Retribution

The sun which had risen over Persia was setting over Turkey in a final blaze of glory when two men in officer's uniforms emerged from the officers' mess at Mosul airport. Taking seats on a bench overlooking the field they watched the light dim in the west. One of the two was Irak's dictator, General Bakri Sidki Pasha, waiting for a plane to fly to Turkey to witness Turkish army maneuvers. The other was his righthandman, Major Mohamed Ali Jawdat, commander of Irak's air force. In the gathering darkness their cigarets glowed peacefully. A soldier sidled near and suddenly appeared from the shadows, revolver in hand. General Sidki did not have time to toss away his cigaret. A succession of shots shook the air, and the General pitched forward dead. Major Jawdat leaped to his feet, started to rush the attacker. He too fell forward on his face.

Thus was poetic justice done, for only last October swashbuckling General Sidki organized a putsch, sent a flight of bombing planes circling over Bagdad, forced young, dreamy-eyed King Ghazi to install a puppet Premier (TIME, Nov. 9), and proceeded to consolidate his own power by instigating the assassination of General Jafar Pasha el Askari, the Defense Minister.

It was merely a family feud which last week resulted in the death of General Sidki, but his assassin, Abdulla Ibrahim, a relative of the murdered Defense Minister, unwittingly served the cause of the British. For General Sidki's rule imperiled Britain's dominance over young King Ghazi whose kingdom lies on Britain's air route to the East, and Sidki's taking off made the Orient safer for the King Emperor George VI.

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