红色黎明行动

背景

自从2003年美军入侵伊拉克之后，萨达姆就从大众视线里消失了。美国军方将其列为“一号高价值目标”，并开始了历史上最大规模的搜捕行动。

在2003年7月到12月之间，联合特种作战司令部的121特遣部队针对萨达姆进行了12次不成功的搜捕，同时还进行了其他600次针对目标的行动，包括300次审讯。2003年12月1日，一名萨达姆的前司机透露了萨达姆的得力助手穆罕默德·易卜拉欣·奥马尔·穆斯科的名字。在接下来的两周时间里，美军对萨达姆的四十位家人进行了审讯。2003年12月12日，在巴格达进行突袭后，美军逮捕了奥马尔，他招供了萨达姆可能藏身的位置。在诸多情报之下，美军最终确定，萨达姆在提克里特南部一个偏远的农场。

Saddam Hussein, the deposed president of Iraq, was captured by the United States military in the town of Ad-Dawr, Iraq, on 13 December 2003. The military operation to capture him was codenamed Operation Red Dawn, after the 1984 American film Red Dawn.

The mission was executed by joint operations Task Force 121—an elite and covert joint special operations team, supported by the 1st Brigade Combat Team (led by Colonel James Hickey) of the 4th Infantry Division, commanded by Major General Raymond Odierno.

They searched two sites, "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2", outside ad-Dawr, and did not find Saddam. A continued search between the two sites found Saddam hiding in a "spider hole" at 20:30 local Iraqi time. Saddam did not resist capture.

Background

Saddam disappeared from public view shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq began. The U.S. military labelled him "High Value Target Number One" (HVT1) and began one of the largest manhunts in history.

Between July and December 2003, JSOC's Task Force 121 carried out twelve unsuccessful raids to find Saddam, together with 600 other operations against targets, including 300 interrogations.……

Operation

Operation Red Dawn was launched after gaining actionable intelligence identifying two likely locations of Saddam's whereabouts code-named Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2, near the town of ad-Dawr. C squadron Delta Force, ISA operators under Task Force 121, and the First Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division conducted the operation. The operation was named after the 1984 film Red Dawn. The site names "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2" are also a reference to the American insurgent group in the film.……

Aftermath

After the capture of Saddam, the 4th Infantry Division's area of operations in the upper Tigris saw its "first period of real calm". CJTF-7 also saw IED attacks reduce by 39 percent. The perceived security improvements led CJTF-7 and the CPA to adopt an optimistic outlook as 2003 ended. CJTF-7 believed that the capture of Saddam and his money heralded the defeat of the former regime's insurgency.……

Reactions

Middle East

Bahrain: The official Bahrain News Agency quoted an official government source saying, "The kingdom sees this day as a new page for Iraq so its people may take sure steps to restore their role at the Arab and regional and international levels."

Egypt: Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said, "I don't think anyone will be sad over Saddam Hussein. His arrest does not change the fact that his regime was finished, and it is the natural consequence of the regime's fall.……

POW status

A Pentagon spokesman said he was given prisoner of war (POW) status as he was the leader of the "old regime's military forces".

The spokesman, Major Michael Shavers, said Saddam, captured by U.S. troops in December, was entitled to all the rights under the Geneva Conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross had asked to visit the former Iraqi leader as soon as possible. Shavers did not give further details about Saddam's conditions of detention.

Cultural impact

A British graphic from 2003 which depicted Hussein's hiding spot became an internet meme in the 2020s. The graphic depicts Hussein as a small red figure lying on its back in a spider hole, also highlighting other features of the hiding place including an air vent, fan, and an entrance hidden by bricks and rubble. The simple shape of the design later became subject to pareidolia online, with examples of the graphic's likeness in foods and other products being reposted as memes on social media, particularly on TikTok.……