The relationship between the revolution and the Iraqi government during the era of the Baath Party, which seized power for the second time, was going through a special situation, especially in late 1968 until the end of 1969. The reason for this is that the old Political Bureau faction had turned against the revolution and established relations with the government, and their forces were launching daily, side by side with the Iraqi Army forces, attacks on the areas under the control of the revolution, and they were somewhat advanced in the areas of Wadi Jafayati, Siwil, Sharbazher, Sorchak, Halabja, Byara, Tawela, Dukan, Bitwen, Pishdar, and Ranya.
Government forces suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Peshmerga forces in their attacks on Surdash, so, like rabid wolves, they were attacking a place every day, from Jasna, Ganjina, and Qamchuqa, with the aim of returning it to their control, but their attempts failed. After all these defeats that the army suffered at the hands of the Peshmerga, Hardan al-Tikriti, the Minister of Defense at the time, visited Kurdistan and developed a plan with the First and Second Divisions for a large-scale attack on the revolution's regions on the border of Sulaymaniyah. On October 25, 1969, government forces, supported by tanks, artillery, armored vehicles, warplanes, and a large number of hired mercenary gunmen, attacked the regions of Qala Diza, Mount Asos, Merga, Koresh, Wadi Shahid, Zanira, and Mount Azmar. A long-term bloody battle broke out in a wide geographical area, and in the Qala Diza region alone, the (Seventh, Fourteenth, and Twentieth) brigades participated with a battalion and several commando companies.
Although the Iraqi Army was able to reach Qala Diza after several attempts and the resistance of the Peshmerga forces for 14 days, it suffered heavy losses, especially in Wadi Shahid, where the battle lasted for several months, as well as in Mount Makok, where the government forces suffered a major defeat. In the Surdash region, the Iraqi Army launched several successive attacks on the Peshmerga positions in Qazlar, Qalqala, Jasna, Ganjina, Qamchuqa, and Mount Sara, but all the attacks failed and they suffered heavy losses. In addition to all this, the forces of the old Political Bureau wing also did not hesitate in their attacks in coordination with the Iraqi Army forces on the Peshmerga and the areas under the control of the revolution.
In mid-November 1969, as part of the general offensive of the government forces, a large force of the aforementioned faction advanced from the vicinity of Lake Dukan with the intention of attacking the Peshmerga forces and their command center in Mount Surdash towards the village of Bargalo. A force of Peshmerga led by Haji Sheikh Qadir, the official of the battalion in the Rizgari force, confronted them and faced them severely, and they did not abandon them until they defeated them, leaving the bodies of 13 gunmen on the battlefield, and the remnants of their force fled and took refuge in the army camp in Dukan.
This indicates the fact that the old Political Bureau wing continued to betray the Aylul Revolution with the cooperation and support of the Baath regime. This was a plan and a test by the new Baath regime to understand to what extent the aforementioned faction could win over the Kurdistan revolution and achieve their dreams, which were represented in disrupting the revolution, but their efforts did not succeed and failed.
Sources:1- Ibrahim Jalal, South Kurdistan and the Aylul Revolution: Building and Collapse 1961-1975, Fourth Edition, 2021.
2- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part Two, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition, (Iraq- 2004).
3- Ari Karim, Several Living Pages in the Aylul Revolution, (Khabat Press- Duhok – 1999)
4- Khoshawi Ali Kanyelnji, Memoirs of Aziz Qazi Hamad Surchi, (Danishfar Press- Erbil- 2023).
5- Hawkar Karim Hama Sharif, Aylul Revolution, First Edition, (Salahaddin University Press- Erbil- 2012).