Captain Munir Redfa (, ), born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa (, ‎) (1934 – 1998) was an

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

. After Qasim's coup, Redfa was one of only five pilots the new regime trusted to continue serving with the sole Iraqi unit operating the

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames include: "''Balalaika''", because its planf ...

, 11th Squadron. Tom Cooper
In 1966, Israeli Intelligence Convinced an Iraqi Pilot to Defect with His MiG-21 Fighter
The National Interest, 2016. Redfa

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

in 1966 in " Operation Diamond", flying a MiG-21 of the Iraqi Air Force to Israel. In what is considered one of the

Mossad The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (), popularly known as Mossad ( , ), is the national intelligence agency of the Israel, State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with M ...

's most successful operations, Redfa's entire extended family was smuggled safely out of Iraq to Israel. The MiG-21 fighter was evaluated by the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...

and was later loaned to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for testing and intelligence analysis, as part of " Have Doughnut". Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s.. Redfa's defection was the subject of the movie '' Steal the Sky'' (1988). Redfa was an Assyrian, adherent of the

Chaldean Catholic Church The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particular church (''sui iuris'') in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church, and is ...

. Redfa died of a heart attack around 1998.

References

External links

Stealing a Soviet MiG
Jewish Virtual Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Redfa, Munir Iraqi Assyrian people People from Mosul Iraqi emigrants to Israel Iraqi Air Force officers Mossad Iraqi Eastern Catholics Iraqi defectors Israeli people of Iraqi descent 1934 births 1990s deaths Chaldean Catholics

See also

References

External links