BAGHDAD - Iraq's official media marked President Sad dam Hussein's 60th birthday yesterday with poems and articles praising their leader as "a blessing from God".
Loudspeakers in streets of the capital, Baghdad, blared out: "Blessed be your birthday, our beloved leader. May God add from our age to yours." Iraq television showed pictures of Saddam touring the countryside, meeting armed forces and visiting schools and universities.
Saddam has been in power since 1979 and led Iraq through two wars the eight year conflict with Iran and then the short lived invasion of Kuwait which ended with the defeat of Iraqi troops by American led forces.
Iraq twice defied the UN and Washington this month, first by flying a planeload of haj pilgrims to Saudi Arabia and then sending helicopters through the West's no fly zones to the Saudi border to take them back home.