The government's attack on Bistana dates back to the spring of the Year 1968, due to the killing of an Arab mercenary battalion commander named Sheikh Anash, who was killed in an ambush on the Erbil-Kuwayr road near the village of Turaq on 13 April 1968. The work of this Arab Sheikh and his men consisted of raiding Kurdish villages and carrying out acts of looting and harming and torturing Kurdish villagers. About 10 innocent Kurdish citizens were martyred at his hands. He and his gunmen also had a prominent role in the attack on the village of Talkhim located at the foot of Mount Qarachogh on 6 June 1963 alongside the National Guard and other government forces, where four Peshmerga and two of the village residents were martyred in that attack.
It seems that the reason for the killing of Sheikh Anash, the leader of the mercenaries, goes back to his hardline and hostile stance and his assault on the interests of those citizens and villagers whom he treated in the manner mentioned, especially in retaliation for the martyrdom of two brothers named Anwar and Tahir in the attack on the village of Talkhim in 1963.
Regarding the Iraqi government's position on the incident, as soon as the aforementioned was killed, the Ministry of Defense issued a strongly worded statement and announced a surprise attack on the Peshmerga. On the same day in the afternoon, the Third Brigade of the Iraqi Army attacked the Peshmerga in the village of Bistana belonging to the Erbil Plain, which resulted in a fierce battle that lasted three hours, but the Erbil Plain Peshmerga force led by Faris Bawa resisted them strongly. After the outbreak of a heated battle, the Peshmerga were able to besiege the Iraqi Army force and kill many officers and soldiers, then through negotiations and agreement, the Peshmerga forces allowed them to retreat and their army returned defeated.
It must also be noted that a few days before the killing of Sheikh Anash, specifically on 5 March 1968, an ambush was set for a Kurdish mercenary leader named Huweiz Mam Yahya near the city of Koya and he was killed by the Peshmerga led by Corporal Osman Yusuf and Dr. Khalid Saeed. He was a strong supporter of the government and a very hard-hearted person towards the Peshmerga, but the government did not take any position and did not talk about the matter, while it stirred up all this fuss and assaults because of the killing of an Arab tribal sheikh.
Sources:
1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part One, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition, 2004.
2- Sayid Kaka, Memoirs of a Peshmerga, First Edition, (Ministry of Culture Press - 1997).
3- Ari Karim, Living Pages from the Aylul Revolution, (Khabat Press - Duhok 1999).
4- Khurshid Shira, Struggle and Blood, Memoirs of the Years of Peshmerga Struggle, Third Edition, (Erbil - 2015).