The Syrian Human Rights Committee (SHRC) has learnt that on 21/12/2006 General Ahmed Abdul Qader Tirmanini was abducted from his house in Baghdad. He was found dead two days later. The source confirmed that he was abducted by the militia of Al-Mahdi Army, which is compromised of the followers of the Shii leader Moqtada al-Sadr. 
General Ahmed Abdul Qader Tirmanini, 55 years, is from the Syrian city of Aleppo. He was a pilot in the Syrian army and took part in the war of 1973, but refused to bomb the Tal al-Zatar Camp in 1976 and used his plane to escape to Iraq. Subsequently, he was sentenced to death by Hafiz al-Assad. In Iraq however, he worked as a pilot trainer, and was raised to the status of General in 2001.
When Iraq was occupied in 2003, the American forces offered him a job in the new Iraqi army, but he refused to be part of an army led by Americans, and was subsequently detained by the Americans for four months. Upon his release, he received numerous threats from al-Mahdi Army and Kata'ib Badr sectarian militias. The General remained confined either in his friends' houses or at his home until he was abducted by Al-Mahdi Army militias on 21 December 2006. His corpse was found two days later in a Baghdad neighbourhood. General Ahmed Abdul Qader Tirmanini is married and has two sons and two daughters.
SHRC unequivocally condemns the abduction and murder of General Ahmed Abdul Qader Tirmanini and considers his murder as an increase in the brutality and satisfaction of sectarian violence, which does not correspond to the tolerance found in Islamic teachings. SHRC calls upon the international community and human rights supporters to condemn this terrible crime and request the Iraqi government to reveal the culprits and bring them to justice.

Syrian Human Rights Committee
31/12/2006