THE LATEST IRAQ NEWS FROM MAILONLINE

Pentagon admits it has performed THOUSANDS more airstrikes than it has previously disclosed

08/02/17 13:16

The Pentagon has failed to disclose thousands of potentially lethal airstrikes by the US in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan over the course of several years, an investigation by the Military Times has found. The news source found that public summaries of operations in Iraq and Syria, current as of the end of January, exclude nearly 6,000 strikes dating to 2014 when Obama gave the go-ahead for action against ISIS. It also discovered that in 2016 alone at least 456 US airstrikes on militants, conducted by drones and helicopters, in Afghanistan were not documented in a US Air Force database. ...read

Government's Iraq abuse inquiry 'witch hunt' against British troops should be scrapped immediately, MPs are set to say in damning report

08/02/17 11:49

Tory backbencher Johnny Mercer, who is leading a parliamentary inquiry into Ihat, said he believed a 'rotten core' of civil servants had warped the purpose of the process.

ISIS fanatics living in fear of vigilante dubbed the Mosul Strangler after a jihadi was found smothered and a civilian stabbed a militant

08/02/17 10:12

The Islamic State put curfews in place in three residential areas in Tal Afar after the man was found dead, and ten people were arrested as they searched for the alleged assassin

Revealed - Disgraced lawyer who hounded Iraq veterans plotted with Holocaust denier to launch legal action BEFORE war even started

08/02/17 08:18

EXCLUSIVE: Phil Shiner, 60, plotted with a group of radical activists to bring legal action even before a shot was fired – yet was still given £1.6million of public money to pursue his spurious cases.

My big fat MOSUL wedding! Couple tie the knot with glitter, dancing and KALASHNIKOVS in city's first public ceremony since fall of Isis

07/02/17 18:11

Iraqi officers fired their guns into the clear Mosul sky as newlyweds Jassem, 20, and Rana, 18, made their way to his family home in the eastern half of the city which has been finally liberated from ISIS.

Iraqi girl, 10, is 'bitten to death' with medieval torture device by female ISIS fanatics after her mother was asked to choose if she or the child would be punished for stepping outside their house

07/02/17 16:04

The youngster, named Faten, was punished by the fanatics' morality police after stepping over the threshold of her home while cleaning.

'Crucified' for smuggling cigarettes: Two men are publicly punished by ISIS fanatics for trying to bring tobacco into Mosul

07/02/17 11:21

They were reprimanded in the city of Mosul, Iraq, under the terror group's law, which states cigarettes are illegal as it is viewed as a form of suicide, which is illegal under Islamic sharia law.

'We leave them so dogs eat them': ISIS terrorists are left to rot alongside their suicide belts on the streets of Mosul as Iraqi army tries to stamp out any support for jihadists

06/02/17 22:44

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - The fly-blown corpses of ISIS militants have been left to rot on a main street in Mosul as the Iraqi Army leave them as a grisly warning to others.

Iran is set to 'showcase its power' with a missile test for a Revolutionary Guards exercise after Trump's defense secretary calls Tehran the 'world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism'

04/02/17 22:40

Iran is today testing missile and radar systems to 'showcase its power' to new US President Donald Trump. The test retaliates to sanctions on Tehran yesterday for a recent ballistic missile trial.

ISIS bomb expert accidentally blows himself up along with a fellow jihadist as they planted road-side explosives in Iraq

03/02/17 08:28

The bungling Islamic State militant, nicknamed Abu Abdullah, died alongside his companion in the town of Shirqat, Iraq. He was part of one of the terror group's top booby-trapping cells.

ISIS amputate the hands of two boys aged ten and 12 who refused to execute two civilians in front of their families in Mosul

03/02/17 01:18

Fanatics trained up a group of children from its stronghold in western Mosul to fight against advancing Iraqi troops.

Heartbreaking photos reveal suffering of Mosul zoo animals including a lion and a bear left to starve to death by ISIS

02/02/17 21:48

An emaciated lioness was found cowering in a squalid cage and lying on exposed cables at Al-Murur public park, in Mosul, Iraq, after the area was liberated from ISIS.

'Fairfield is full… we're too crowded': Refugee residents of the western Sydney suburb where HALF of all Syrian and Iraqi asylum seekers will settle tell others not to come to the area

02/02/17 01:33

Australians from the Middle East have warned refugees fleeing war-ravaged Iraq and Syria against building a new life for themselves in Sydney's western suburbs.

Revealed: Detroit business owner LIED when he claimed Trump's travel ban caused his sick Iraqi mother to die

01/02/17 22:22

Michigan man Mike Hager falsely claimed his mother fell ill while in Iraq and later died because she was not allowed to return to the US to receive urgent treatment because of Trump's travel ban.

Immigration ban separates badly burned toddler from his family after his father flew back to Iraq for the birth of his son named TRUMP

01/02/17 21:13

An Iraqi baby was taken to Shriners Hospital in Boston after he was burned in an explosion in a refugee camp. The father returned to Iraq for the birth of his baby Trump, but is now stranded.

Detroit business owner claims Trump's travel ban caused his sick Iraqi mother to die after she was stopped from flying to the U.S. for urgent treatment

01/02/17 18:23

American citizen Mike Hager had been trying to fly back to Michigan with his sick Iraqi mother Naimma, who has lived in the US for 22 years, when she was stopped from boarding a plane in Iraq.

Fixer 'was paid £500 a time for each person he got to accuse British soldiers of abuse'

01/02/17 00:29

Mazin Younis (right) was also handed £500 by disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner for each Iraqi he persuaded to accuse soldiers of committing murder or torture, a tribunal in London heard.

'She endured hell': Purple Heart Iraq War veteran and his wife convicted in the killing of their five-year-old daughter as the two await the birth of their second child

31/01/17 22:29

Phillip and Vickie Gleason were both sentenced to prison for the 2013 murder of their daughter, who was killed by her father, while Vicki carries the Lancaster, South Carolina couple's second baby.

Poll shows support for Trump's travel order 'even if it means turning away refugees' as a majority back 'requiring immigrants from Muslim countries to register with the federal government'

31/01/17 14:32

Polling taken early this month showed majority support for a general expression of President Trump's controversial plan to halt immigration from 'terror-prone' countries.

'Let the dogs eat them': Chilling images inside 'liberated' Mosul show dead bodies of ISIS fighters lay rotting in the streets and EATEN by wild dogs

31/01/17 14:20

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - The decaying bodies of ISIS fighters litter the streets of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, after a government led offensive freed its citizens of the terror group's rule.

What a coward: Soldier's verdict on disgraced lawyer who hounded our innocent troops for years... But claims HE's too stressed to go to his own tribunal!

31/01/17 10:04

Phil Shiner, a solicitor who worked for the now-defunct Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), sent the tribunal in central London a letter asking for the case to be adjourned on the basis that he was not well.

Husband of pregnant Missouri nurse hoping to be in US for their son's birth is now stuck in Iraq and will likely miss it after Trump's immigration ban

30/01/17 20:53

Rachel Adrian, a nurse from Missouri, and her Iraqi Kurd husband, Hoger Ameen, were looking forward to welcoming their son together Thursday, but Trump's travel ban brought their plans to a halt.

Iraq brings in travel ban on US citizens in tit-for-tat move

30/01/17 18:12

Iraq has banned US citizens from travelling to the country in a tit-for-tat move following Donald Trump's extreme vetting executive order.

Islamic State's chief executioner - who has beheaded more than 100 people - is knifed to death in an ambush in Iraq

30/01/17 17:11

Nicknamed Abu Sayyaf, he was dubbed one of the terror groups scariest decapitators and was paraded in their sick videos for his huge frame and was ISIS' leader in Nineveh State, Iraq.

'I cannot fight jihad today as I have a bad back': Sick notes written by ISIS fighters desperate to escape the front line are uncovered… from headaches to sore feet

30/01/17 16:45

As the terror group is flushed out of areas of Iraq, coalition forces have uncovered documents that belong to the Tarek ibn Ziad battalion that operates in Iraq revealing ISIS fighters' complaints.

Cheer up, at least we've seen off one dodgy lawyer, MoD tells soldiers in morale-boosting letter from top brass

30/01/17 00:40

British soldiers hounded by over their conduct in Iraq have been told by the Ministry of Defence to ‘take comfort’ from the prosecution of the human rights lawyer behind many of the allegations.

221 shares We've seen off one dodgy lawyer, MoD tells soldiers

The wedding of freedom: Cheering Mosul residents celebrate first marriage since ISIS was crushed in the east of the city as female guests ditch their veils in celebration

27/01/17 17:28

Pictures show smiling wedding guests in a white car covered in decorations in a recaptured eastern part of eastern Mosul in Iraq.

Iraqi troops find over 100 priceless Assyrian artefacts plundered from ancient ruins hidden under the home of an ISIS leader in Mosul

27/01/17 16:36

The ancient clay pots, vases and other artefacts uncovered are believed to have come from the Niveveh Ruins as well as Nimrud, which has been reduced to ruins by the terror group in Mosul.

Iraqi forces discover terrifying arsenal of weapons including mustard gas and dozens of ageing rockets in ISIS arms warehouse

27/01/17 15:18

The weapons were found among dozens of rockets hidden in a storage unit in Mosul with Iraqi troops claiming the haul presented a 'huge chemical threat'.

Is the Pentagon trying to undermine Trump? Department of Defense tweets about Iraqi refugee who became a Marine on the same day President bans immigrants from seven Muslim countries

26/01/17 16:10

Hours after it was revealed that President Donald Trump was going to sign a temporary ban on most refugees, the Department of Defense highlighted the story of Marine Cpl Ali J Mohammed.

ISIS executes a judge and four of its leading commanders for fleeing a battle with Iraqi troops in Mosul

26/01/17 12:07

The judge, nicknamed Abu Hafsa, and the four other commanders ran away from the battle for eastern Mosul and were eventually captured before being shot by firing squad in front of a large crowd.

Boy so small he can barely see over the steering wheel is 'star' of terrifying ISIS video where he sets off a suicide car bomb moments after an attack drone drops grenades on Mosul

25/01/17 13:16

Footage shows the boy, no older than 14, climbing into an armour-clad vehicle before aerial shots shows him driving towards a target in war-torn Mosul, Iraq.

Iraqi forces retake last area of Mosul east of the Tigris River after 100 days of deadly fighting – but now comes the even harder battle to regain control of the city's western districts held by ISIS

25/01/17 00:14

Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi has said his troops have completely liberated eastern Mosul three months after the operation to retake the city had begun.

Iraqi troops torture and execute three ISIS fighters in a sickening video which has enraged the United Nations

24/01/17 23:37

A sickening video has emerged of Iraqi forces torturing and executing three ISIS militants. The harrowing footage shows men in army uniform parading their victims through Mosul, Iraq.

ISIS unveils a new remote-controlled drone that they film dropping a BOMB in Mosul

24/01/17 12:26

The Islamic State has unveiled its latest unmanned bombing drone. The terror group showed off its latest weapon in propaganda video filmed in Mosul, Iraq.

Terrifying Robot Wars-style ISIS tank bomb is stopped in its tracks when elite Iraqi forces kill the driver in battle to retake Mosul

24/01/17 11:54

The massive homemade tank bomb was stopped in its tracks by elite Iraqi troops in besieged Mosul before it could reach its target.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 'critically injured in air strikes in northern Iraq'

23/01/17 18:05

The terror mastermind is said to have been wounded after a bombing raid in Al-Ba'aj. Baghdadi last month released a defiant audio message urging his supporters to defend the city of Mosul.

Meet Iraq’s hipsters: Incredibly well-groomed Kurdish men launch clothing brand to prove Iraq is not just a country of war and terrorism

23/01/17 16:32

Mr Erbil is a gathering of Kurdish men who are widely regarded as Iraq's first gentleman's club and have done away with the traditional tatty outfits of the area and replaced them with snappy suits.

ISIS prisoners are shot in the head and have their throats cut in gruesome mass execution of 'spies' and captured Iraqi soldiers

22/01/17 09:19

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Captured Iraqi soldiers and prisoners accused of being spies are either shot in the head or have their throats cut in the grim video, filmed in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.

No escape! Cowardly ISIS terrorists fleeing Battle of Mosul are hit in US-led coalition airstrikes on 90 boats and three barges

21/01/17 23:57

Video footage captured the boats being struck as they crossed the Tigris River which runs through the Iraqi city. The militants had taken to the water to escape the east of the city.

ISIS arms toy drones with GRENADES to bomb Iraqi troops: RAF pilots hunt down the devices amid fears the weapons could be used against British troops

21/01/17 06:58

Typhoon warplanes blitzed a base packed full of the drones and their barbaric operators using 500lb laser-guided bombs last week.

From the horrors of war to paradise: Joyful moment 100 Syrian and Iraq refugees celebrate their first trip to an Australian beach

20/01/17 01:22

Refugees fleeing war-torn Syria and Iraq have experienced their first day out at an Australian beach. Joseph Ghazal joined 100 other refugees at Caloundra, Queensland on Wedensday.

People smuggler is jailed after he was caught trying to sneak an Iraqi man through the Channel Tunnel in his boot

19/01/17 17:49

Ibrahim Erkal (pictured), 34, from Swindon in Wiltshire, claimed he had been in Paris for a two-day 'sightseeing trip' when suspicious Border Force officers stopped his Mercedes.

ISIS fighters bring death to Mosul from beyond the grave: Fanatics are overthrown... but their rotting bodies are spreading lethal disease

19/01/17 09:42

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Experts have warned of the threat of disease being spread by contaminated water, after Iraqi forces announced they were in 'full control' of eastern Mosul.

'It will become a ghetto': Plan to place half of all Syrian and Iraqi refugees in just one Sydney suburb slammed as it is claimed they 'won't assimilate'

17/01/17 10:27

Social commentator Prue MacSween slammed the government's decision to house over 6,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees within one Sydney council, saying the area will turn into a 'ghetto.'

More than HALF of Australia's 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees to be settled in one area of Sydney

17/01/17 07:49

An area in southwest Sydney with high crime and unemployment will be settling half of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees coming to Australia. Fairfield City Council was home to Vietnamese boat people.

ISIS is increasingly modifying home drones to drop bombs - and US troops say they now see them in Mosul every DAY

16/01/17 16:54

Social media posts have revealed that ISIS have modified drones to drop bombs. Coalition air forces have hit ISIS-made drones and drone production sites in both Syria and Iraq.

Deaf boy, six, who fled Iraq with his family when ISIS threatened to kill disabled children is told he can stay in Britain after an 11th hour reprieve

15/01/17 04:58

Lawand Hamadamin, who was born deaf and unable to communicate, fled the country with his parents and brother last year, coming to Derby after staying in a French refugee camp.

The Iraq that Lawrence of Arabia knew: Rarely seen photographs of Mesopotamia taken by British soldiers during the First World War's Arab Revolt emerge for auction

14/01/17 01:53

Rare images of the Arab revolt during the First World War are to be auctioned off later on this month. The images give an insight into the British forces and their interaction with Mesopotamia (Iraq).

Hacker accesses ISIS's radio channel and taunts Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by saying: 'Mosul will be liberated'

13/01/17 20:14

An anonymous radio hacker has embarrassed ISIS by breaking onto their frequency and sending a message to Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that 'Mosul will be liberated'.

Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf 'killed in airstrike in Iraq' - 18 months after he was reported dead in Syria

13/01/17 15:22

Notorious Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has been killed by an airstrike in Iraq, 18 months after he was believed dead in Syria, along with three other countrymen listed as his 'aides'.

ISIS fighters shoot EACH OTHER in the chaos following UK missile and drone raids on jihadi targets in Mosul

13/01/17 04:29

ISIS fighters shot each other in the chaos following a series of British airstrikes in the battle for Mosul. Elsewhere today, a car bomb was destroyed in the east of the city.

ISIS cut off water supply to thousands of people in liberated areas of Mosul as the terror group continues to lose ground

10/01/17 18:46

Iraqi forces (shown) have seized two-thirds of Mosul's eastern districts but ISIS still rule over the city's water stations, and are understood to have switched off the supply to 30 neighbourhoods.

ISIS extremists in Mosul hurl blindfolded prisoner off a roof in front of a crowd of men and boys after accusing him of being gay

10/01/17 14:41

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: A fanatic can be seen reading out charges against the prisoner who is then dragged to the top of a building in the besieged Iraqi city.

ISIS' last stand: Terror group fight with sniper fire, booby traps and suicide car bombs as pro-democracy forces make key breakthrough in Mosul

09/01/17 01:18

Iraqi forces that are battling ISIS in northern Iraq have managed to take control of parts of Mosul today after a 12 week operation. However, reclaiming other areas has been difficult as jihadists have fought back.

The face of raw courage: Brave Yazidi teenager was kidnapped by jihadis and sold into sexual slavery before being injured in an explosion as she made a daring dash for freedom

08/01/17 02:47

Lamiya Haji Bashar was tortured, raped and attacked by Islamic State members who invaded her village of Kocho, near Sinjar, Iraq. She tells Ian Birrell her story.

Relatives of Ft.Lauderdale shooting suspect reveal how he 'lost his mind' after Iraq tour, was being prosecuted for strangling his ex and had been hospitalized with psychiatric problems

07/01/17 11:34

Esteban Santiago, the 26-year-old gunman behind the deadly shooting at Florida's Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, was an Iraq war veteran who was suffering mental health issues.

Photographer in Mesopotamia: Incredible pictures taken by Agatha Christie reveal how she helped uncover Iraq's lost city of Nimrud with her archaeologist husband in between writing her detective novels

06/01/17 18:40

Revered for her suspenseful writing style and famous characterizations, newly uncovered photography reveals another talent of the British storyteller Agatha Christie.

Lying in the dust and being picked off by looters, the shattered remains of the ancient city of Nimrud that was obliterated by ISIS

06/01/17 15:59

These pictures show the shattered remains of what was once one of the most magnificent cities in the Middle East. The ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud has been reduced to rubble by Islamic State.

Islamic State 'has stopped paying the salaries of its fighters in Mosul' just as they face the fiercest part of the battle for the city

06/01/17 09:19

ISIS has stopped paying the salaries of its fighters in Mosul as fighting in the Iraqi city intensifies, residents say. The militants usually receive a monthly wage of about $350.

Terrifying drone video shows devastating effect of ISIS car bombings in Mosul

06/01/17 01:18

Aerial footage shows suicide bombers driving around the streets of the Iraqi city of Mosul, before the vehicles, and the buildings around them, erupt in a series of huge and terrifying explosions.

A Donald Trump-themed restaurant opened in the heart of Iraqi Kurdistan after owner heard President-elect’s promises to arm Kurdish forces to help defeat ISIS

05/01/17 19:54

Even before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, one of his biggest fans has named a fish restaurant after him in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Young British soldier who became a father just three months ago died on Iraqi base 'after being shot by a colleague'

03/01/17 21:08

Lance Corporal Scott Hetherington, 22, died in mysterious circumstances at a base in Taji, north of Baghdad. It has now been reported Lance Corporal Hetherington was shot by a fellow British soldier.

Iraqi police uncover huge ISIS arms depot and bomb-making workshop near Mosul after terror group fled in haste

03/01/17 19:58

A video has emerged of Iraqi Police presenting a stash of weapons and explosives seized from ISIS during the tussle for the city of Nimrud showing the terror faction;s military strength.

Iraqi refugee, 21, who tried to flee Britain to become an ISIS suicide bomber in Syria is jailed after his family called 999 to get him stopped

03/01/17 18:06

Former Kurdish rebellion fighter Shivan Azeez Zangana (pictured), 21, fled his Sheffield home and bought a plane ticket to Sulaymaniyah in Iraq after being turned to ISIS by a fellow asylum-seeker.

British soldier dies in Iraq but their death is 'not as the result of enemy activity'

03/01/17 08:38

A British soldier has died in Iraq while training troops to fight against ISIS, the Ministry of Defence confirmed. The solider died following an 'incident' but the death was not 'a result of enemy activity'.

'Taking action against terrorism here in Iraq prevents acts of terror on our own soil': France's President Hollande in defiant mood as he visits Mosul and Baghdad

03/01/17 08:12

Francois Hollande stressed that supporting Iraq was one of the surest ways of securing Europe, while visiting Baghdad days after an ISIS suicide bomber killed 32 people in the Iraqi capital.

ISIS release shocking video of double suicide blast which killed 27 in Baghdad marketplace

02/01/17 17:31

A video released by ISIS shows the moment of a twin suicide attack on New Year's eve left 27 people dead at the popular al-Sinak outdoor market in Baghdad, Iraq.

Car bomb attack in Baghdad kills at least 32 labourers who were waiting for work at a busy intersection

02/01/17 11:48

The blast happened in the sprawling Sadr City district of Baghdad this morning and many of the victims were daily labourers waiting for jobs while standing near to a busy intersection.

Christmas in hell: Children shot as they flee. Prisoners tortured with drills. A gripping dispatch from the front line in Iraq as our veteran war reporter witnesses the human cost of Islamic State's barbarity

01/01/17 13:51

There was no white Christmas for Mosul. Instead, what fell from the skies was an Islamic State mortar barrage and the answering coalition air strikes.

At least 28 killed and 54 hurt as two bombs detonated by Islamic State suicide bombers tear through a crowded market in Baghdad

31/12/16 21:09

The attacks happened early on Saturday morning in Al-Sinaq, a busy market selling car accessories, food and clothes as well as agricultural seeds and machinery.

'It would be worse than a nuclear bomb': Allied troops and ISIS battle for collapsing Mosul Dam that would send 45-foot tidal wave hundreds of miles and kill 1.5MILLION people if it breaches

28/12/16 17:24

Waves of up to 45ft would be unleashed if the dam breaks, flooding Mosul and causing an estimated 1.5million deaths amid a constant threat from Islamic State terrorists fleeing the Iraqi city.

Hundreds of civilians return to their devastated homes in eastern Aleppo but refugees are pouring out of Mosul as fighting intensifies

26/12/16 22:00

Hundreds of Syrian civilians have started returning to their homes in the badly damaged east of Aleppo after months of intense fighting amid the discovery of mass graves.

Oil wells set on fire by ISIS are still burning FOUR MONTHS after the terror group torched them... and the soot has turned Mosul’s sheep black

24/12/16 00:42

ISIS set fire to oil wells before the Qayyarah area was recaptured by Iraqi forces in August, and these have burned for months, turning sheep that graze in the area black with soot.

Terror from above: ISIS releases slick propaganda montage of their frightening suicide bomb attacks that they filmed by drone

22/12/16 13:22

The propaganda video was broadcast on ISIS media channels on December 20. It purportedly shows suicide bombings in Iraq's countryside.

Deaf boy, 6, who fled Iraq and sought refuge in Britain with his family after ISIS threatened to kill disabled people now faces deportation

22/12/16 12:05

Lawand Hamadamin, who was born unable to communicate, was taken from a refugee camp in Dunkirk, France, and offered a place at a deaf school in the UK where he has 'thrived'.

Half-buried with his legs in the air... and left for children to stare and giggle at: ISIS fighter killed in Mosul becomes macabre display in reclaimed city

19/12/16 18:35

A photograph shows an Iraqi special forces soldier, looking angrily in the direction of a group of children, one of whom seems to be giggling at the sight of a half-buried ISIS militant in Mosul.

Tory MP in charge of the inquiry into the hounding of Iraq veterans received texts from MoD officials telling him to be less critical of the Government

19/12/16 11:11

Former Army captain Johnny Mercer, pictured with his wife Felicity, said Ministry of Defence officials had told him his inquiry was 'not helpful' to ministers.

Cubs of the Caliphate: Teenager arrested with a suicide bomb reveals how he and other children were brainwashed and trained to wage holy war by ISIS

19/12/16 01:30

Mahmoud Ahmed, pictured, admitted he was trained by ISIS along with children as young as nine to become suicide bombers in Iraq before he was arrested on a failed mission.

The Saddam interrogation: Ten years after the tyrant's execution, the CIA agent who grilled him reveals the shattering truth... that everything the US thought it knew was WRONG

18/12/16 16:38

In his book, Debriefing The President: The Interrogation Of Saddam Hussein, CIA analyst John Nixon says the ruthless dictator of Iraq, 'turned our assumptions upside down'.