Uday Hussein and Qusay Hussein, Iraqi officials (respectively, b. June 18, 1964, Baghdad, Iraq—d. July 22, 2003, Mosul, Iraq, and b. May 17, 1966, Baghdad—d. July 22, 2003, Mosul), as the elder sons of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were central figures in their father’s brutal 24-year rule. Despite their common goal of supporting their father’s regime, the two brothers were very different. Uday was a flamboyant womanizer who financed his lavish lifestyle largely through smuggling and racketeering. His erratic and violent behaviour was widely known, and he allegedly reveled in wanton murder, rape, and particularly vicious forms of torture. Uday attended the University of Baghdad College of Engineering and the Al-Bakh Military Academy, although he showed little interest or ability in either. From the mid-1980s he controlled a radio station, a television station, and the daily newspaper Babil (Arabic for Babylon), as well as the Ministry of Youth. In his role as head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in the mid-1990s, Uday reportedly jailed and tortured athletes who failed to live up to his expectations. He alienated his father in 1988 when he beat one of Saddam’s personal aides to death in public. As a result, Uday was briefly imprisoned and then exiled to Switzerland. After returning to Iraq in about 1990, Uday became head of the paramilitary fedayeen. He oversaw the punishment of disloyal soldiers during and after the first Gulf War and was thought to have been responsible for the deaths of his two brothers-in-law who had defected to Jordan and then returned to Iraq. He was left partially paralyzed by an assassination attempt in 1996. Although Qusay was considered as ruthless as his older brother, he was more discreet and low-profile than Uday. Qusay studied law at the University of Baghdad and served as deputy head of Saddam’s special security organization, using his power to torture and summarily execute prison inmates and political opponents. After the first Gulf War, he crushed a Shiʿite rebellion in southern Iraq and administered the destruction of the ancient marshlands in that region. After Uday was shot and crippled, Qusay took control of the fedayeen, as well as the elite Republican Guards and the National Security Council. By 2000 Uday reportedly had proved too unstable to retain his father’s trust, and Qusay was generally regarded as Saddam’s heir apparent. In early 2003, after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, Qusay and Uday were designated, respectively, the second and third most-wanted officials of the old regime. The brothers were in hiding in a private residence in northern Iraq when they were killed in a shootout with U.S. troops.
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