Rashid Ali al-Gaylani
In the beginning of April 1941, Iraqi politician Rashid Ali al-Gaylani along with several more Iraqi officers who were part of the nationalist group the Golden Square, overthrew the pro-British regime in the Kingdom of Iraq. The new pro-Nazi government sought German and Italian support for an Iraqi revolt against British forces in the country. Contact was established with the Axis powers with the help of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini, a Nazi supporter who had been living in Iraq since he had fled imprisonment from Mandatory Palestine shortly before the war.