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Ibrahim ("Ibro") Mehment al Aziz was born a Shia Muslim in Baghdad, Iraq in 1963. His London-educated father Rahman al Aziz was a mid-level official in the Oil Ministry and thus his family was fairly well off and connected, but not politically active (being Shia and not Sunni). He married his first wife Ai'Yesha and attended Baghdad university, then joined the Iraqi Air Force in 1985. Ibro flew transport helicopters until the end of the Iran-Iraq war (then called the "Gulf War") in 1988.


During the 2nd Gulf War (the conflict known in the west as "Desert Shield/Desert Storm/1st Gulf War) he was shot down in 1990 by Coalition aircraft and spent several months in hospital before recovering. He still walks with a limp due to this injury but found that after a long period of extensive physical therapy could walk, and thus still fly.

After the war ended he was employed by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil as a transport pilot. Times were hard and during the 90's Iraq was under many international sanctions designed to topple Saddam's regime. Oil exports were severely restricted during this period so much of his flying had to be done on a somewhat clandestine basis, always knowing that straying into the UN "No-Fly Zones" could be fatal.

Being a Shiite, Ibro never joined the predominantly Sunni Ba'ath party and this limited his career advancement, but he and his wife Ai'Yesha nevertheless started a family with the birth of their first daughter, Fatima in 1994. Tragically, Fatima had been born afflicted with Cystic Fibrosis, which is rare in non-Europeans. Due to the sanctions medical care suffered; even if medicine was exempt the general poor economy meant it was expensive and proper nutrition was difficult. After contracting pneumonia, Fatima died in 2000.

During the US-led invasion in 2003 (the so-called 2nd Gulf War) that led to the toppling of the Saddam regime he was grounded, as Iraq largely ceded the air to the invaders (those pilots that didn't immediately defect to Iran). This suited him fine, as he wasn't looking forward to any more hard landings! In the following period of civil and economic turmoil the petroleum industry was slow to recover. He eventually found work as a pilot under contract to shuttle coalition forces (primarily British and American) and oil workers between the Green Zone in Baghdad and other cities. In 2004 Ai'Yesha was killed during a bombing of a market by al Qaeda-backed insurgents while visiting her parents in al Najaf.


Pulling his life back together, Ibro started working for Total Oil of France. Angry at the Sunni insurgents and their al Qaeda masters, Ibro also began working with US military and intelligence services on the side, working both as an informant and a translator. This was a dangerous business and Ibro became reckless. His life didn't get back on track until he met and fell in love with Judi, a Jordanian doctor working for the International Red Cross, in 2006. They were soon married and they had a son, Rafael. (Judi's parents are Sunni Muslims and are not on good terms with their daughter for marrying a Shiite.)


Acting as an interpreter and informer was very dangerous. To keep his identity secret and preserve his safety he routinely wore a mask when working with US soldiers/special forces and intelligence agents (mainly British intelligence but other coalition members like the US as well).


However, his cooperation with the occupiers hadn't gone unnoticed. There were several close calls on his life and that of his new family. These were not just Saddam loyalists and al Qaeda operatives but members of the Iraqi government and police, generally fellow Shia Muslims. The threats continued to mount, and deciding that Jordan wasn't far enough away, he called in some favours and entered a program that allowed him to claim refugee status and immigrated to the UK in 2010. He hoped to one day relocate his parents to the UK as well, but that was before the crisis...