Saddam ‘assassinated Algerian foreign minister Bin Yahia’

The plane crashed after it was hit by Iraqi missile in 1982 killing 13 others

Gulf News Report

Aformer Algerian defence minister has accused Iraq’s ex-president Saddam Hussain of assassinating Algeria’s foreign minister Mohammad Seddiqi Bin Yahia and 13 other people in May 1982.

In his memoirs to be published next month, Major General Khalid Nezzar, who held the defence portfolio from 1990 to 1993, said Saddam wanted to eliminate Bin Yahya because he could not stand that an Arab national could lead mediation efforts to end the war between Iraq and Iran (1980-1988).

In the past, Nezzar has himself been accused of torture and killings during the 1990s civil war in Algeria.

In excerpts of the memoirs posted by his son on a website, Nezzar, also a former member of the High Council of State of Algeria, said former Algerian president Chedli Bin Jadid (1979-1992) did not want to pursue the matter.

Staff, journalist also killed

Eight foreign ministry staff, a journalist and four crew members were also killed when the Grumman Gulfstream plane crashed 36 years ago as Bin Yahia was en route from Baghdad to Tehran via Turkish airspace.

The assassination of Bin Yahia and his fellow Algerian negotiators meant the loss of more than one year of efforts in dealing with the intricate political and legal issues related to the Iraq-Iran war.

Nezzar said the technical investigation team, headed by Algerian Transportation Minister Saleh Goujil, “found the remnants of an air-to-air missile that had been used to shoot down the aircraft”.

“This missile was one of the Russian weapons received by Iraq. Algeria has the serial number of this particular missile,” he was quoted by Al Sharq Al Awsat daily as saying.