Why Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen troops wore Darth Vader helmets

The Fedayeen Saddam were loyal to one man: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Established in 1995, the Fedayeen Saddam was an irregular unit designed to protect the Ba’athist regime and the Iraqi president himself.

Other Middle Eastern personalities had their so-called “Fedayeen” forces, notably Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, but neither of those had the Sci-fi panache of the Fedayeen Saddam.

As Saddam’s personal guard and army, the Fedayeen was a significant force of 30-40,000 troops (approximately the size of an American corps) all wearing a completely black combat uniform, black ski masks, and some familiar-looking helmets.

Yes, Saddam’s Fedayeen, Arabic for “Men of Sacrifice,” wore enormous Darth Vader helmets. Their commander, Hussein’s son Uday, was a huge Star Wars fan. The above picture is an actual example from the Imperial War Museum in London.

While this may look ridiculously absurd to Western eyes, the shape of the helmet carried all the evil weight of Darth Vader’s helmet in the eyes of the Iraqi people—including its political elite. They were the regime’s enforcers, recruited from Saddam Hussein’s home region around Tikrit, and reported directly to the presidential palace, over the heads of the regular army.

Members were recruited into the Fedayeen Saddam as young as age 16. They received no specialty training or heavy weapons and were not members of the regular Iraqi military. So, as awesome as watching a fighting Darth Vader in “Rogue One” was, their Iraqi doppelgängers were not so awesome. Still, they were fanatically loyal to Saddam Hussein, despite essentially being shakedown artists and cannon fodder.

From its inception, members of the Fedayeen Saddam were intended to carry out the president’s dirty work, and even the dirty work of his extended family. Its troops were recruited from the stocks of neighborhood toughs and bullies and operated outside of regular Iraqi law, so they had no problem with executing criminals and dissenters in their own homes.

The reality of life in the Fedayeen was that they were mainly used to stop smuggling in Iraq, and then later became the smugglers, extortionists, torturers, and whatever else the Husseins had them do. It was all good as long as they didn’t shake down government officials.

Though U.S. military planners knew about the existence of the Fedayeen Saddam before the 2003 invasion, they weren’t sure what the Iraqi military would use them for once the shooting started. The best estimate was that they would be used as guerrilla fighters behind U.S. lines, which is what generally happened in urban areas. It was the Fedayeen Saddam, after all, who ambushed U.S. Marines in Nasiriyah under a flag of surrender in 2003.

Even after the regular army and Republican Guard forces crumbled away, the Fedayeen Saddam harassed U.S. troops through April 2003. Uday and Qusay famously met their gruesome end with a few members of the Fedayeen Saddam that same year.

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