Early years

In 1995 Uday Hussein formed the Fedayeen Saddam with ten to fifteen thousand recruits to maintain internal security in Iraq. The Fedayeen fighters tend to come from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit or are recruited from his al-Bu Nasir tribe.^[8] Uday used the Fedayeen for personal reasons such as smuggling and suppressing opponents.^[1]

In 1996 command of the militia was handed to Qusay Hussein when it was uncovered that Uday was diverting weapons to the militia from the Iraqi Republican Guard.

In 1998 the Ashbal Saddam (Saddam's Lion Cubs) was created to recruit and train young children for membership in the Fedayeen. The Ashbal recruited boys aged 10 to 15 for training in small arms and infantry tactics as well as loyalty conditioning.

Before Saddam was removed from power, the force was placed back under Uday's control.

2003 U.S. invasion

The Fedayeen Saddam did not rise to international attention, however, until the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led Coalition forces. Whereas the Iraqi army and the Republican Guard quickly collapsed, Fedayeen forces put up stiff resistance to the coalition invasion. U.S. strategy was to bypass other cities and head straight to Baghdad. In response, Fedayeen fighters entrenched themselves in the cities and launched guerrilla-style attacks on rear supply convoys. These convoys were attempting but usually falling short of keeping up with the rapid advance to Baghdad. They were attempting to sustain the rapid advance by bringing up food, water, ammunition, medical supplies and mail from back home. These were very lightly armed cargo trucks driving as fast as they could on dirt roads mainly in southern Iraq, after loading supplies in Kuwait. Once they started to get close to central Iraq more and more paved roads were available. They were almost always at least a few days behind. This made the resupply convoys vulnerable to attack. In these trucks were usually low to mid ranking enlisted soldiers with mostly no combat experience. For instance these cargo trucks mainly were only defended by the two rifles the driver and truck commander had. So even with a relatively small force the Fedayeen could attack several of the last trucks in a convoy, or trucks that had lost contact with the convoy. It was easy for the Fedayeen to capture or destroy these isolated poorly defended vehicles. The Fedayeen also used intimidation in an attempt to maintain morale in the Iraqi army and to keep civilians from rebelling. The multinational coalition was forced to turn its attention to the slow task of rooting out irregular forces from the southern cities, delaying the advance by two weeks. During the invasion, Fedayeen fighters mostly wielded AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, and truck-mounted artillery and mortars. They made extensive use of subterfuge in an attempt to blunt the overwhelming technological advantage used by the invading forces.

By the end of the first week of April, Coalition forces had mostly succeeded in rooting out Fedayeen forces from the southern cities. The Shiite population was very un-supportive of the fighters, although many were intimidated. This factor, coupled with overwhelming firepower, quickly gave U.S. forces in the area a decisive edge. This reduced the pressure on the stretched supply lines, enabling the advance to continue. On April 9, Baghdad fell to U.S. forces with only sporadic resistance by Fedayeen irregulars, foreign volunteers, and remnants of the Special Republican Guard, effectively ending the regime of Saddam Hussein. Tikrit, the last city to fall, was taken on April 13.

The Fedayeen Saddam was officially dissolved on May 23, 2003, per Order 2 of the Coalition Provisional Authority under Administrator Paul Bremer.

Iraqi insurgency

The fall of Baghdad effectively ended the existence of the Fedayeen Saddam as an organized paramilitary. Some of its members died during the war. A large number survived, however, and were willing to carry on the fight even after the fall of Saddam Hussein from power. The disbanding of the Iraqi army and the de-Ba'athification policy sent many former Fedayeen members into the arms of Sunni guerrilla organizations, including jihadist groups such as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad that began to form to resist the U.S.-led occupation. By June 2003, an insurgency was clearly underway in central and northern Iraq, especially in the area known as the Sunni Triangle. Some units of the Fedayeen also continued to operate independently of other insurgent organizations in the Sunni areas of Iraq. On November 30, 2003, a U.S. convoy traveling through the town of Samarra in the Sunni Triangle was ambushed by over 100 Iraqi guerrillas, reportedly wearing trademark Fedayeen Saddam uniforms. Exactly how much influence they had in the resistance, especially following Saddam Hussein's capture on December 13, 2003, was a source of controversy. Four former members of Fedayeen Saddam were arrested in the volatile Salah al-Din province on May 14, 2004, for the abduction, transfer, and gruesome beheading of American Nicholas Berg.^[9][10][11]

Additional roles

The Fedayeen has been cited as carrying out some of the most brutal acts of the pro-Saddam militias. Fedayeen Saddam committed torture and executions involving beatings, breaking bones, gouging out eyes, throwing people off of high buildings, chopping off fingers, ears and genitals, cutting out tongues, piercing hands with electric drills, ritualized mutilations and amputations.^{[12][13][14][15]} Additionally, they were thought to have acted as enforcers for the Iraqi army in order to prevent desertion.^[16] In the last two years of Hussein's rule, a campaign of beheadings, mainly targeting women suspected of prostitution and carried out by his elite Fedayeen unit, killed more than 200 people, human rights groups reported at the time.^[17]