Sartiz Mountain is located north of Zozk Mountain and south of Hasan Beg Mountain. For the leadership of the Aylul Revolution, this mountain range had great importance and significance, because the strategic road that passed through the Beshe pass was an important mountain pass connecting the Bradost and Barzan regions to the Balakayati region, which was the headquarters of the revolution's leadership. The Iraqi Army tried in every way to seize this mountain, because by capturing it, they would disrupt all the movements of the revolution, and also sever the communication link between the areas and regions under the control of the revolution.
Sartiz Mountain is located north of Zozk Mountain and south of Hasan Beg Mountain, it is about 1850m high above sea level, in the Iraqi military map it is named (Jabal Tatan), it overlooks the Beshe pass from the north, the leadership of the Aylul Revolution intended to always protect this mountain so that it would not fall into the hands of the Iraqi Army, because the strategic road that passed through the Beshe pass was an important mountain pass connecting the Bradost and Barzan regions to the Balakayati region, which was the headquarters of the revolution's leadership.
At the beginning of the start of the Aylul Revolution, specifically on May 29, 1962, Mullah Mustafa Barzani the leader of the Kurdish revolution, himself and more than 500 Peshmerga came to Beshe village for the first time and stayed in that village for two nights, they were warmly welcomed by the people of the village, then they stayed one night in the Beshe pass and then set off for other areas of the Balakayati region.
After the Iraqi Army captured the foothills of Korak Mountain, most of the areas such as the city of Rawanduz and the plains of Diana and Badlian were exposed to the danger of occupation, the military office of the revolution ordered the Halgurd, Zmnako, Zakho, Kawa, Safin, and Azmar forces to send every force and battalion to Sartiz Mountain, in order to strengthen the Peshmerga positions on the strategic heights, by establishing a defensive line to reduce the danger to the revolution's leadership and other places. It was then that these forces reached the designated location in August 1974.
When the Iraqi Army succeeded in capturing Zozk Mountain, it began preparations to capture Sartiz Mountain, its advances reached the village of Sitkan at the bottom of the mountain, this situation on the battle fronts was reported by the Peshmerga on Sartiz Mountain who were in the defensive trenches to the commanders of that front, that the Iraqi Army was advancing towards their positions, upon receiving the news, the Peshmerga commanders met in the village of Beshe to set a plan to block the advances of the Iraqi Army, for this, orders were given to Hamid Afandi as the commander of the infantry force and Omar Osman as the commander of the revolution's artillery, to attack the Iraqi Army in order to break their advances and drive them out of the area.
The beginning of the Sartiz Mountain epic started with the shelling of the revolution's artillery on the Iraqi Army forces, in response, the Iraqi Army heavily bombarded the Omar Agha pass in the southwest of Sartiz Mountain, on October 7, 1974, the Iraqi government began its plan to attack Sartiz Mountain, the beginning of the attack was a heavy bombardment of the entire mountain, with the army's artillery and (Grad) weapons and the air force's planes which burned the entire mountain with (napalm and phosphorus bombs) and later it was able to capture it.
But after a week, the Kurdistan Peshmerga force, after taking a rest and preparing for a counter-attack, which consisted of a battalion from the Khabat force commanded by Hama Shamirani and a battalion from the Zmnako force commanded by Nuri Hama Ali, were able to attack the Iraqi Army again and recapture the entire mountain and inflict heavy losses on the Iraqi Army, which consisted of more than 200 killed and a large number of wounded, and from the Peshmerga force there was only one martyr and six wounded, the next day the Iraqi Army attacked the mountain again and re-occupied it, this was after two months of continuous fighting and clashes on Sartiz Mountain, which had four strategic military positions of the Iraqi Army, sometimes they were in the hands of the Peshmerga and sometimes in the hands of the Iraqi Army, as a result of the inequality in terms of military force and weapons and war supplies, the Peshmerga force decided to withdraw from the mountain.
Three days after the Peshmerga withdrew from Sartiz Mountain, the telegram of the revolution's military office reached the commander of the Peshmerga force of that battle front, to carry out a counter-attack and recapture those four strategic points where the soldiers of the Iraqi government army were stationed.
For this attack, more than 200 Peshmerga from the Halgurd, Balak, and Azmar forces, which were several battalions, each battalion with 30 Peshmerga, participated in this attack under the leadership of Hamid Afandi, they prepared themselves to carry out the leadership's order. The Peshmerga's attack plan was set for November 15, 1974, at 17:00, the beginning of the attack started with intense shelling of the Iraqi Army's outposts by the revolution's artillery, which continued from 7:00 to 16:30, then with a tight military plan, the Kurdistan Peshmerga force stormed the military positions of the Iraqi Army, they were able to recapture Sartiz Mountain once again in half an hour and inflict a major loss on the Iraqi Army in terms of many killed and wounded in that battle, in addition to the heavy loss of life, the Peshmerga also had these gains: 45 Kalashnikovs, 140 grenades, 7 pistols, two radio devices, 38 flare pistols, and four machine guns.
The importance of Sartiz Mountain to the Iraqi Army was such that after all the successive defeats and failures they had faced at the hands of the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces, they were still determined to occupy it. The following day, November 16, 1974, they attacked those four strategic locations again with a special battalion of the Iraqi Army. Although they managed to reach those four locations again this time, the Peshmerga forces, at sunset on November 20, 1974, launched an operation against them and recaptured the positions. However, due to the exhaustion of the Peshmerga, the intensity of the successive attacks, and the continuous shelling by the Iraqi Army, they could not hold their ground and continue their stay. That same night, they vacated their positions, and the Iraqi Army returned and took control of them again.
In all those attacks by the Iraqi Army on Sartiz Mountain, they would ascend the mountain from the village of Sitka. On one of the northern heights of Zozk Mountain, south of Sartiz Mountain, called Kharomar, a Dushka of the support forces was stationed, which supported the Peshmerga operations against Sartiz Mountain.
The retention of the summit of Sartiz Mountain by the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces had special importance. This time, a telegram arrived from the Barzani headquarters itself to the commanders of that front, stating that Sartiz Mountain must be in the hands of the Peshmerga. The content of the telegram emphasized that the Halgurd force should retake the mountain, and then the Sayid Abosh battalion from the Zakho force should be stationed in their place. To carry out the order of the Barzani headquarters, both the Halgurd and Azmar forces were able to attack the summit of the mountain and in a short moment clear the positions of the Iraqi Army and the mercenaries (Jash), retake the strategic locations of the Sartiz Mountain summit, place them back under their control, and station the Sayid Abosh battalion in the location as stated in the telegram.
But this time, the Iraqi Army had suffered so much defeat and humiliation before the Peshmerga operations that all it had left to do for revenge against the Peshmerga forces, in return for all the losses it had incurred, was to intensely shell the Peshmerga positions on Sartiz Mountain. As a result of this shelling, it caused heavy losses to the Peshmerga forces, which consisted of the martyrdom of 18 Peshmerga and 14 wounded from the Halgurd force, 11 martyrs and four wounded from the Zakho force, and one martyr and two wounded from the Zamnako force.
After this, weakness crept into the ranks of the Iraqi Army due to all the successive defeats they had faced on this front. Furthermore, with the onset of the cold winter season and snowfall, they did not have the courage to approach the Peshmerga again and launch another attack on Sartiz Mountain.
Sources:1- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, The September Revolution 1961-1975, Volume Three, Part Two.
2- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, Military Events of the September Revolution 1970-1975, First Edition, Erbil.
3- Ghazi Adil Gardi, A Peshmerga in the Service of Barzani... Haji Birokhi, Volume One, Second Edition, 2020.
4- Ismail Gundezhori, The September Revolution in Balakayati, Rojhalat Printing House, 2018.
5- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.