ALLIES PLUCK LEBANON, SYRIA FROM AXIS GRIP
Beirut, Lebanon • July 12, 1941 During their advance on the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in May 1941, the British were harassed by Luftwaffe aircraft (Heinkel bombers and Messerschmitt fighters) flown in support of the pro-German Iraqi government of Prime Minister Rashid Ali al‑Gaylani. (Al‑Gaylani or El‑Ghalani, who helped found the anti-Western and anti-Semitic Muslim…