25and gone gray.
23:26Physically,
23:26he was a shadow
23:27of his former self.
23:28Mentally, however,
23:29he clearly still understood
23:30exactly who he had once been.
23:32His first words
23:33to his captors
23:34were simple and clear.
23:35I am Saddam Hussein,
23:36I am the president of Iraq
23:38and I want to negotiate.
23:39The response he received
23:41was even more concise.
23:42Regards from President Bush.
23:45Inspecting his hideout,
23:46the operators found it
23:47to be an incredibly
23:47cramped bunker,
23:48barely six feet deep
23:49and just wide enough
23:50for a single person
23:51to lie flat.
23:52It had been equipped
23:53with a simple air vent
23:54and exhaust fan
23:55to prevent Saddam
23:56from suffocating.
23:57But it was a far cry
23:58from the luxurious
23:59palatial properties
24:00he'd been used to
24:00in the years prior.
24:01The soldiers also found
24:03some food supplies inside
24:04along with a large amount
24:05of cash
24:05and a few weapons,
24:06which Hussein evidently
24:07decided not to use.
24:09He was swiftly loaded
24:10onto a helicopter
24:11and extracted
24:11to a secure location.
24:13The hunt was finally over.
24:15The ace of spades
24:16had been found.
24:17A day later,
24:18American diplomat
24:19Paul Bremer
24:19uttered the immortal words.
24:21Ladies and gentlemen,
24:23we got him.
24:24The military released
24:26footage and images
24:26of Saddam's capture
24:27and medical examination.
24:29The once feared dictator,
24:31a man who had seemed
24:31almost invincible
24:32at the height of his powers,
24:34looked weaker
24:34than ever before.
24:35He went on to be held
24:36as a high-value prisoner
24:37of war while the interim
24:39Iraqi government
24:39established a special
24:40judicial framework
24:41to try him for the crimes
24:43he had committed
24:43against their country.
24:44In 2005,
24:46the proceedings began.
24:48Saddam defended himself
24:49as well as he could,
24:50snapping back at the charges
24:51levelled against him
24:52with the same bravado
24:53and confidence
24:54that had defined
24:54his time in power.
24:55But nothing he could say
24:56could counteract
24:57the overwhelming evidence
24:58against him.
24:59And on November 5, 2006,
25:02the inevitable verdict
25:03was delivered.
25:04Saddam Hussein
25:04was found guilty
25:05of crimes against humanity
25:06and sentenced to death.
25:08On December 30, 2006,
25:10the sentence was carried out
25:11and a man who had terrorized
25:13not just a nation,
25:14not just a region,
25:15but the entire world
25:16was at last brought to justice.
25:18His execution marked
25:19the definitive end
25:20of an era in the Middle East,
25:22an era that had been dominated
25:23by fear and violence.
25:24The man who had ruled
25:26through fear,
25:26built hardened bunkers
25:27and presided over mass killings
25:29had finally been captured
25:30by soldiers setting a trap
25:32one dark December night.
25:34To see how military technology
25:35completely shifted
25:36the balance of power
25:37in another devastating
25:38modern conflict,
25:39click the video on your screen
25:40right now
25:41and we'll see you
25:42on the next battlefield.
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