Background
Issawi was born in Anbar in 1966.
Issawi was born in Anbar in 1966.
He comes from the Albu Issa tribe. This tribe is the dominant tribe in an area of around 80 square kilometers south of the city of Fallujah, in the western province of Al-Anbar. He trained as an orthopedic surgeon in Baghdad and Basra, before becoming the head of the Fallujah hospital.
He was in that role during the Second Battle of Fallujah in November 2004 and he reported that 800 local Iraqis had died as a result of the attack. He accused the United States Army of blocking a team of eleven Iraqi ministry of health ambulances with 20 doctors from evacuating the dead and injured or helping the injured. A few months earlier he had accused the US Army of "constantly attacking ambulances", saying that an ambulance driver had been killed in a September 2004 bombing aimed at the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The Front rejoined the government on 19 July 2008 and Issawi was approved as deputy prime minister. He became the Finance Minister in the Al Maliki II Government which was formed on 22 December 2010 after nine months of negotiations. In December 2011, he started a boycott the cabinet, along with all but four of the other Iraqiyya ministers.
An adviser to the Prime Minister said Issawi had been linked to al Qaeda in Iraq, although the Americans in 2010 had said that a thorough investigation of these allegations had determined that they were groundless. Attacks
On 1 January 2012, Issawi was attacked by an improvised explosive device whilst driving. The attack wounded two of his security guards and was described as an "attempted assassination".
On 19 December 2012, he reported that nearly 150 of his guards and staff members had been arrested. He was also attacked on 13 January 2013. A bomb was detonated near to his convoy.
Issawi was not hurt in attack that occurred while his convoy was heading to Fallujah to meet with tribal leaders.
Prior to the 2010 elections, he formed his own party, the National Future Gathering, which joined the Iraqiyya coalition.