one over the top assassination attempt

On September 30th of 2002 an Iraqi Air Force (IrAF) Soviet made MiG-23 Flogger flown by an unknown pilot broke it's course from it's bombing mission and turned towards the Tharthar lake, there Saddam and his entourage were staying in the luxurious al-Tharthat Palace.

As he went for an attack run hoping to kill Saddam the pilots sturdy airplane was hit by a MANPAD fired by one of the palace guards, his luck had really run out, after ejecting his plane crashed, it's bombs still attached to their racks.

After being arrested he was bought to Saddam who interrogated him personally for quite some time, his originating air base was closed down and all the commanding officers arrested, the nameless pilot was burned alive in front of them before they were to be later executed.

This is a virtually unknown event up until the run up of the invasion of Iraq which would take place in March of 2003 less than a year later, and one has to admire the pilot for his brave if not over the top attempt of ridding the country of that piece of scum, if he had succeeded not only would history be very different but we would know his name and of his courage!