The summer of 1963 was a hot and bloody season. A difficult and harsh situation was passing over Kurdistan. The government of Iraq threw all its forces into the war against the Kurd, because it interpreted it as a decisive battle and was hoping to destroy the revolution and exterminate the Kurdish people, and to make whoever remains submissive and subjugated. To implement that plan, the government began brutal attacks and assaults with all its ground and air military power against Kurdistan, burning everything green and dry together. It also began bombing villages and towns, burning agricultural crops and natural forests, and imposing an economic blockade. It sent the most brutal army into cities and towns for torture and mass intimidation.

      These actions came about at the hands of the Ba'ath regime led by Abdul Salam Arif, who took power in Iraq through a coup on February 8, 1963. With this, a new phase in the history of Iraq began. Although at the beginning of their rule they started a kind of dialogue and negotiation with the leadership of the revolution to resolve the Kurdish issue, the talks did not last more than four months. On June 10, 1963, the attacks and assaults on the areas of the revolution began.   

      The Peshmerga force of Kurdistan was also always in a state of readiness to repel the attacks and defend, and sometimes in response to the army's assaults, it carried out various activities. One of those activities of the Qaradagh Peshmerga force was the battle of the Daradwina stream bridge on the main road between Maydan and Darbandikhan on July 15, 1963. When they received news of the passing of an Iraqi Army convoy on the Jalawla-Darbandikhan road towards Baghdad, they decided to block the road below Darbandikhan to that army convoy and carry out a Peshmerga activity. They set the plan for the battle as follows: 

  • A Peshmerga force under the command of Muhammad Haji Wali Kalari was assigned to take the heights of Qatra mountain so that they would not allow the Iraqi Army to flank them from the Maydan military base. 

  • A group of Peshmerga was entrusted with the duty of taking the mountain behind the village of Bani Khilan so that they would also not allow the army to advance from the Darbandikhan military base and take the Gulan heights.

  • Another group was in a state of readiness below the village of Banikhilan.

  • The other force, under the command of Aziz Qazi, was stationed near the Daradwina stream bridge on the main road, waiting for the arrival of the army convoy.

      There were also several trenches on the heights near the main road. At the times when the army convoy passed through it, they would send a group of hired gunmen (Jash) to those trenches to protect the main road, and they were also under the surveillance of the Peshmerga. 

       At 9:00 AM on July 15, 1963, the Iraqi Army convoy reached the bridge. The Peshmerga first fired at the hired (Jash) gunmen and killed 3 of their gunmen; the others abandoned the trenches, fled, and left their dead bodies behind. The army soldiers began an attack to retake the trenches. In the meantime, a hot battle began. The soldiers could not retake the trenches, but rather several of their soldiers were killed. A force of the army and hired gunmen attacked the heights behind Qatra; there, too, the Peshmerga struck them and broke them in a short time. 3 hired (Jash) gunmen were killed in that place, and their bodies were left on the battlefield. Another Iraqi military force from the Darbandikhan military base, to support the military convoy, attacked Gulan mountain. They fell into a Peshmerga ambush; several of their soldiers were killed, and they returned to their military base. 

      The battle continued until 5:00 PM. Both the Maydan and Darbandikhan military bases and the hired gunmen of the Nawroli tribe participated in the battle. That day, the Iraqi Army convoy could not pass and returned to the base, but the next day they were able to escape. According to the information that reached the Peshmerga in that battle, the losses of the government forces consisted of the killing of 40 soldiers, two Officers, and 6 hired (Jash) gunmen. On the side of the revolution force, only one Peshmerga was slightly wounded.

Sources:

1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part One, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition, (Erbil- 2004).

2- Ibrahim Jalal, South Kurdistan and the Aylul Revolution: Foundation and Collapse 1961-1975, Fourth Edition, 2021.

3- Shawkat Mullah Ismail Hassan, Days in the History of the Aylul Revolution, First Edition, (Ministry of Education Press- Erbil- 2007).

4- Hawkar Karim Hama Sharif, Aylul Revolution, First Edition, (Salahaddin University Press- Erbil- 2012).

5- Khoshawi Ali Kanyelnji, Memoirs of Aziz Qazi Surchi, First Edition, (Danishfar Press- Erbil- 2023).