Sulaimani Dec. 27 – The independent newspaper Howilati has disclosed that a notorious Baathist officer, Colonel Muhsin Al Falastini , a very high ranking member of Iraq’s security service Muhkabarat, was killed inside Baghdad on November 12 this year. His body was discovered close to the Al Zayoon Market, which is part of the residential buildings in the Canal district of Baghdad adjacent to the United Nations offices.

The people of Kurdistan remember Muhsin as one of the most brutal and evil Baathist officials who, in 1975-1982 period, was the security officer responsible for the city of Sulaimani. He established a bloody reign of terror in the city, especially targeting civilians and families who had any connections with the Kurdistan resistance movement against the Baathist oppression. He used his sweeping authority, granted by the Iraqi regime, to terrorize the city, subjected detainees to torture and summarily executed citizens, displaying the bodies in public, without even any pretense of formal procedure.

Speculations in Baghdad point to some elements within the Mukhabart who may have acted on instructions from high authority to get rid of Muhsin because “ he knew too much”.