From February 1964 to March 1965, the relationship between the Kurdish revolution and the Iraqi government passed through a state of ceasefire, neither war nor peace, for a year, until at the end of March, specifically on April 1, 1965, war and clashes erupted again. The Iraqi government reneged on the agreement that existed between them, the Peshmerga withdrew from cities and towns to more secure places, and dozens of officers and hundreds of military, police, and ordinary citizens joined the ranks of the revolution.
After the government resumed its attacks and assaults on various areas of Kurdistan, the revolution leadership thought of carrying out an activity in the depth of the government's authority in the city of Kirkuk, which was hitting the Zambur oil pipelines and the railway line. In addition to the fact that the revolution leadership wanted to show the government that it not only faces the Iraqi Army on the war fronts, but has the ability to carry out activities in the heart of the authority and important places and put its interests at risk, besides this, the activity had two other reasons behind it:
First: Splitting the regular forces and forcing their leadership to be scattered into widespread areas so they would not be able to gather on one front.
Second: It was a threat and pressure on the government's economy by hitting oil facilities so that the government would allocate a large protection force for those facilities and keep them away from the war fronts.
It was on July 21, 1965, that a group of Peshmerga under the command of Muhammad Darwish Nadir reached the Zambur oil pipelines and the railway line in Kirkuk. In a short time, they mined all the oil pipelines and blew them up, causing great human and material damage to the oil agencies and facilities. After carrying out the activity successfully and the withdrawal of the Peshmerga, the government forces attacked them, and as a result, one Peshmerga was martyred.
The results and consequences of this Peshmerga operation caused chaos and a great danger to the government and its economic interests, so it was forced to take several steps, including withdrawing a large force consisting of two military battalions and nearly a thousand mercenaries (Jash) from the battlefield and allocating them to protect the oil facilities. It also thought about keeping the Peshmerga away from the borders of Kirkuk and the Erbil plain to the mountains, in order to protect the oil facilities from the danger of being hit again in this way. With this pretext, the government in the autumn of 1965 launched a large and extensive attack on the Erbil plain in the villages of Bestana, Ilinjah, Qashqa, Khurkhur, and the areas of Koya, Taq Taq, and Digala, in order to sweep the Peshmerga force from those areas and disrupt their movements and activities in the Erbil plain.
Sources:1- Hawkar Karim Hama Sharif, Aylul Revolution, Salahaddin University Press, first edition, Erbil, 2012.
2- Shawkat Mullah Ismail Hassan, Days in the History of the Aylul Revolution, first edition, Erbil, 2007
3- Ari Karim, Several Living Pages in the Aylul Revolution, Khabat Press, Duhok 1999.
4- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part One, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, Ministry of Culture Press, Ed: First, Erbil, 2004.
5- Khurshid Shira, Struggle and Blood, Memoirs of the Years of Peshmerga Struggle, third edition, Erbil, 2015.