Layla Al-Attar

Who was Layla Al-Attar?

Layla Al-Attar was an Iraqi artist and painter that graduated from the Academy of fine Arts in Baghdad in 1965. Layla, known for her beauty and kindness, had once held five one-women shows in Iraq and took part in all national and other collective exhibitions held in the country and abroad. Layla also took part in Kuwait Biennil, the first Arab Biennil, second Arab Biennil, Kuwait Biennil and won the Golden Sail Medal in Cairo Biennil. She was director of the Iraqi National Art Museum.

On June 27, 1993, Layla, her husband and their housekeeper, were killed by a U.S. missile attack on Baghdad which was ordered by U.S. President Bill Clinton in retaliation for an alleged assassination attempt by the Iraqi Intelligence Service on former U.S. President George Bush, during his visit to Kuwait in April 1993. These allegations were not proven. The attack also blinded her daughter.

After the missile attack that killed her, a study prepared by the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center suggested that Kuwait might have fabricated the alleged presidential assassination plot in an effort to play up the "continuing Iraqi threat" to Western interests in the Persian Gulf. All the alleged assassins were later released from Kuwaiti jails.