The country of Iraq was going through a specific political situation in the year 1968, as it witnessed two consecutive military coups within a few days. 17 and 30 of July were the two dates when the Baathists, in that short period, overthrew the regime of President Abdul Rahman Arif and Prime Minister Abdul Razzaq Al-Naif and took control of Iraq for the second time. During that period until the end of the year 1968, no battle took place between the Peshmerga forces of the revolution and the government forces, but the clashes between the Peshmerga and the armed men of the old Politburo faction continued, and were even more intense, and occasionally minor battles occurred between the Peshmerga and government forces.
In that series of battles and attacks by the aforementioned group in the autumn of 1968 in the Qadir Karam area of the Garmian region, a large number of their armed men, supported by two government commando regiments and aircraft, artillery, tanks, and armored vehicles, attacked the Peshmerga forces within the border of the activities of Battalion 5. At a time when the battalion commander and his Peshmerga were on patrol towards the village of Mahmud Parizad, at this moment they were informed by one of the detachment commanders via wireless device to go to the aid of those Peshmerga who were under the command of Sergeant Star, because the government and the armed men of the old Politburo faction had launched a widespread attack on them.
After the Peshmerga support force reached the designated location, it became clear to them that Sergeant Star's force was low on ammunition and very exhausted, and their ability to repel the enemy forces' attack had weakened. They immediately gathered and planned a counter-attack, then from several fronts, while singing the anthem (We are Kurds, we will not be defeated 000 we are warriors, we will not be defeated), they attacked the government forces and the aforementioned armed men. After a fierce two-hour battle, they were able to defeat their forces and recapture all the places that had been lost. The Iraqi Army and the armed men were forced to retreat to Kirkuk. Then, the commander of the Qaradagh force was informed of the situation via wireless, and it was ordered not to pursue them any further and to stop right there.
As a result of that defeat, the losses of the government and the armed men were to some extent so great that they became spoils for the Peshmerga, such as the seizure of a large amount of weapons and ammunition, as well as the destruction of two tanks, an armored vehicle, and two Zil trucks. The bodies of a large number of armed men were left on the battlefield.
Then the result of the battle and the victory of the Peshmerga in that epic was reported via telegram to the leader Idris Barzani who was personally overseeing the battles via wireless communication. In his reply to the telegram to the Garmian Peshmerga force, he says: (Well done, you are the backbone of Garmian). He also instructs them on what is necessary to do for the burial of the bodies, because he believes that the traitors and servants, those who have been led astray and deceived, are all Kurds and are from us and have been lost from us, and should not be viewed with the eyes of an enemy. Then, to collect the bodies and bury them according to the rules of the holy Islamic religion, they invited some of the residents of the villages to help them.
During the campaign to collect the bodies, one of the citizens of Zarda village in the area found the bodies of his brother and nephew among the dead. He put the bodies on the back of a pack animal, and joy and happiness were visible on his face. The Peshmerga force commander looked at him with surprise and asked him why you are so happy while you have lost your brother and nephew and are in mourning? In response, he said: There was one thing that I could not hold my head up for among the people of Kurdistan, and that was the collaborationism of these two. This disgrace of ours ends with the burial of these ((After all, if a fox returns to its own hole, it becomes mangy)). This was the patriotic feeling of a simple, illiterate human being from a village in that country, at a time when he was taking the bodies of his brother and nephew to be buried, who had lost their lives in national treason.
It is worth noting that in the period between 29 June 1966 until the coup of 17 and 30 of July 1968 by the Baathists, the old members of the Politburo were on the side of the government, and with the help of the government, they began to engage in activities against Aylul Revolution, in which dozens of people became victims on one hand, and also the devaluation of the clauses of the 29 agreement on the other hand. Despite this, on 10 of November 1968, the Baath regime, with all the tools of war and a large army, attacked the areas under the control of the revolution from all sides. Alongside the Iraqi Army, the forces of the old Politburo faction, numbering 4 to 5 thousand armed men, attacked the Peshmerga in the areas of Jafayati Valley, Siweyl, Sharbazher, Sorochk, Halabja, Byara and Tawela, Dukan, Betwen, Pshdar and Ranya, because the Baathists had opened the field for that group much more than the regime before them, so that they would turn against the revolution to provoke war and further destroy Kurdistan.
Sources:1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part One, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, Ministry of Culture Press, Ed: First, Erbil, 2004.
2- Ari Karim, Some Living Pages in the Aylul Revolution, Khabat Press, Duhok, 1999.
3- Karwan Jawhar Muhammad, Idris Barzani 1944- 1987 Life and Political and Military Role in the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Hevi Press, Erbil, 2019.
4- Ibrahim Jalal, Southern Kurdistan and the Aylul Revolution: Foundation and Collapse 1961- 1975, Fourth Edition, 2021.
5- Hawkar Karim Hama Sharif, Aylul Revolution, Salahaddin University Press, First Edition, Erbil, 2012.