Higher Council for National Salvation
Officially established in August 2002 and headed by Wafiq Hamud al-Samarra'i, a former head of Iraqi military intelligence. Media reports indicate that former military chief of staff Nizar al-Khazraji might have also joined this group. Al-Samarra'i defected from Iraq in 1994 and was based in Damascus before moving to London in 1998. Al-Samarra'i helped plot an unsuccessful coup with the Iraqi National Congress in 1995. He was reportedly working with the U.S.-led coalition to hunt down Saddam Hussein in the months after Operation Iraqi Freedom. Reportedly the target of an assassination attempt in February 2004, he has taken a low profile in recent months. The group publishes the daily "Al-Inqadh" (The Salvation).
