On 23 May 1940, Pinhas Rutenberg had suggested to a British official, Bruce Lockhart, that the Mufti be assassinated. The idea was broadly discussed only months later. The War Office and Winston Churchill formally approved his assassination in November of that year, but the proposal was shelved after objections arose from the Foreign Office, concerned at the impact an attempt on his life might have in Iraq where his resistance to the British was widely admired. After the coup of April 1941, British called on assistance from the Irgun, after General Percival Wavell had one of their commanders, David Raziel, released from his imprisonment in Palestine. They asked him if he would undertake to kill or kidnap the Mufti and destroy Iraq's oil refineries. Raziel agreed on condition he be allowed to kidnap the Mufti. Raziel and other Irgun militants were flown to the R.A.F base at Habbaniyya where he died two days later, on 20 May 1941, when the car he was travelling in was strafed by a German plane.