Kurdish leader in Iraq who campaigned to restructure intercine conflict among his people. Sami's military and political career stretched over four decades from 1963, when he joined the Kurdistan Democratic Party under its leader General Mustafa Barzani. He was an able diplomat for the Kurdish cause at large. Sami organised, in 1969, a daring raid through 100 miles of enemy territory to reach the Kirkuk oilfields, and inflicted significant damage on the installation of the Iraqi Petroleum Company to put pressure on the government to halt its 'Arabisation' campaign in the Kirkuk region. Sami worked hard to minimise the differences between two Kurdish administrations, and to reunify parliament. Sami Abdul Rahman died when suicide bombers struck the headquarters of the two main Kurdish political parties in the city of Arbil in northern Iraq.