In the novel They Came to Baghdad, Abdul Hassan was a Kurd who was suspected of being a cigarette smuggler. He was shot by the police, presumably near the Iraqi border.
Mr Dakin of British intelligence believed that the killing of Hassan was only one of several carried out by the operatives of the secret "New Order" organisation as part of their effort to prevent British agent Henry Carmichael from reaching Baghdad. Besides Hassan, there had been these other murders:
- An Englishman travelling in his car from Persia to Iraq, supposedly killed by bandits.
- A Kurd merchant travelling down the hills, ambushed and killed.
- An Armenian lorry driver killed on the Rowanduz road
All of these men had roughly the same height, weight, hair and build as Carmichael.