Talk:Mubdar Hatim al-Dulaimi

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Tough but Fair General Put to Rest Amid Tears: Baghdad Commander Praised As `Great Man'

By Aamer Madhani, Chicago Tribune

Mar. 9--BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi army soldiers were smoking and commiserating about their fallen commander when the pickup truck carrying his casket came into view.

Tears welled in the eyes of several officers at the sight of the wooden coffin draped in an Iraqi flag. But they quickly pushed aside their emotion and gathered into formation for the funeral procession taking Maj. Gen. Mubdar Hatim Hayza al-Dulaimi, the top Iraqi commander in Baghdad, to burial at a cemetery in the western suburb of Abu Ghraib.

"He was a great man, but we must try to move on," Maj. Raad Abdul Adheem, 53, of the 5th Brigade of 6th Division of the Iraqi army, said of the general before the funeral Wednesday. "It will be very difficult. We can only hope that our next commander will be as wise and courageous."

Al-Dulaimi, the top Iraqi army commander in Baghdad, was gunned down in the capital in an apparent assassination Monday. The death of the general, who was known for his unrivaled commitment to his troops, is another devastating blow to the fledgling Iraqi security force, which has been plagued by having too few strong leaders.

The general was struck in the back of the head by one of at least four shots that pierced the window of his armored SUV, according to Col. Mohammed Wassif, commander of the 5th Brigade. Al-Dulaimi is one of the higher-ranking Iraqi officials to be killed in the nearly 3-year-old insurgency in Iraq.

Al-Dulaimi was well-regarded by both his soldiers and the U.S. military commanders with whom he had worked closely since taking command of the division last year.

"Gen. Mubdar was a true Iraqi patriot," said Maj. Gen. J.D. Thurman, commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad. "His loss will be felt by this command."

A little over a month ago, the U.S. gave al-Dulaimi's 5th Brigade control over security in the Green Zone, the sprawling nerve center of the Iraqi government and the home of the U.S. Embassy. He commanded all Iraqi army troops in Baghdad, and over the last several months his units have taken the lead in providing security for most of the city.

While progress in improving Iraqi security forces has been uneven, U.S. brass considered the 6th Division a success and lauded al-Dulaimi as a symbol of the potential of Iraqi leadership.

As hard as he pushed his soldiers to be aggressive in nabbing insurgents, he was impassioned about making certain that they weren't alienating the populace, his officers said.

General's command

"He told us we must interrogate all detainees within 24 hours of the capture and quickly release those we know to be innocent," said Col. Ahmed Saddam Khalifah. "He made it clear that our job is to make Baghdad safe from the terrorists, but it is just as important not to make new enemies."

Al-Dulaimi's killing comes at a pivotal time as U.S. commanders in Iraq are trying to gauge whether a significant withdrawal of U.S. troops will be possible in the coming months.

Even before the slaying, the security situation was complicated by last month's bombing of the al-Askari Shrine, a Shiite holy site in Samarra. The attack led to sectarian violence and charges from Shiite leaders that the Iraqi forces are not capable of providing security.

On Wednesday, several of al-Dulaimi's officers said they think the general was targeted because of his position, but they doubt the killing was sectarian. The general was secular and didn't flaunt his Sunni heritage.

"The terrorist went after him not because he was a Sunni but because he was a symbol of how strong the Iraqi army could be," said Wassif, the 5th Brigade commander.

Al-Dulaimi's service in the army stretched back to the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s, and he was a staff commander during the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

After the U.S. military routed Iraqi troops from Kuwait in early 1991, al-Dulaimi was one of several commanders who refused Saddam Hussein's orders to stamp out a Shiite uprising that erupted in southern Iraq.

A judge loyal to the former dictator ordered him executed for treason for disobeying Hussein's orders. His soldiers said that al-Dulaimi told them he was brought to the gallows three times but was spared.

He surmised that his jailers seemed to prefer to torture him with the idea of death rather than execute him. After about a year in prison, al-Dulaimi was released without explanation and discharged from the army.

A second chance

After the fall of Hussein's regime, al-Dulaimi was called back and joined the Defense Ministry as a senior aide. Last year, the ministry asked him to command the 6th Division.

His officers said he took special care of soldiers, making certain that they were fed well, and he made daily trips to camps throughout Baghdad to see how they were faring.

On the day al-Dulaimi was killed, he had gone to visit the Kadhimiyah shrine, a Shiite holy place in Baghdad that he had never seen. He was on his way back to headquarters after checking up on soldiers under his command in the area of the shrine when he was shot.

"He wasn't a Shia, but it was important for him to go see the shrine. His belief was that we should know all our community--Shia, Sunni and Kurd," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Ali. "He told us it was important to make the people see us as people who understand them and want to protect them."

Outside Camp Al Sharaaf, the unit's base, the soldiers had posted a large black banner in mourning for their commander "who died because of an attack by cowards."

As the convoy of soldiers was preparing to head to the cemetery in Abu Ghraib, al-Dulaimi's teenage son Tariq piled into the truck carrying the coffin.

The soldiers tried to persuade the boy to stay behind. The convoy would have to wind its way through Baghdad's streets and could be an easy target. The cemetery also was the site of a shootout only days before.

Tariq was unmoved.

"This I refuse," Tariq responded. "I need to be close to my father. This is what he would want." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.138.74.36 (talk) 23:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)