Salih Mahdi Ammash (Arabic: صالح مهدي عماش; 1924 – 30 January 1985) was an Iraqi historian, writer, author, poet and Iraqi Regional Branch politician and Iraqi army officer who sat on the Regional Command from 1963 to 1971.

Salih Mahdi Ammash
صالح مهدي عماش
Vice President of Iraq
In office
April 1970 – December 1971
Serving with Saddam Hussein and Hardan al-Tikriti
PresidentAhmed Hassan al-Bakr
Preceded byHardan al-Tikriti
Succeeded byTaha Muhie-eldin Marouf
Member of the Regional Command of the Iraqi Regional Branch
In office
11 November 1963 – September 1971
Personal details
Born1924
Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq
Died30 January 1985(1985-01-30) (aged 60–61)
Helsinki, Finland
Political partyIraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
Alma materBaghdad Military College and Baghdad Staff College

Life

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He was born into a peasant family in Baghdad, 1924.[1] Ammash attended the Baghdad Military College and the Baghdad Staff College.[1] He joined the Ba'ath Party in 1952 and become one of the first military Ba'athists in the Iraqi Regional Branch.[1] Ammash was a member of the Free Officers Movement which toppled the Iraqi monarchy.[1]

Ammash was elected to the Regional Command for three separate terms.[2] He also served as one of the vice presidents of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

In 1975, Ammash became the first ambassador of Iraq to Finland. In January 1985, while still in Helsinki, he suddenly became ill and died of natural causes, there was a conspiracy that he was poisoned on the orders of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.[3] But this accusation is poorly backed-up, and there is no proof Saddam Hussein had ever ordered it, and the average life expectancy in Iraq in 1985 was 60 years old, which was the age Ammash passed at, so it is most likely he died of natural causes.[4]

His daughter Huda became the first and only female member of the Regional Command on 18 May 2001.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Ghareeb & Dougherty 2004, p. 12.
  2. ^ Devlin 1975, pp. 338–339.
  3. ^ "Räväkkä lähettiläs murhattiin myrkyllä".
  4. ^ "Data Commons Iraq"

Sources

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