Contents

Abdullah Sallum al-Samarra'i

Biography[edit]

He was born in the city of Samarra^[1] in 1932 to a lower middle class family. He graduated from Baghdad University with a B.A. and an M.A.inIslamic history. Early on he was an active member of the Independence Party, but became a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq in 1956.^[2] He was an associate of Saddam Hussein since the 1950s.^[3]

al-Samarra'i was one of the leading members of the Ba'ath Party following its November 1963 ousting from power,^[4] and became a member of the Iraqi Regional Command in 1964.^[2] At the 1969 Regional Congress of the Ba'ath Party in Iraq al-Samarra'i was re-elected as a member of the Iraqi Regional Command,^[5] and appointed to a seat in the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).^[6] However, shortly after he was demoted from his post as Minister of Culture and Information to become Minister of State. The following year, in March 1970, al-Samara'i was removed from his seat in the RCC^[7] and the Iraqi Regional Command and became the Iraqi Ambassador to India.^[8] Al-Samarra'i was the first victim in a purge against the civilian wing of the party by Hussein.^[9]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Ghareeb, Edmund; Dougherty, Beth (2004). Historical dictionary of Iraq. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4330-1.
• Hashim, Ahmed (2005). Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Iraq. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4452-4.
• Karsh, Efraim; Rautsi, Inari (1991). Saddam Hussein: a Political Biography. Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3978-8.