Wafiq al-Samarrai
{{Short description|Iraqi general (1947–2022)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Wafiq al-Samarrai
| native_name = {{nobold|{{lang|ar|وفيق عجيل حمود السامرائيّ}}{{Cite book|title=حطام البوابة الشرقية|author1=وفيق السامرائي|page=481|url=https://ketabpedia.com/%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84/%D8%AD%D8%B7%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%AD%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%82-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B2%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7/}}}}
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| image = Wafiq Al-Samarrai.JPG
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| caption = Samarrai (centre left) during the Iran Iraq War.
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| office = National Security Adviser
| term_start = 2005
| term_end = 2008
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| president = Jalal Talabani
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| office2 = Director of General Military Intelligence
| term_start2 = 1990
| term_end2 = 1991
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| president2 = Saddam Hussein
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1947|07|01|df=y}}
| birth_place = Samarra, Kingdom of Iraq
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|08|29|1947|07|01|df=y}}
| death_place = London, United Kingdom
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| allegiance = {{plainlist |
- {{flagcountry|Ba'athist Iraq}} (1968–1994)
- {{flagdeco|Iraq|1963}} INC (1994–2003)
}}
| branch = {{army|Iraq}}
| serviceyears = 1968–1994
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| battles = Iran–Iraq War
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Wafiq Ajeel Homood al-Samarrai ({{langx|ar|وفيق عجيل حمود السامرائي}}; 1 July 1947 – 29 August 2022),[http://burathanews.com/arabic/news/418248 وفاة الفريق وفيق السامرائي] {{in lang|ar}} better known as Wafiq al-Samarrai, was an Iraqi military officer and intelligence chief who served as Iraq's chief of general military intelligence during Saddam Hussein's era.
Military career
Al-Samarrai served as the deputy of the Military Intelligence Director in 1988 during the Anfal Campaign,{{Cite book|title=Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq|url=https://archive.org/details/genderedexperien00hard|url-access=limited|last=Hardi|first=Choman|publisher=Ahgate|year=2011|isbn=978-0754677154|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/genderedexperien00hard/page/n34 20]}} in the Iraqi Intelligence during the Iran–Iraq War and was appointed head of Military Intelligence Agency in 1990.{{cite journal |last1=Woods |first1=Kevin M. |authorlink1=Kevin M. Woods |title=Saddam's War: An Iraqi Military Perspective of the Iran-Iraq War |journal=Mcnair Papers |url=https://archive.org/details/saddamswariraqim00wood |url-access=limited |year=2009 |publisher=Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defence University |location=Washington, D.C. |issn=1071-7552 |page=[https://archive.org/details/saddamswariraqim00wood/page/n85 72]|isbn=9780160827372 }}
Defection
He defected in December 1994 and drove up to Kirkuk, then walked for 30 hours to cross the frontier into the Northern Kurdish enclave. At first he allied himself with Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress. They fomented a mini war in March 1995 between Kurdish groups and the Iraqi Army that went wrong when the insurgents failed to secure American military air support. Al-Samarrai moved to Syria and eventually made his way to London in 1998, where he headed an opposition group called the Higher Council for National Salvation which is based in Denmark.
Following his defection, Qusay Hussein told senior Iraqi officials, including Ra'ad al-Hamdani, that al-Samarrai had been an undercover agent for Jalal Talabani and Iran since 1982. Former Maj. Gen. Mizher Rashid al-Tarfa al-Ubaydi of Iraqi Intelligence claimed that al-Samarrai fled because he believed he was about to be arrested.{{cite book |last1=Woods |first1=Kevin M. |authorlink1=Kevin M. Woods |title=Saddam's Generals: Perspectives of the Iran-Iraq War |url=https://archive.org/details/saddamsgeneralsp00alex |year=2011 |orig-year=2010 |publisher=Institute for Defense Analyses |location=Alexandria, VA |page=[https://archive.org/details/saddamsgeneralsp00alex/page/101 101]|isbn=9780160896132 }}
Book
- The destruction of the eastern gate{{cite journal|url=https://journal.iag.ir/article_82981.html|title=The Iran-Iraq War: Geopolitical Economy of the Conflict|journal=فصلنامه بین المللی ژئوپلیتیک |date=20 February 2019 |volume=14 |issue=52 |pages=46–61 |language=en |last1=شریعتی |first1=شهروز |last2=غقاری |first2=مسعود }}
Post invasion of Iraq
In 2003, he returned to his hometown Samarra, Iraq and remained there until he was appointed the national security advisor to President Jalal Talabani in 2005 and moved to the Green Zone in Baghdad. He was relieved of his post in 2008 after the discovery of documents implicating him in the Iraqi forces' operations against rebels in the 1991 uprisings.{{cite web|url=http://www.aljazeera.net/encyclopedia/icons/2014/12/4/%D9%88%D9%81%D9%8A%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A|title=وفيق السامرائي|language=Arabic|publisher=Al Jazeera}}
On 6 March 2008, the Iraqi presidency website publicized a judicial decision to lift off all restrictions imposed on General Wafiq al-Samarrai, including a freeze on his assets, after Supreme Criminal Court Judge Adnan Al Badri reportedly announced that a probe found no evidence implicating al-Samarrai{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} in 1991 Iraqi Army attacks on Kurds and Shia. However, Samarrai left for London and announced that he will not return to Iraq in the future.
On 29 August 2022, he died in London, a year after he had been admitted to hospitals there, while suffering from cancer.{{cite web |url=http://burathanews.com/arabic/news/418248 |title=وفاة الفريق وفيق السامرائي |website=burathanews.com |language=ar |date=30 August 2022 }}
References
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External links
- [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1416065/General-plots-Saddams-downfall-step-by-step.html General plots Saddam's downfall step-by-step], The Telegraph
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723160038/http://www.iraqipresidency.net/news_detial.php?language=arabic&id=5337&type=news قرار قضائي ينفي أي مسؤولية جنائية عن الفريق أول الركن وفيق السامرائي ويلزم برفع كل القيود عنه], iraqipresidency.net
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