arabic → English transcript

Ritta asked

I think 170 of your colleagues

among them your late son, Saad

May God have mercy on him

were assassinated

Approximately 170

Around 170

that's the number I remember

If it increased later, I don't know

I mean

Do you think there was a specific targeting of pilots?

Well, they were all

targeted

The pilots mainly

and the participants in the Iraq War

especially the participants in the Iraq War

the one with Iran, they were all targeted

And many of them were lost

whether in Iraq

or outside of Iraq

They didn't spare anyone, I mean

they would hunt them down

wherever they were

How do you explain it?

I mean, the liquidation of the pilots

By which party?

Definitely an external party

Who is this external party?

I can't say

Who has an interest in killing the pilots?

There was no one else

but to, I mean, cast the blame on Iran

Because we, more than anyone

the Iraqi pilots

flew missions

against the Iranian regime

at the time

Do you think they have lists of names?

The Iranians?

Or when they got in and took the information?

Well

their intelligence and their methods

I mean, they took

a lot of information, and I was actually a target

And they would pick them off

Only the pilots

And then they started

Targeting the leaders

The senior ones, a division commander

A corps commander, for instance

I mean, the responsible party was clear

It was clear, I mean, obvious

Everyone who participated in

When you sensed the mistake among yourselves

I mean, you didn't try to protect yourselves

To maneuver, to act as if

During that period

Everyone had their own interpretation

I mean, I was

Before I went to the attaché's office

Just at the ministry

Working in the Green Zone

Not a day went by that I didn't hear

That so-and-so

Was assassinated in his home