The French paper, “Le Monde,” revealed here that the Kashkosh family was executed on the personal orders of former Iraqi Chief of Security Nazem Kazzar. The paper’s envoy to Baghdad, Eric Rouleau, wrote Thursday quoting official Iraqi circles that Kazzar ordered the entire family’s execution “as a reprisal for the Israeli raid on Beirut and the killing of the three Palestinian leaders.”
Kazzar, who tried to overthrow the regime of President Ismail el Bakr, was executed July 7 while he was trying to cross the Iranian border with a number of hostages.
Le Monde quoted the Iraqi President himself as describing Kazzar as being “much worse than Beria.” Rouleau said that el Bakr told a number of communal heads at a recent meeting at his palace in Baghdad that Kazzar “is responsible for the assassination of innocent Jews.”
The French paper also revealed that Kazzar, after having organized anti-Jewish persecution, organized their illegal emigration. Rouleau said that usually the fleeing Jews were executed in cold blood before crossing the Iranian border.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
