The leadership of the Aylul Revolution thought about targeting another strategic location of the Iraqi Army after hitting the Baba Gurgur oil facilities on March 1, 1969, to carry out another partisan activity of the Peshmerga. For that purpose, the Dukan military base, which was the brigade headquarters, was identified and came under the sights of the Peshmerga forces' rifles. After two months of training the special force with special weapons, the revolution leadership entrusted the execution of the task to both Peshmerga Commanders Aziz Akrayi and Rashid Sindi The night of September 19-20, 1969, was set for carrying out the attack. Initially, as planned, the raid took place at its time and place and achieved great success. The Peshmerga were able to take control of the entire military base and cause great damage to the Iraqi Army, as the bodies of dozens of soldiers were scattered on the battlefield and dozens of others were taken prisoner.
In this attack, heavy weapons such as 120mm artillery and RPGs were used by the Peshmerga. Although it was a fixed military base that had fortified itself in that location for several years with walls, barbed wire, and surrounding minefields, the Peshmerga were able to take control of it in a short time and stay in it for a while. Also, in addition to the great damage to the army, great damage was inflicted on those military forces that were guarding the border of the lake's water; their boats were destroyed and fell into the water, and a large number of soldiers drowned in the Dukan water, and dozens of their bodies remained there.
But it did not last long before the Peshmerga's success in this epic was undervalued and taken in another direction, meaning it ended in defeat. This was due to the mistakes and negligence of some Peshmerga officials. The mistake was that after taking control of the military base, they left the road between Dukan and Sulaymaniyah open because Dr. Khalid was the official of the force that was entrusted with the task of cutting the Khalakan road, but he did not perform his duty and did not carry out the order. On the other hand, all the Peshmerga had gathered in the military base. They only saw that suddenly the Iraqi Army's support and relief force showered the military base with fire from artillery, tanks, and machine guns. As a result of the shelling and the Iraqi Army's attack, the Peshmerga were forced to retreat, and a number of martyrs and wounded resulted, and their bodies were left on the battlefield, and the army regained control of the military base.
Clearly, the impact and damage of the Peshmerga on the Iraqi Army in this battle and other battles such as Qaradagh, Garmian, hitting the Baba Gurgur oil facilities, the Bistan battle, Alan Valley, Piramagrun, Surdash Mountain, and many other battles, which the Iraqi Army carried out with the help and support of the old Political Bureau wing forces, initially they were able to take some places and stay in them, but the Peshmerga force confronted them with a solid plan and inflicted great damage on them. This made some of the influential Ba'ath leaders reach the belief that the Kurd issue cannot be solved by war and killing, but rather they can only save themselves from it through dialogue and peace, which resulted in the March 11, 1970 agreement.
Sources:1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurd Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part Two, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, Ministry of Culture Printing House, Ed: First, Erbil, 2004.
2- Ari Karim, Several Living Pages in the Aylul Revolution Khabat Printing House, Duhok 1999.
3- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, Military Events of the Aylul Revolution 1970-1975, First Edition, Erbil, 2022.
4- Ibrahim Jalal, Southern Kurdistan and the Aylul Revolution, Building and Collapse, 1961-1975, Fourth Edition, 2021.