Middle East assassinations

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 9

Middle East assassinations

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, March 26. The name of King Feisal of Saudi Arabia is the latest addition to the grim catalogue of Middle Eastern leaders murdered by assassins. i The number of deaths has soared into double figures since World War 11. Bagdad was the scene of tne of the bloodiest upleavals when 23-year-old <ing Feisal of Iraq was cut down by a burst of sub-nachine-gun fire in his Royal ’alace in the early hours of Inly 14, 1958. His uncle, Crown Prince Abdul Illah, and other mem-l bers of the Iraqi Royal Family were also shot by rebel officers sunportid" the p”’''l’l- - of Brigadier Abdul

Karim Kassem, who overthrew the monarchy. The Prime Minister, Nuri I Es-Said, was tracked down and shot only hours later. ’ For four and a half years. 1 Kassem, who elevated him-. [ self to the rank of Major-i General, dominated thei ; political life of Iraq before! I he, too, met a violent death.’ On February 8, 1963, dis-: 1 illusioned Air Force officers, bombed Kassem’s fortess-likei 1 Defence Ministry, where he: lived and worked surrounded; by armed guards. The Iraqi dictator was: caught by rebelling troops asi I he tried to escape. After ai . sham trial he was shot • through the head. His corpse I was displayed on Bagdad television to quel! any i rumours that he might still ; be alive. -I Kassem’s successor, Field Marshal Abdul Salem -(Mohammed Arif, died on (April 13, 1966, in a mysterilious helicopter crash in the desert south of Bagdad. On March 30, 1971, [ (another leading Iraqi, Airi

- Marshal Abdul Ghaffar Harden al-Takriti, a former Vicei[ President, was gunned down i in the courtyard of a Kuwait hospital. His assassins ; I escaped. - The Iraqi Defence Minister. ■(General Hammad Shehab tiwas shot dead in Bagdad ;[ after being lured to a banquet . (and held prisoner. • ( The Jordanian Prime Minister, Mr Wash Tell, died in i(a pool of blood outside a 11 Cairo hotel on November 28. I 1971. Three armed men, mem- \ bers of the Palestinian “Black ; September” organisation, ; I shot him down at point-blank i (range. Mr Tell, aged 51 when h” ' died, had earned the emnitI of the Palestinian guerrilla ' movements for his tough I stand against guerrillas in Jordan. I He was the second Jordani ian Prime Minister to be as--1 sassinated while in office. The ■ other was Hazza al-Majali, ; who died when his office was blown up in August 19, 1960. King Hussein of Jordan has ri narrowly escaped several

bids on his life. Hussein’s grandfather, King Abdullah. lordan’s first Monarch after it was granted full independence in 1946, by a treaty with Britain, was assassinated in Jerusalem on July 20, 1951.

Top members of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (P.L.0.) also met bloody ends. On April 10, 1973, Kamal Nasser, official P.L.O. spokesman, and Mohammed Youssef al-Najjar, known as Abu Youssef, head of Fatah’s intelligence service, were shot by Israeli commandos in raids in Beirut. The list of names stretches back. On November 10. 1968, i f,lraqi Foreign Minister, Nasser Al-Hani, was murdered in Bagdad.

On April 13, 1966, the Yemeni Prime Minister, Mr Qadhi Abdullah Iryani, died in hospital after being shot five times in the chest by a gunman.

On January 27, 1965, Mr Hassan Ali Mansour, Prime Minister of Iran, died from bullet wounds suffered in an assassination bid six days earlier.

On September 29, 1964, former Syrian President, Brigadier Adib Shishakly, was shot down in Brazil.

Other killings include: Mr Riad El-Solh, former Lebanese Prime Minister, in Amman, July 16, 1951; General Ali Razmara, Iranian Prime Minister, in Teheran. March 7, 1951; Mr Hosni Zaim, President of Syria, shot by the Syrian Army on August 14, 1949; Mr Mahmoud Nokrashy Pasha, Egyptian Prime Minister, in Cairo on December 28, 1948;

Imam Yahya, King of the Yemen, at Hezyez, Yemen, February 17, 1948.