On the other hand, the signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and the Ba'athist government in April 1972 led to the military revival of Iraq and the re-arming of the army with advanced heavy weapons such as 25 120mm and 152mm cannons, SAM missiles, T-62 tanks, and others. On July 17, 1973, the Communist Party joined the alliance upon the recommendation and encouragement of the Soviet Union, and they formed a joint front with the Ba'ath Party against the Kurdish revolution. When the Ba'athists saw themselves as a huge armed force with an international relationship with one of the world's superpowers, they thought they were on the verge of achieving their long-term dream of the collapse of the Kurdish revolution. Therefore, in April 1974, they resumed the attack on Kurdistan, and on April 15, 1974, the Iraqi Army, with the help of Communist Party fighters, attacked the Qardagh area from two fronts:

The first front: consisted of the movements of the Iraqi Army starting from Darbandikhan towards the village of Bawkushin and from there to the village of Siwsenan and then to Qardagh.

The second front: Communist forces advanced starting from the Iraqi Army camp in Darbandikhan towards the village of Bani Khilan and from there to Mount Gulan.

It is noteworthy that the Communists, who were fighting alongside the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces against the Ba'ath regime and other Iraqi regimes, ended their long alliance with Kurdistan Democratic Party for the sake of building democracy in Iraq, threw themselves into the arms of the government, stood by the warring Ba'athist army, received weapons from this army, turned against their Peshmerga allies, and fought them as Ba'ath soldiers.

The Kurdistan Peshmerga forces confronted the attack of the army and the Communist Party from three axes:

The first axis: The Peshmerga forces outflanked the Iraqi Army and besieged it in the village of Bawkushin.

The second axis: The Peshmerga forces confronted the government forces in the village of Gulan.

The third axis: The Peshmerga fortified themselves and established their positions under the command of Corporal Bakr Muhyiddin in the village of Bani Khilan and Mount Gulan. After the government forces reached the places where the Peshmerga forces were in a state of alert, a bloody battle broke out between the two sides, as the Peshmerga forces confronted them, stopped the advance of the attacking forces, inflicted heavy losses on their ranks, and forced them to retreat to the Darbandikhan Military Headquarters from which they had launched.

The Iraqi Army did not stop there. On April 22, it resumed its attack from the Darbandikhan Military Headquarters, but this time it attacked the Peshmerga positions in the same place from three sides. The army clashed with the Peshmerga forces and another bloody battle took place between them. This time, the strong defense of the Peshmerga forces was able to repel the attacks of the Ba'athists and their armed Communist allies, and they met the same fate as the first time. The battle led to the martyrdom of four Kurdistan Peshmerga.

Sources:           

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

2- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part Two, The September Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition, (Erbil - 2004).

3- Karwan Jawhar Muhammad, Idris Barzani 1944-1987 Life and Political and Military Role in the Kurdish Liberation Movement, (Hevi Press - Erbil - 2019).

4- Ari Karim, Several Living Pages from the September Revolution, (Khabat Press - Duhok - 1999).