Iraq is the largest Shia majority Arab country, with approximately 62% percent of its population belonging to the Shia sect of Islam. Despite its majority Shia demographic composition, Iraq was ruled by Saddam Hussein from 1979 to 2003, A Sunni Arab leader belonging to the Sunni-dominated Tikrit region of northern Iraq. As a result, Shias in Iraq viewed him with resentment against them.
On the other hand, neighbouring country Iran, in 1979, the Islamic Revolution brought a prominent Shia cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini, to power. Khomeini, being a Shia radical cleric, promoted the expansion of the Shia sect and Iranian revolutionary Shia Islamic ideas by strengthening Shia political and religious influence across the neighbouring countries in the Levant basin till the Mediterranean region.
Saddam Hussein was concerned about this regime change in Iran and its growing influence on the Shia population of Iraq. He consolidated the Iraqi army, and in September 1980, he invaded Iran, which was overwhelmingly Shia, exceeding 90% or above.
Iran Iraq War (September 1980-August 1988)
After one year of assuming power in Iraq, Saddam Hussein launched an invasion of Iran in September 1980, which led to the Iran-Iraq War. The principal factors behind this conflict were the economic importance of the Shatt Al-Arab waterway due to its oil-rich nature. Shatt Al-Arab is situated alongside the borders of Southern Iraq and Southwestern Iran. The neighbouring Iranian province of Khuzestan is an Arab speaking province, unlike the rest of Iran, which has a Persian heritage. Khuzestan contains some of Iran’s largest oil reserves, and it was considered an area of strategic and economic value by Saddam Hussein.
Shatt Al-Arab
Alongside the territorial and economic considerations, Saddam Hussein realized the regional impact of the Iranian revolution of 1979. The emergence of the Shia regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran had fuelled fear in the mind of Saddam Hussein. He realized that the Shias in Iraq, passionate about the Iranian Shia regime, could revolt in Iraq and in the neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria, Shias could be inspired by the Iranian influence, which leads to geopolitical, economic, and security concerns in the region.
Khuzestan Province
In 1980, Saddam invaded Iran for territorial claims over Shatt Al-Arab and the Arab province of Khuzestan, and his effort to weaken the new Iranian Shia regime for Iraq’s regional security.
Shia uprising of Iraq (1982)
In Iraq, because of its Shia majority population, it supported the Shia Mullah regime of Iran, and when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, it fueled anger and unrest among the Iraqi Shia against the Saddam regime. Secondly, Iraqi Shias believed that due to the Shia majority status of Iraq, there is no meaning of a Sunni dictator in Iraq. Even though Saddam was a secular leader in the beginning, due to the Iran-Iraq war, Shia rebels made him a Sunni in nature.
On July 8, 1982, the Islamic Dawa Party, which was backed by Iran, a Shia political and militia group, attempted to assassinate Saddam, then the Iraqi President, in Dujail, a Shia-majority town situated north of Baghdad. Saddam visited Dujail town for his speech with his presidential motorcade. But the Dawa rebels opened fire on Saddam’s motorcade. Even though Saddam survived in this brutal attack, his Ba’ath party triggered a devastating wave of retaliation against the Iraqi Shia, which later led to the massacre of Dujail.
Dujail Massacre
After the motorcade attack by the Shia militia group Islamic Dawa party, Hundreds of Shias were arrested and detained by the Sunni Ba’athist party, and more than 150 people were executed for their alleged involvement in the conspiracy to kill Saddam. Many of the Shia families, even in the hundreds, were deported to ‘Abu Ghraib’ prison near Baghdad. Meanwhile, their properties, like farms, orchards, homes, and shops, were demolished by the government troops.
In 1984, around 148 people accepted their crime of ‘treason’ for providing arms to Shia Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. Then, in June 1984 the Iraqi court handed down the death sentence, ‘capital punishment,’ for the crime of treason, and on July 23rd, 1984, Saddam himself signed the court documents and authorized the execution of these convicts. He ordered the demolition of homes, farms, dairy, and orchards of the convicted people.
On December 30th, 2006, when Saddam Hussein was hanged in a trial court, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, in which his involvement in the Dujail massacre was also a matter of concern, along with his brother.
