Colonel Ibrahim Al Husseini (1911–1968) was a prominent member of Syria’s political and military leadership of the late 1940s and 1950s, and a leading contributor to the formation of Saudi Arabia’s National Guard during the early 1960s.
Al Husseini graduated from the Homs Military Academy in 1937 and was assigned to France’s Troupes Spéciales du Levant in Al Jazira Province. He fought the French occupation forces in Al Jazira from June 1945 until Syria’s independence on 24 October 1945, and was responsible for securing Syria’s eastern borders through 1947. During the 1948 Palestine War he led the Badiyat Al Jazira Company and distinguished himself for exceptional valor on both the Lebanese and Syrian fronts.
In late 1948, at the end of the Palestine War, he was promoted to Chief of the Army’s Military Police in Damascus. He held that position through August 1949 and was then appointed Commander of an infantry division on the Israeli border. From December 1949 to July 1950 he was Chief of Military Police and Head of Army Intelligence in Damascus, after which he was Head of the Syrian Army’s School of Commandos and Special Forces. In early 1952 he attended several advanced military programs in France after which he returned to Syria as Head of Police and Chief of National Security from July 1952 to December 1953.
In January 1954 he was transferred to Syria’s diplomatic corps and served as Military Attaché in Washington D.C. until August 1954 and then in Rome until August 1957. On 12 August 1957 he was falsely accused of planning a coup to overthrow the pro-Nasser officers in Syria but rather than face these fabricated charges he chose to remain in Rome in self-imposed exile.
In late 1961 he accepted an invitation by the Saudi Arabian government to serve as Security Advisor to its Council of Ministers and Special Military Advisor to the Commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. He spent the subsequent 8 years in the service of the Saudi Arabian government until his death in 18 December 1968 in a car accident in northern Saudi Arabia. He was buried with honors on 20 December 1968 (Friday 29 Ramadan) in the Janatu’l Baqi Cemetery in Al Madina Al Munawwarah.