Adnān Chairallāh Talfāh

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iraq's Defense Minister Adnān Chairallāh (right) with his Bahraini counterpart in Baghdad in 1988
Chairallah statue in Baghdad, 2003

Adnān Chairallāh Talfāh ( Arabic عدنان خير الله طلفاح, DMG ʿAdnān Ḫair Allāh Ṭalfāḥ , also Khairallah ; * 1941 in al-Audscha near Tikrit ; † May 4, 1989 in Sarsang near Mosul ) was an Iraqi general , defense minister and deputy commander of the Iraqi armed forces under Saddam Hussein in the First Gulf War .

Chairallāh embarked on a career as a career officer and was trained at the Baghdad Military and Staff Academy . He joined the Ba'ath Party in 1956 and was involved with Saddam Hussein in the attempted murder of Abd al-Karim Qasim . He was then detained for a short time. Chairallāh was also involved in the party's takeover in 1963 and 1968. In 1977 he was appointed Minister of Defense.

Chairallāh took over the post of Vice President after Saddan Hussein came to power in 1979. He himself was a cousin, half-brother and brother-in-law of Saddam Hussein and was considered the second most powerful man in Iraq. Chairallāh was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein's foster father, Chairallāh Talfāh, and assumed the role of the older brother in Saddam's life during Saddam's childhood and adolescence. Before the Ba'ath Party came to power, Adnān Chairallāh was a colonel in the civil service. Under Saddam Hussein he became General Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, among other things. General Chairallāh enriched himself massively under the regime and is said to have owned the largest private vehicle fleet in the country with around 500 automobiles.

After the first Gulf War ended in 1988 , Saddam Hussein also made him chief of staff . Chairallāh was portrayed in the press during the war as a successful military leader and thus rose in the reputation of the population and especially the military. He also presented himself as a benefactor of the people on the occasion of social benefits and reintegration measures for soldiers and officers.

After Chairallāh continuously pointed out the shame that Saddam Hussein had another woman move into the palace in addition to Chairallāh's sister Sadschida Talfah , Chairallāh fell increasingly out of favor with Hussein. On May 4, 1989, Chairallah died in a helicopter crash, according to the regime, while inspecting Iraqi troops in the north of the country. There was speculation in the Western press that Chairallāh had planned an attempted coup against Hussein or that he had simply become too influential for the Iraqi dictator.

Chairallah was adopted with a state funeral and buried in his hometown of Tikrit .

Web links

Commons : Adnān Chairallāh Talfāh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Edmund E. Gareeb: Historical Dictionary of Iraq , Oxford 2004, p 134f
  2. ↑ a b c Efraim Karsh, Inari Rautsi: Saddam Hussein - A political biography , New York 1991, pp. 6–15, 51, 88, 125, 180, 182–185, 240
  3. ^ Report of the New York Times on the occasion of the death of Khairallah on May 7, 1989 ; last accessed on January 27, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Talfāh, Adnān Chairallāh
ALTERNATIVE NAMES عدنان خير الله طلفاح (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iraqi general and defense minister
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Al-Audscha at Tikrit
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1989
Place of death Sarsang near Mosul