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Saddam’s Tribe: Revenge behind Preventing Our Return Home

US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
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Saddam’s Tribe: Revenge behind Preventing Our Return Home

US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
US forces in the city center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)

More than a thousand families from the Iraqi village of Al-Awja, the hometown of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, have been living away from their homes for nearly a decade.

In 2014, the rise of ISIS and its grip on large swathes of provinces west and north of Iraq, including Saladin Governorate, where Al-Awja is situated, forced families to leave their homes.

Military authorities in Al-Awja, which is located on the banks of the Tigris River and is about 10 km south of the city of Tikrit, the center of Saladin, offer various reasons and excuses for not allowing the return of these uprooted families.

The authorities are claiming that some of the families had sympathized with the terrorist group, accusing some of even participating in some of the crimes carried out by ISIS.

Some, however, believe that the matter has to do with taking revenge on the region and its residents as most of them are relatives and kinsmen of Saddam. Before the fall of his rule in 2003, the region enjoyed significant influence and power.

Today, many of Al-Awja’s locals took refuge in the Kurdistan region. Some of them went to live in Tikrit, and some preferred to move to Turkiye or other Western countries.

“We are not alone as there are other families who were not allowed to return to their homes, such as the people of Jurf al-Sakhr, but our misfortune seems exceptional given our closeness to the late President Saddam Hussein,” Falah al-Nada, the son of the head of Al-Bu Nasir tribe, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Saddam was a member of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe.

“The new regime placed us in the category of permanent enemies who are not allowed to return,” added al-Nada.

“In 2003, Law No. 88 was issued. It considered all the people of Al-Awja to be pawns of Saddam’s regime, and decided to seize their movable and immovable money,” reminded al-Nada, adding that the law was revoked in 2018.

Al-Nada voiced his surprise regarding the decision to prevent the return of the people to their homes and said there is no justification other than “the will for revenge.”

When asked about the conditions of the city of Al-Awja 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam’s regime, al-Nada said: “We do not know, but the city has turned into a military barrack controlled by a faction affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).”

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FM: Iraq Wants Iran-backed Factions to Lay Down Weapons

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein speaks during an interview in London, Britain, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein speaks during an interview in London, Britain, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison
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FM: Iraq Wants Iran-backed Factions to Lay Down Weapons

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein speaks during an interview in London, Britain, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein speaks during an interview in London, Britain, January 15, 2025. REUTERS/Marissa Davison

Iraq is trying to convince powerful armed factions in the country that have fought US forces and fired rockets and drones at Israel to lay down their weapons or join official security forces, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein said.

The push comes with a backdrop of seismic shifts in the Middle East that have seen Iran's armed allies in Gaza and Lebanon heavily degraded and Syria's government overthrown.

The incoming US Trump administration promises to pile more pressure on Tehran, which has long backed a number of political parties and an array of armed factions in Iraq.

Some Baghdad officials are concerned the status quo there may be upended next, but Hussein played this down in an interview with Reuters during an official visit to London.

"We don't think that Iraq is the next," Hussein said.

The government was in talks to rein in the groups while continuing to walk the tightrope between its ties to both Washington and Tehran, he said.
"Two or three years ago it was impossible to discuss this topic in our society," he said.

But now, having armed groups functioning outside the state was not acceptable.

"Many political leaders, many political parties started to raise a discussion, and I hope that we can convince the leaders of these groups to lay down their arms, and then to be part of the armed forces under the responsibility of the government," Hussein said.

Iraq's balancing act has been tested by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups' attacks on Israel and on US troops in the country they say are in solidarity with Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war.

A promised Gaza ceasefire has the government breathing a sigh of relief, though uncertainty prevails over how the country may fare after Donald Trump becomes US president.

During the last Trump presidency, relations grew tense as he ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020, leading to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on an Iraqi base housing US forces.

"We hope that we can continue this good relationship with Washington," Hussein said. "It is too early now to talk about which policy President Trump is going to follow for Iraq or Iran."

Iraq will only be reassured about Syria when it sees an inclusive political process, Hussein said, adding Baghdad would supply the country with grain and oil once it could be assured it would go to all Syrians.
Baghdad was in talks with Syria's foreign minister over a visit to Iraq, he said.

"We are worried about the ISIS, so we are in contact with the Syrian side to talk about these things, but at the end to have a stable Syria means to have the representative of all components in the political process."

Baghdad and Washington last year agreed to end the US-led coalition's work by September 2026 and transition to bilateral military ties, but Hussein said that the developments in Syria would have to be watched.

"In the first place, we are thinking about security of Iraq and stability in Iraq. If there will be a threat to our country, of course it will be a different story," he said.