Members of the provisional rule council in Iraq

The following is a short summary on the 25 Iraqi figures who are in the composition of the Iraqi provisional rule council.

The Shiite ( 13 members ) 1- Ahmed Chalabi ( 58 year old) a doctorate in mathematics from Chicago university. He is from a rich family and a banker. In 1992 he established the Iraqi National Congress. He is very close to the US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. He left Iraq in 1958 and returned back to it with the American forces in April 2003.

2- Abdul Aziz al-Hakim: the deputy chairman of the Higher Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, led by his brother Muhammad Baker al-Hakim. He lived with his brother in exile in Iran for 23 years. He is the commander of Failaq Bader, the armed wing of the council.

3- Ibrahim al-Jafaari, a doctor ( 56 year old) a spokesman for the Islamic call (al-Dawa ) party. The oldest Iraqi parties. He joined this party in 1966. He worked in Karbela from 1970 to 1979 and he was obliged to flee to Iran because he was chased by the Iraqi intelligence. He stayed in Iran until 1989 and then headed for London.

4- Wael Abdul Latif ( almost 50 year old), a provisional governor for Basra. He was a judge since 1982. His last post was a chairman for Basra court. He was jailed for one year in 1994.

5.. Eyad Allawi ( 57 year old), a surgery doctor. The grandson of the minister of health during the royal rule in Iraq. He was member in the Iraqi Baath Party between 1961- 1971 before he had left Iraq to Beirut and London. He formed the Iraqi national reconciliation movement in February 1991. He returned to Baghdad after toppling Saddam Hussein. His party includes large number of former members in the Baath party and former military men.

6.. Aqeila al Hashimi: member in the follow up committee which runs the Iraqi foreign ministry since the collapse of Saddam Hussein. He has a doctorate in French Literature. She was close to the former prime minister Tareq Aziz and was a member in the Baath Party. She had the post of public relations at the ministry before the collapse of the Iraqi regime.

7.. Hameed Abdul Majiud al-Mousa ( 62 year old) the secretary general of the Iraqi communist party which was formed in 1934. His family comes from Babel to the south of Baghdad. He is an economist. He lived in Iraq's Kurdistan which was not under the authority of Saddam Hussein since 1991.

8.. Karimn Muhamadawi, better known as Abu Hatem: the chieftain of a tribe. He is 45 year old. He is named by the British forces as the " master of al-Ahwar." He is greatly renowned because he had spent 7 years in the Iraqi jails until 1986 before his hiding in the Iraqi Ahwar (marshes) in the south where he was launching operations against the Iraqi regime. He worked for liberating Ammara area in the south from Saddam Hussein's men.

9.. Sheikh Ahmad al-Burak al-BuSultan: the chairman of the lawyers association and the human rights society in Babel.

10.. Muwafak al-Rubei, an intellectual, moderate, a former member in al-Dawa party. He took part in writing "the Iraqi Shiite declaration."

11.. Ezz Eddine Salim: the chairman of the Islamic Dawa movement in al-Basra. A Historian.

12.. Muhammad Baher al-Oloum ( 80 Year old) a Liberal Imam who was running the Islamic center ( Ahl al-Beit ) in London. He left Iraq in 1991 after a large members of his family were killed at the hands of Saddam Hussein. He returned back to Iraq in April after the collapse of the former regime. Moving between Baghdad, Najaf.

13.. Rajaa Habin al-Khuzaeii, a director of a kindergarten. She lived in London during the 1960s.

The Arab Sunni ( 5 members )

14.. Nasir Kamel al-Jadrajee ( 70 year old). He ascends from a family in Baghdad. He was a lawyer in 1959 after he had studied in Cairo and Baghdad. He presided over agricultural companies. He presides over the Democratic national party. He has always lived in Iraq.

15.. Adnan al-Baja Jee ( 81 year old): He was a foreign minister between 1965- 1967 under the rule of Abdul Salaam Aref and his brother Abdul Rahman Aref before the Baathist revolution in 1968. He is a liberal. He lived 23 years in the United Arab Emirates and London. He presides over the coalition of independent democrats.

16.. Sheikh Ghazi Elyawer: a businessman ( 45 year old) from al-Musil ( north ) the grandson of Sheikh Mohsin Adel al- Yawer, the chieftain of the influential al-Shummar and widely spread tribe in all parts of Iraq as well as the neighboring states ( Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia ). This tribe simultaneously includes Sunni and Shiite. He lived 15 years in Saudi Arabia and returned back to Iraq on June 4.

17.. Mohsin Abdul Aziz: the secretary general of the Islamic party, the Iraqi wing of the Muslim Brothers which was established in 1960 and banned in 1961.

18.. Sameer Mahmoud: a businessman. The leader of Northern Baghdad tribe.

The Kurds ( they are five)

19.. Jalal Talibani ( 67 year old) the chairman of the Kurdistani national federation. Fluent in both French and English. An old opposition for Saddam Hussein. He was born in Irbil and joined the lines of the Kurdistani democratic party in the 1960s when it was under the leadership of Mustafa al-Barazani. He split from the party in 1975 to form the Kurdistani national federation. His party controls Southern east Kurdistan while the Kurdistani democratic party controls its northern west.

20.. Massud Barzani ( 56 year old). He was born the same day his father Mustafa formed the Kurdistani democratic party. He became a fighter in the line of al-Bashmarka party in 1963 and assumed the leadership of the party in 1979 following the death of his father. He was a strong opposition for Saddam Hussein who killed three of his brothers and burnt his village 17 times. He has been sharing control on Kurdistan since 1991 with his rival Jalal Talibani, the chairman of the Kurdistani national federation

21.. Salah Eddine Baha Eddine ( 53 year old) an Islamist close to the Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brothers). He was born in al-Taweila in Kurdidstan for a religious family. He completed his study in jurisprudence, established in 1991 after Kurdistan Iraq became out of the control of the Iraqi regime, the Islamic federation party ( Hizb al-Itihad al-Islami) to which he has become a secretary general in December 1994. The Islamic federation party is the third party in Kurdistan.

22.. Mahmoud Ali Othman: a doctor ( 60 year old) from al-Suleimaneyah. he joined the Kurdistani democratic party and occupied several posts before he had left the movement to found in London in 1975, the Kurdish socialist party. He left political activities and is living in Irbil.

23.. Dara Noud Eddine: a judge ( 50 year old) from Karkouk, he was jailed for 3 years over criticizing a decision taken by the Iraqi revolution leadership council, the highest authority in the former Iraqi regime. He was released one year later in the context of a general amnesty before the war. He presides over a court in Baghdad.

24.. ( One Christian ) 24 - Yunadem Youssef Keno, an engineer ( 50 year old). In 1981 he established the Assure democratic movement which he currently presides over. He was born in Dhouk in Kurdistan, but he lives in Karkouk. An ally for the Kurdistani democratic party. He was a minister of transport and communications in 1992 in the first local government in Kurdistan and in 1996 he became a minister of industry at that government, whose headquarters is Irbil.

25 ( One Turkman ). Shankoul Habib Omar ( 35 year old) a plastic artist. She completed her study and is now teaching at the fine art faculty in al-Musil, northern Iraq. She is a teacher. She is married to a lawyer and a mother for two children. She lives in Karkouk. A member in the Iraqi Turkmani from.