Najah al-Shammari

Najah Hassan Ali al-Shammari (born 20 January 1967) is an Iraqi politician and military officer who served as the Minister of Defense from June 2019 to May 2020. He holds Swedish citizenship. Background Al-Shammari was born in Baghdad. He is a Sunni Arab and a member of the Shammar tribe (one of the largest and most influential Arab tribes). Al-Shammari graduated from the Iraqi Military Academy in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in military science. He also has a master's degree in strategic planning for national security. Al-Shammari later served as a commander in the Iraqi Special Operations Forces and has held many military positions from 2003 until 2007. He retired in 2018 with the rank of major general. Defence minister On June 24, 2019, al-Shammari was approved by the Iraqi parliament as defence minister of Iraq in Adil Abdul-Mahdi's cabinet. He was nominated to the post by the al-Wataniya coalition, led by former prime minister and then vice president of Iraq Ayad Allawi.