At the beginning of the eighties of the last century, Peshmerga activities expanded to include most areas of South Kurdistan, and these activities were carried out in the form of guerrilla warfare in villages, cities, and towns, which caused a lot of confusion in the ranks of the Iraqi Army. These guerrilla activities mainly included dealing painful blows to the regime's men who were persecuting and oppressing the people, in addition to the Peshmerga setting ambushes on the roads of military and security forces and attacking their military bases. As a result, the Ba'athist regime suffered heavy losses of dead and wounded and the capture of thousands of soldiers, high-ranking military personnel, and security cadres, in addition to seizing large quantities of weapons and ammunition. One of the activities was the seizure of the Dwazda Mlani outposts near the city of Zakho.

A Peshmerga force affiliated with the Ranjbaran organization led by Muhammad Murad and the Martyr Hamid organization led by Jabbar Muhammad prepared for a guerrilla warfare activity in the Badinan region. Initially, they held a meeting in the village of Berka to continue the struggle, where they decided to carry out an operation to deal a fatal blow to the Ba'athist regime's forces. After they developed a tight plan in the meeting, they headed towards the village of Jam Sirmo. After dark, they headed towards Zakho on the banks of the Khabur River. When they approached the city, the military and security forces of the Iraqi government had set an ambush on the eastern bank of the Khabur River. The force's guards realized the existence of an ambush and quickly returned along their path and escaped the ambush.

After all the forces gathered, they vowed not to surrender and to try again and not return to their positions until they achieved their goal. The Peshmerga forces decided at the same location to attack an Iraqi Army base called the Dwazda Mlani outpost overlooking the Khabur River near Zakho. At 9:30 PM, the Peshmerga forces arrived at an area near the outpost and opened fire on them with RPG shells, hand grenades, and other weapons, then raided the outpost and took control of it in a short time and inflicted heavy damage on the soldiers. Following that, they seized a number of weapons and ammunition that were in the soldiers' possession, including six Kalashnikov rifles, five boxes of Russian ammunition of the same type of weapons, one RPG and eight artillery launchers, a Krinov-type machine gun with 1000 various bullets, one box of hand grenades, and the seizure of many military equipment. But when the Peshmerga attacked the outpost, a large military force from Zakho rushed to the battlefield to save the regime's forces, but the Peshmerga forces quickly gathered their spoils and decided to retreat and leave the area.

The Peshmerga forces arrived at the village of Berka on the morning of the same night and sent a telegram to the Zakho Local Committee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party about the execution of the operation. For their part, they expressed their thanks to the officials and the Peshmerga in the two organizations for the courage they showed in this heroic activity. The next day, the Iraqi government, as it usually did in other places, bombed the area and sent several warplanes over the area and bombed it intensively, but fortunately for the residents, the bombing did not cause any damage. It is worth noting that this Peshmerga activity sparked great reactions because it was close to Zakho, and it also caused damage to the Ba'athist regime's forces, and this made the people very happy.

Sources:

1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Four, 1975- 1990 Gulan Revolution, Part Two, First Edition, (Roxana Press- 2021).

2- Muhammad Murad, Struggle of the Mountains, Memories and Events of the Gulan Revolution between the years (176-1989), (Kurdistan Press - Zakho- 2007).

3- Ghazi Adel Gardi, A Peshmerga in the Service of the Barzani Path, Haji Birokhi, Volume Two, Second Edition, (Turkey- 2021).

4- Shimal Zebari, Some Hidden Truths in the Gulan Revolution, First Edition, (Rojhelat Press- Erbil - 2015).