Shishar is a towering and strategic mountain in the Betwata region, close to Mount Makok and the Sruchawe sub-district. The mountain and its steepness and height made it a location from which any Military force could extend its control over the entire region and oversee the Sruchawe-Palisan road.

After the Iraqi Army failed to advance in the mountains of Kiuresh, Makok, and Hory, it planned in mid-September 1974 to seize Mount Shishar to control the entire region. Through this, it aimed to: tighten the noose on the positions and fortifications of the Peshmerga, especially besieging one side of the Hory forces present in the region. Also, the Peshmerga Forces could not pass between Mount Shishar and Mount Makok. The pressure of the Iraqi Army on the Peshmerga Forces between the Betwata and Palisan regions increased, and the ranges of the Iraqi Army's artillery became longer than before. 

The commander of the Second Army of the Peshmerga, Rashid Sindi, issued an order for the Sefin, Erbil Plain, and Betwata forces to strengthen their defensive lines in the Palisan valley, and for a section of the Erbil Plain forces to coordinate and cooperate with the Kawa force in Pishdar. 

The Second Division of the Iraqi Army was prepared with all its Military formations, including a tank battalion, the 16th Armored Brigade, the Air Force, and mercenary gunmen (Jash), to attack Mount Shishar.

The Peshmerga Forces entrenched in the defensive trenches consisted of the Third battalion of the Sefin forces led by Mohammed Sabir, commander of the First Company, Omar Sultan, commander of the Second Company, and Sadiq Mohammed Amin, commander of the Third Company. 

The Iraqi Army's attack began with intense shelling of the Peshmerga's trenches and positions, with the aim of paralyzing the Peshmerga's resistance and lowering their morale so that its soldiers could climb the mountain easily.

 

After the shelling stopped, the army's infantry force raided the Peshmerga's fortifications and positions. The Peshmerga Forces were waiting for them and were entrenched in their defensive positions. When the force approached the Peshmerga's positions, the heroic Peshmerga confronted them and were able to defeat the army's attack, which led to the killing of many of them, and the attacking soldiers fled, leaving behind the bodies of their dead. Three Peshmerga were martyred and a number of others were wounded as a result of the intense shelling by the Iraqi Army.

The Iraqi Army continued to shell the Peshmerga Forces during that period, but it could not control the mountain until Aylul Revolution in 1975. After the Iraqi Army failed to control Mount Shishar at the end of September, it changed the direction of its attacks, as it launched a series of attacks on the Dole Reqe region to relieve its forces on the Rawanduz front, and in order to transfer part of the Peshmerga Forces from Rawanduz to the Betwata region and reduce the Peshmerga's pressure on the battle axis front so that its forces could begin to advance from that region. Nevertheless, the Sefin, Erbil Plain, and Betwata forces and the 4th Zozk battalion prevented and confronted the army, stopped it from advancing, and finally thwarted its attack.             

Sources:   

  1. Masoud Barzani: Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part Two, Aylul Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition – Erbil, 2004.

  2. Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw: Military Events of the Aylul Revolution 1970-1975, First Edition, Erbil, 2022.

  3. Khurshid Shera: Struggle and Blood, Memoirs of the Peshmerga Years, Haji Hashim Printing House, Third Edition, Erbil – 2015.

  4. Sayed Kaka: Memoirs of a Peshmerga, Ministry of Culture Printing House, First Edition, Erbil – 1997.