Bahjat al-Muhaisen

Bahjat al-Muhaisen (1927-April 10, 2007) was a Royal Jordanian Land Force officer who served in significant infantry commands during his career.

Born in Tafilah, Jordan, in 1966 Bahjat al-Muhaisen was the Colonel in command of the Hattin Infantry Brigade stationed in the Hebron area. On 13 November 1966, and Israeli battalion commanded by Colonel Yoav Shaham broke through the Jordanian borders towards Samu village, allegedly to destroy a Fatah base that was active in the area. [ [http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%AC%D8%AA_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%86 Arabic Article Bahjat Al Muhaisen] ] The Jordanians named the incident The Battle of Samu, though Israelis refer to it as Operation Shredder. Colonel Bahjat al-Muhaisen was injured in the battle, [ [http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.nsf/db942872b9eae454852560f6005a76fb/af3bf4fc576922b60525672e0050bea5!OpenDocument UN report] by the Secretary General concerning incident of 13 Nov 1966 in Jordan. Retrieved 1 Oct 07.] and Colonel Yoav Shaham was killed in action. Seven months later still in command of his brigade, Bahjat participated in the 1967 Six Day War without fighting and had to retreat to the East Bank of Jordan. His brigade was the last one to cross the River Jordan on Wednesday 7 June 1967 before destroying the bridges. Hebron was captured that day at 18:00. A little less than a year later, he saw action again in Battle of Karameh. That day ended decisively in favor of the Jordanian army.

Bahjat was transferred to the command of Al Hussain bin Ali Brigade as a Brig. Gen. in the South of Jordan for a while, then was appointed in London as the Jordanian Military Attache. He had spent in his post in London a little less than a year, when was recalled back to Jordan to go back to action again. Though this time the battle was at home. He was handed the command of the Second Division of the Jordanian Army based in the northern part of Jordan. For reasons of his own he submitted his resignation and went back to his hometown Al Tafilah in the south of Jordan. Bahjat retired in 1971 and died in Amman on April 10, 2007.

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