Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, after he became President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. Saddam was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party. Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq. Saddam launched an invasion of Iran’s oil fields in September 1980, but the campaign bogged down in a war of attrition. Under Saddam rule, Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990. He ignored appeals to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, despite the buildup of a large U.S.-led military force in Saudi Arabia leading to..Persian Gulf War which began on January 16, 1991, and ended six weeks later when the allied military coalition drove Iraq’s armies out of Kuwait. The United Nations sanctions placed upon Iraq when it invaded Kuwait were not lifted, blocking Iraqi oil exports. When Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces on 9 April, marked symbolically by the toppling of his statue, Saddam was nowhere to be found. On 30 June 2004, Saddam Hussein was held in custody by U.S. forces at the U.S. base. Saddam was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, despite his last wish to be executed by firing squad.