In the year 1985, hundreds of activities were carried out by the Peshmerga. Because of this, the Iraqi army forces suffered heavy losses in dead, wounded, and captured, in addition to material losses and the Peshmerga's gains in weapons, ammunition, and military equipment. One of the activities that took place during that period was the Geli Qirki battle in June 1985. The Sheikhan branch committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party held a meeting with the organizations committee for the purpose of continuing partisan activities within the borders of their area. In that meeting, a group of Peshmerga were assigned to identify a location where a guard post or any other base of the Iraqi army forces might be, in order to attack it, strike a blow against them, and record a Peshmerga activity. On 2 June 1985, those Peshmerga who were assigned to that task, under the supervision of Sadiq Haji Hussein, head of the Martyr Hafzullah organization, and Amin Khalid Nasri, head of the Martyr of Dekan Cave organization, carried out their work and identified the Geli Qirki guard post (Sare Maghara) to carry out the activity.
In the military map, before carrying out an activity, a group of Peshmerga were organized in the form of a detachment and would visit the location where they intended to carry out the activity, to collect information, gain knowledge of the area, obtain clarity, and assess the military situation in terms of size and force, as well as how to set the map and plan for the attack.
The group of Peshmerga approached the guard post and drew up their attack plan as follows:
_ Install an 57mm cannon in the eastern part of the guard post and allocate a number of Peshmerga to it to strike the guard post and provide defense if any surrounding force intended to attack the location of the activity.
_ A 12,5mm DShK be fixed at the top of the valley to defend against the possibility of any surrounding attack.
_ A Peshmerga force was allocated to attack the guard post under the command of Sadiq Haji Hussein, head of the Martyr Hafzullah organization, and Amin Khalid Nasri, head of the Martyr of Dekan Cave organization, given that they were familiar with the location.
On 4 June 1985, the Peshmerga force set zero hour to attack the Geli Qirki guard post. After all the Peshmerga were positioned in the locations assigned to them, the Peshmerga commander Sadiq Haji Hussein himself fired the first RPG at the guard post. Then, the Peshmerga force opened fire on the guard post from all sides. The soldiers of the guard post, who had been attacked and surrounded by the Peshmerga, woke up and resisted. As a result of that resistance, the battle became fierce and the Peshmerga force tightened the siege on the guard post. However, in the heat of the battle, Sadiq Haji Hussein was targeted by the soldiers and was martyred. In order to prevent confusion from arising in the Peshmerga attack and to prevent their morale from collapsing, Amin Nasri took his place, took the RPG, and attacked towards the guard post, but it was not long before he was also hit and was martyred. With the martyrdom of those two Peshmerga commanders, the attack became disorganized. Although the battle continued, the Peshmerga force thought about abandoning the attack and withdrawing.
After both Peshmerga commanders were martyred, the Peshmerga force could not continue the attack, but rather began to focus on transporting the bodies of the two martyrs. Because of this, they could not take control of the guard post and withdrew. Nevertheless, according to the information that reached the Peshmerga, a number of soldiers were killed during the battle.
Sources:
1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Four, 1975- 1990 Gulan Revolution, Part Two, First Edition, (Ruxana Printing House- 2021).
2- Muhammad Murad, Khabata Chia, Memories and Events of the Gulan Revolution between the years (1976-1989), (Kurdistan Printing House- Zakho- 2007).
3- Haji Mirxan Dolamari, Searching for Justice, Volume Two, Second Edition, (Kurdistan- 2021).