Colonel William A. Phillips

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Abdullah Sallum al-Samarra'i (Arabic: عبد الله سلوم السامرائي; 1932–1996) was an Iraqi Ba'athist politician and leading member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He was a member of the Regional Command from 1964 to 1970, when he was expelled.

Biography

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. in Islamic 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]

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