Gen. Abed Hamed Mowhoush

From the news reports:

Although he was a high-ranking Baathist, Iraqis interviewed by The Times described him as a soldier's soldier.

If he got into a disagreement, "he always solved it man to man, he didn't get others involved," said Jawad Dainy, 61, an Iraqi lieutenant general who attended the Iraqi Military Academy with Mowhoush.

A big man who loved to eat and socialize, Mowhoush came from a family of Bedouins, shepherds and farmers. He was the first person in his family to get a professional education, and, Dainy said, he was preoccupied with supporting the two wives and nine children of his brother, who had died in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Dainy was indebted to him as well. He said Mowhoush helped when his cousin deserted from the army and faced a harsh prison sentence. Mowhoush intervened, and the man was spared.

"He did it with complete generosity and then asked me to have lunch with him," Dainy said. "God rest his soul."

LAT 23 May 2004