The Battle of Rawandiz took place on September 8, 1974. This battle was one of the fierce battles. For the purpose of capturing the positions of the Peshmerga forces in the Rawandiz area, the Iraqi army launched a widespread attack on Rawandiz from two fronts. One was from the Goraz mountain front toward the area of the Balakian village, and the other was from Korak toward Bekhal. That attack continued for a long time, and every type of plan was used to achieve their goals.
On September 8, 1974, the Iraqi army, under the command of Brigadier General Ismail Taya Nu'aimi, launched an intense attack. The attack was carried out on two different fronts: one on Mount Korak and the other on Mount Goraz. Initially, both attacks were repelled by the Peshmerga forces, and the Iraqi army suffered heavy losses. In that defensive battle, the revolution's artillery, under the command of Hali Dolemeri, played a major role in repelling the army's attack. Those attacks continued until September 19 of the same year, and the Iraqi army had no gains until that day. In the first attack on the Peshmerga forces, the Iraqi army suffered heavy losses, leaving more than 400 dead soldiers on the battlefield. That heroism was recorded with the blood of six Peshmerga martyrs.
The Iraqi government used a very strange plan to succeed in those attacks, which was attacking from Mount Korak toward the city of Rawandiz. For that purpose, one of the Iraqi army commanders named Lieutenant Colonel Abdul-Wahab had developed a solid plan. With large bulldozers, they removed all the rocks at the foot of Mount Korak so that the government's tanks and armored vehicles could attack toward the target from the top of Mount Korak. That army plan never crossed the minds of the Peshmerga because it was a very difficult and arduous task and far from logic. That plan changed the balance of the battle. The Peshmerga were forced to retreat to the village of Barziwa and the mountains of Handren and Zozk and the Omar Agha pass and other places, and for the army, it was a great victory.
One of the other plans of the Iraqi government was that it attacked the Peshmerga forces in the Betwata area. Its purpose in that attack was only to make the leadership of the revolution send a Peshmerga force to the area, which would reduce the pressure on the Iraqi army in the Rawandiz area. That was a correct plan. Because Dola Raqa and other parts of the area were captured, which caused the pressure of the Iraqi army on the Peshmerga to become very high, and they attacked Mount Rawandiz. As a result of the Peshmerga forces' defense on September 23, a (MiG-19) fighter jet was shot down in the village of Barziwa by the fire of a (14.5 machine gun), and its pilot, whose name was First Lieutenant Safa Shallal, was taken prisoner.
Eventually, the Iraqi army captured the Rawandiz valley. From then on, the war consisted only of shelling and bombing the areas under Peshmerga control, but what was observed was that the Iraqi army was constantly looking for an opportunity to attack the area in order to completely remove it from Peshmerga control.
Source:- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.