10 Real Life Historical Figures With The Highest Kill Counts

Saddam Hussein officially became the 5th President of Iraq in 1979, though he had been the de facto ruler for several years prior. A supporter of the Arab Social Ba'ath Party, Hussein played a major role in helping his organization seize control of the government in a coup, back in 1968.

Human rights violations would become a hallmark of the Hussein administration. Through the use of secret police, the dictator ordered rape, torture, extrajudicial killings, and mass murders on an alarmingly regular basis.

Of course, he was also the man behind the Anfal genocide, which claimed the lives of around 100,000 Kurds. He also launched the war between Iraq and Iran, a conflict that saw around 500,000 people perish. The dictator's reign of terror resulted in the demise of approximately 1 million people.

In 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops and was executed for war crimes, roughly three years later.