In the summer of 1963, the wars and assaults of the Iraqi government, led by Abdul Salam Arif, began extensively against various regions of Kurdistan. From the Baghdad radio station, they announced a statement rejecting dialogue with the leadership of the Kurdish revolution and issued a decision to restart a bloody war against the Kurds. Then they began attacking and assaulting cities, towns, and villages, and then they began arresting, chasing, and massacring all those areas that were subjected to military assaults, on the basis that the Ba'athists interpreted that the regime of Abdul Karim Qasim before them had not fought the Kurds seriously, but that they could defeat the Kurdish revolution in a short time. Clearly, this reveals the fact that Abdul Salam Arif never believed in the Kurdish cause in Iraq, and the reflection of that appeared in his speeches and statements, as he did not recognize the Kurds and did not use the word Kurdistan.
In the autumn of 1963, the military campaign began for the Mount Azmar range, which is 5 km away from Sulaymaniyah. With the support of tanks, aircraft, and machine guns, they launched an assault toward the Peshmerga positions. The Peshmerga Forces, in defensive positions, resisted them with the weapons they had, which consisted of (Bolt-action rifles, Bren light machine guns). From dawn, the government forces attacked the Peshmerga positions three times, but the resistance and confrontations of the Peshmerga were such that they were able to defeat all three assaults, force them to retreat toward the foothills of the mountain, and leave several bodies of their killed behind on the battlefield.
Although that defeat of the army caused calm to prevail in the region for a while, the army was busy during this silence preparing for a larger attack with a more solid plan. But the Peshmerga Forces that time also fortified their positions very well and resisted them strongly, defeated their plan, broke their attack, and they suffered heavy losses. However, the Iraqi Army, in retaliation for their defeat, turned on the shepherds, caravan drivers, and merchants on the outskirts of the city of Sulaymaniyah, arrested them all, and martyred them.
In that epic of Mount Azmar, which is an example of the series of national defense epics, the Ba'ath army's attack was defeated several times and caused them heavy casualties, while there was only one martyr from the Peshmerga Forces.
Source:- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board