Nadhim Kzar

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Nadhim Kzar
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Born1940[ citation needed ]
Amarah, Iraq
DiedJuly 8, 1973

Nadhim Kzar (1940 - July 8, 1973) was an Iraqi engineer and intelligence official. He was the first head of the Iraqi Directorate of General Security.

Biography

Kzar was born in 1940 in Amarah, Iraq. [1] He studied engineering at the Technical Institute in Baghdad, and joined the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region in 1959 as a student. [1] [2] He was one of the first Shia to hold a position of power in the regime. [1] He was briefly imprisoned by Abdul Salam Arif in 1964/5.[ citation needed ]

Kzar was appointed first head of Directorate of General Security in 1969. [2] [3] According to author Con Coughlin, "Hundreds if not thousands of people perished at the hands of Kazzar's security forces, many of them tortured to death at the Palace of the End." [2] Coughlin also described him as "the Beria of the Baath Party." [1]

Kzar is reputed to have personally beaten to death Islamic scholar and government opponent Abd al-Aziz al-Badri.[ citation needed ]

In July 1973, allegedly motivated by the dominance of Sunnis in Iraq, he led an unsuccessful coup against President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. He took hostage the minister of interior Saadoun Ghaidan and minister of defense Hamid Shehab. [1] He had intended to assassinate Bakr when his plane landed in Baghdad, but the flight was late and the assassination attempt was aborted. He shot dead Shehab (Gheidan was injured, but feigned death and survived) and then was captured as he attempted to flee to Iran. [4] [5] [6]

On July 7 Kzar was tried over the coup by the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council under Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. He was executed the following day, on July 8, 1973. [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Coughlin, Con (2002). Saddam: The Secret Life. London, U.K.: MacMillan. pp. 95–98. ISBN   0-333-78200-3.
  2. 1 2 3 Coughlin, Con (2002). Saddam: The Secret Life. London, U.K.: MacMillan. p. 78. ISBN   0-333-78200-3. Soon after the Baathists took power, Nadhim Nazzar assumed control of the internal security operation. Kazzar had already proved his credentials as a torturer during the bloody persecution of the communists in 1963 [...]. Hundreds if not thousands of people perished at the hands of Kazzar's security forces many of them tortured to death at the Palace of the End.
  3. ↑ Long, Jerry M. (April 2004). Saddam's War of Words: Politics, Religion, and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait. p. 206. ISBN   9780292702646.
  4. ↑ Makiya, Kanan (1998-06-15). Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, Updated Edition. ISBN   9780520921245.
  5. ↑ "317. Research Study Prepared in the Central Intelligence Agency". Office of the Historian. Department of State. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  6. ↑ Piro, George L. "Interview Session Number: 6" (PDF). National Security Archive. U.S. Department of Justice: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  7. ↑ "End of tyranny with the arrest of ousted Iraqi president in Tikrit". Kuwait News Agency. December 14, 2003. Retrieved November 10, 2025. On July 8, 1973 The Chief of Internal Security, Nadhim Kzar, was executed along with 35 others after reports of a coup and conspiracy.
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