An Iraqi officer carrying a white flag approached British headquarters in the outskirts of Bagdad last weekend. He carried a request for an armistice, which the British accepted. Thus ended the pro-Axis rebellion of Rashid Ali El-Gailani. When the last rifle shot had cracked outside Bagdad, Germany had lost a lot of face in the Arab world, a handful of Iraqi had lost a rebellion, but the British were still a long way from running the Nazis out of Iraq.
Ostensible reason for El-Gailani's resort to arms was a difference of opinion over the Anglo-Iraq Treaty of 1930, under which the British considered themselves entitled to send troops at will through Iraq. With the fall of Greece, the problem became urgent, and the British forced El-Gailani's hand by sending extensive reinforcements to Iraq. Fighting broke out.
The Iraqi threw troops around the British-held airport of Habbania, nearly broke the defenders. But air power soon told in Britain's favor, although a number of German planes flew across Syria and established themselves in the oil-bearing regions around Mosul in the north. The British advanced on Bagdad, but their drive was considerably slowed by Iraqi guerrillas who broke the dikes of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and flooded the land between the British and Bagdad.
But as last week wore on, the Iraqi capital became an uncomfortable spot for El-Gailani. The British crept nearer every day. Native disorders broke out. The thieves of Bagdad began to loot. At week's end the bubble collapsed: El-Gailani flew to Iran (Persia) with a party of 30. This flight demonstrated beyond question El-Gailani's stripe, for in the party were: Dr. Fritz Grobba, onetime German Minister to Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Adolf Hitler's most trusted intrigant in the Arab world (TIME, May 26); Italian Minister Luigi Gabbrielli, who had handled most Axis propaganda in Iraq; and Haj Amin El-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of Britain's favorite foes. Early this week, the whereabouts of King Feisal was a mystery. Aged six, he probably would not have objected to being kidnapped by the fugitives if a reasonable number of playthings went with him.
The day El-Gailani fled, German planes were reported skedaddling out of the Bag dad area. Thus the first round in the Moslem ring went to Britain.
But the end of the first round was not necessarily the end of the slugging match. After Crete and perhaps Cyprus were firmly in German hands, the Axis might try again—this time all out. If that happened, the British would not be able to clean the situation up with such economy of forces as they managed against the outnumbering but ill-trained Iraqi. In a bothersome four-week struggle, all the British had positively done was to get permission to use Iraq's communications — something they were supposedly entitled to do by treaty in the first place.