Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi

Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi
باقر جبر الزبيدي
Baqr Al-Zubeidi in 2006.
Minister of Transport
In office
September 2014 – August 2016
PresidentFuad Masum
Prime MinisterHaider Al-Abadi
Preceded byHadi Al-Amiri
Succeeded byKazim Finjan Al Hamami
Minister of Finance
In office
May 2006 – December 2010
PresidentJalal Talabani
Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki
Preceded byAli Abdul-Amir Allawi
Succeeded byRafi al-Issawi
Minister of Interior
In office
April 2005 – May 2006
PresidentJalal Talabani
Prime MinisterIbrahim al-Jaafari
Preceded byFalah Hassan al-Naqib
Succeeded byJawad Bulani
Minister of Housing and Reconstruction
In office
September 2003 – June 2004
PresidentGhazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer
Prime MinisterIraqi Governing Council
Preceded byCoalition Provisional Authority
Succeeded byOmar Farouk
Personal details
Born1946 (age 77–78)
Amara Province, Kingdom of Iraq
Political partyIslamic Supreme Council of Iraq[citation needed]
Alma materUniversity of Basra
OccupationPolitician
NicknameBayan Jabr Solagh
Military service
Allegiance Badr Brigades[citation needed]
CommandsCommander of the Badr Brigades[citation needed]

Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi (Arabic: باقر جبر الزبيدي, romanizedBāqir Jarb al-Zabīdī; born 1946), also known as Bayan Jabr Solagh (Arabic: بيان باقر صولاغ, romanizedBayān Bāqir Sūlāġ), is an Iraqi politician and former commander of the Badr Brigades who served as the Finance Minister of Iraq in the government of Nouri al-Maliki. He served as Minister of Interior, in charge of the police, in the Iraqi Transitional Government and was Minister of Housing and Reconstruction of the Iraqi Governing Council. He is also a senior member of the Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance as well as a leader in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).[citation needed]

Born in 1946 in the Maysan Governorate, Jabr became a Shi'a activist while studying engineering at Baghdad University in the 1970s. He escaped to Iran amid former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's crackdown on Shi'a political groups and joined the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). He later headed SCIRI's office in Syria. According to the Independent newspaper Jabr was a former commander of SCIRI's militia, the Badr Brigades.

Under Jabr's control, the Interior Ministry in 2006 was accused by the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, of executing and torturing to death hundreds of Iraqis every month.[1]

On 3 January 2006, his sister was reported kidnapped from Baghdad by Iraqi insurgents. Parts of central Baghdad were locked down as police searched for the woman.[2] She was released two weeks later after a ransom was paid by him.

  1. ^ "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war" The Independent, 26 February 2006
  2. ^ Knickmeyer, Ellen (3 January 2006). "U.S. Raid Kills Family North of Baghdad". The Washington Post. Retrieved 13 January 2013.