The Baath government, as they saw themselves as having succeeded in erasing the greatest revolution as well as erasing Kurdistan, tried to assassinate the leaders of Kurdistan, including Masoud Barzani, the son of Mustafa Barzani, the leader of the liberation movement of the Kurdish people. After his father's illness, he and Idris Barzani managed the affairs of Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Kurdistan liberation movement.

Masoud Barzani was accompanying his father, President Mustafa Barzani, in the United States of America. In 1978, they wanted to meet with the leaders of the revolution to discuss the situation, and for this reason, he visited Europe. During this visit, a delegation from the Iraqi government led by Barzan al-Tikriti was in Vienna. Although it was not known, their goal of the visit was to assassinate President Masoud Barzani, or they used some government affairs as a pretext, or they knew that Masoud Barzani was present there and decided to seize the opportunity and tried to assassinate him. President Masoud Barzani says in his book, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, that Barzan and others were specifically there to try to kill me, because the Iraqi government intended to get rid of me in those years.

Therefore, the best source to rely on in this regard is the book Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, because this incident targeted the author himself. 

The account of the incident in the words of President Masoud Barzani unfolds as follows:

In December 1978, I visited Vienna coming from London and we stayed at the branch headquarters. After that, I decided, on December 8, 1979, to visit Paris for the purpose of meeting Imam Khomeini, and I wanted to see Fares Bawe. After the afternoon of January 8, 1979, I informed both Hama Reza and Azad Barwari of the necessity of visiting the house of Berut Ahmed. On the way, I told them I wanted to see Fares Bawe, but they insisted a lot on returning, but I did not listen to them. Berut was living in a room inside one of the apartments, and he did not know about our arrival until we reached the door.

President Masoud Barzani asked Kak Berut to inform Fares Bawe to come to him and not to inform Fares Bawe that President Masoud Barzani is with him and wants to see him, but to tell him that he has a message from a friend, and accordingly he came to his house.

Barzani says about the incident of his assassination attempt:

After finishing our meeting, I prepared to leave and told Fares Bawe that we had to leave, but he swore an oath for us to stay, and said let our companions take a look outside, after that we will leave. When our companions went down, a car belonging to the Iraqi embassy was waiting, and two people got out of the car and put a weapon (pistol) to the head of Azad Barwari, as they thought he was me, but fortunately the weapon did not fire bullets. The President's escorts were able to escape from the hands of the terrorists, and one of the escorts was carrying a sound pistol, after he fired, the terrorists rushed in fear and moved away from the place, and they did not know that President Masoud Barzani was still upstairs, otherwise they would have surrendered and gone.

After the incident, the police arrived and Barzani filed a complaint against the Iraqi government, and the Austrian government provided him with protection. After that, in the Athens waiting hall, while waiting for the plane, he saw Barzan Tikriti accompanied by ten to twelve people who were intending to return to Iraq.

President Masoud Barzani says that in 1991, during negotiations with the Iraqi government at a dinner party, Barzan mentioned this incident, and Barzan did not deny his participation in this terrorist operation.

Source:

Masoud Barzani, book Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Part Four, Volume One, 1975-1990 Gulan Revolution - Erbil - Roxana Press, 2021