Mount Zozik was of military importance to the Aylul Revolution due to its geographical location and strategic position, as the Hamilton Highway passes at the foot of the mountain. Therefore, it was an important location for protecting the road on one hand, and because it overlooks the Diana plain, it was an important point for connecting the Barzan and Balakayati regions, which were the headquarters of the Aylul Revolution leadership, on the other hand. Therefore, the Iraqi government was always planning to control strategic places and disrupt the revolution in all these places.
The history of the Peshmerga's fighting with the Iraqi Army on Mount Zozik dates back to the year 1965, when the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces established a defense line in the Zozik Mountains, the Sarot Strait, and the Amragha Strait up to the Musakaw River. The Iraqi Army was constantly planning to reach strategic locations.
In the early autumn of the same year, it launched an attack on Mount Zozik with the support of aircraft and tens of thousands of soldiers and agents (Jash). The Iraqi Army initially launched a violent bombardment on the mountain, and after that, thousands of Iraqi soldiers stormed the Peshmerga positions. After several intensive attacks, they managed to control one of the mountain's heights, which began to pose a threat to the Peshmerga positions at the foot of the mountain. Therefore, it was decided to retreat for a counterattack with a solid plan to regain the positions they had lost, and although they carried out several secondary attacks to regain control of the places they had lost, they did not succeed.
After good preparation, the Peshmerga forces carried out a solid plan under the leadership of Haji Birokhi, the battalion commander, and many other military officials such as: (Areef Yasin, Ramadan Yasin, Jadir Kuwizi, Aziz Khan Mahajer, Sabah Mirka Khailani, Ali Shakak, and Jawhar Bersiafi) and also (Hamid Afandi and Mustafa Nerway and Hassan Khal Hamza) with a large-scale attack on the Iraqi Army.
After several hours of intense fighting, the Iraqi Army soldiers could not resist the Peshmerga attack; rather, they were defeated and fled. Nearly 21 soldiers threw themselves from the mountain behind the village of Kwan, leaving a large number of corpses on the battlefield, and there were two Martyrs and five wounded in the Peshmerga forces.
The Peshmerga's victory and the defeat of the Iraqi Army angered the Iraqi government officials and their officers, who decided to occupy these places and take revenge on the Peshmerga forces in 3 May of the year 1966, and launched a major attack on the slopes of the mountain. Handren and Zozik and the Amragha Strait with the support of warplanes and artillery.
After several days of continuous fighting led by Masoud Barzani and Idris Barzani, especially when the Iraqi government exerted great pressure on the Peshmerga positions and managed to control several places on Mount Zozik. The leader of the revolution (Mullah Mustafa Barzani) was present on the battlefield on Mount Zozik, where the Peshmerga forces defeated the Iraqi Army from all sides and inflicted heavy damage on it, resulting in the death of 400 soldiers and the wounding of 600 others. Four (75) mm cannons, four mortar shells (4,20), ten (2,3) knot mortar shells, (600) small arms, (15) wireless devices, and a lot of ammunition fell into the hands of the Peshmerga.
After the resumption of the war in the year 1974, when the Iraqi Army managed to successfully land its tanks from Mount Korek to the Bekhal road with a large force equipped with advanced heavy and light weapons, the war strategy changed. The Peshmerga were forced to leave Mount Korz and the foot of Mount Korek in Rawanduz and retreat to Diana, Bankawal, and Barziwa. A defense line was established in the Akoyan Valley, Mount Handren, Mount Zozik, and the Amragha Strait.
The Iraqi Army, which received a heavy defeat in the attack on the Amragha Strait on 3 September 1974, was forced to retreat to the village of Badliyan. Therefore, it was looking for another way to cover up its defeat and occupy another strategic position to extend its authority over the entire region. According to the information received by their military commanders, there were not a large number of Peshmerga forces on Mount Zozik, so they saw this as an opportunity. They allocated a battalion from the Eighth Division, and then they managed to occupy many Peshmerga positions on Mount Zozik on 20 September 197. But the Peshmerga forces did not stand idly by in the face of the Iraqi Army's attacks; rather, they responded strongly and launched a counterattack on the areas occupied by the Iraqi Army, and with the help of Artillery of the Revolution, they managed to control Mount Zozik once again.
In an interview, one of the Peshmerga who participated in the Battle of Mount Zozik told us: "Early in the morning, we saw that the Iraqi Army soldiers and the agents (Jash) had approached us, and they attacked the Peshmerga positions starting from Diana, opened fire on us, and a number of Peshmerga were wounded. They controlled a very important and strategic point above us. Our commander, Haji Birokhi, who was the front commander, decided to carry out a counterattack to seize that occupied point as quickly as possible, and after the Peshmerga forces began the attack, we were able, with the support of heavy artillery, to carry out a counterattack on the occupied point. After a fierce battle, we were able to control the place and win. Because the enemy could not withstand the Peshmerga attack, it retreated to its bases in Diana, and in this battle, our casualties were a Martyr and a wounded, but the enemy suffered a heavy defeat and the corpses of three soldiers and an officer fell into the hands of the Peshmerga. If it were not for the stones, gaps, and large rocks they hid behind, they would have suffered much greater damage."
But after a week, on 27-28 September 1974, a force of the Iraqi Army consisting of the Fifth Infantry Division (5) and a battalion of the Twenty-Ninth Special Forces (29), supported by a tank battalion, launched an attack on Mount Zozik, and with an organized military plan and a strong defensive spirit, the Peshmerga forces confronted the Iraqi Army's attack with all kinds of weapons in their possession. They managed to inflict heavy damage on it and killed most of the officers and soldiers of this battalion, and one of them was the branch commander.
The occupation of Mount Zozik was something very strategic for the Iraqi Army, to the extent that the military commanders insisted on occupying it, so they pressured the military units of infantry, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, and the air force to start the attack on the mountain again. They resumed a larger and stronger attack, but this time they managed to seize it on 30 September 1974. However, the Peshmerga forces prepared again for the confrontation and for the counterattack, and under the leadership and supervision of Masoud Barzani they planned a counterattack that resulted in a great victory, causing heavy damage to the Iraqi Army, including the destruction of five tanks and the killing of (500) soldiers whose corpses were left on the battlefield.
The geographical location of Mount Zozik consists of two heights, one called (Kobe Ster) and the other (Kobe Bera), separated by about 1-2 km. For a period, the Peshmerga Forces were in (Kobe Ster) and the Iraqi Army was in (Kobe Bera), and they set up the front opposite each other. In one of the Peshmerga's daytime campaigns on the height of (Kobe Bera), which is a flat land without trees or rocks, the Peshmerga Forces were unable to recapture it from the Iraqi Army because they suffered heavy losses, as 17 Peshmerga were martyred and a number of others were wounded.
The occupation of Mount Zozik was so important to the Iraqi Army that after all the defeat and damage it suffered, they were not prepared to leave it. They attacked the mountain again in October 3 1974 and were able to take full control of it as a result of the lack of parity between them and the Peshmerga in terms of strength and weapons. Therefore, the Peshmerga Forces decided to withdraw and establish another defense line in the Peshe Strait, Mount Hasan Bek, and Sari Bardi to prevent the enemy army from advancing further and approaching the leadership of the revolution.
Although Iran supported the revolution with a 130 mm artillery battalion and two anti-aircraft missile batteries, which arrived at the battlefield in October 1974, it did not have any positive impact on the battlefields and did not play an effective role in stopping the advance of the Iraqi Army and changing the balance of power. On the contrary, it caused weakness and slowness among the Peshmerga on the battle fronts, because the Peshmerga Forces had pinned all their hopes on this artillery to become a strong obstacle to the attack, advance, and occupation of Kurdistan, but unfortunately, it did not happen that way because the shelling of the Iranian battalion's artillery was not accurate and did not hit the targets. Moreover, they did not benefit from it in times of need.
However, with the winter, conditions were not favorable for the Iraqi Army to advance further and confront the Peshmerga Forces. The Peshmerga Forces were always looking for opportunities to deal a major blow. For this reason, the Peshmerga Forces launched several attacks on the Iraqi Army in December 1974, and in December 1975, the Peshmerga Forces attacked the Iraqi Army's positions and regained control of half of Mount Zozik once again.
Sources:1- Ghazi Adel Gardi, A Peshmerga in the Service of Barzani ... Haji Birokhi, Volume One, Second Edition, 2020, p. 315.
2- Ghazi Adel Gardi, previous source, p. 345-377
3- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Volume Three, Part Two, First Edition, Erbil 2004, p. 158
4- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, Military Events of the September Revolution 1970-1975, First Edition, Erbil, 2022, p. 220.
5- Interview: Gorgis Yalda Tarkhan, Peshmerga of the September Revolution, Encyclopedia Archive
6- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, previous source, p. 220.
7- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, same source, p. 220
8- Interview with Qadir Hassan Sitkani, Peshmerga of the September Revolution 31/12/2022.
9- Sangar Ibrahim Khoshnaw, same source, p. 220-221.
10- Masoud Barzani, same previous source, p. 159.
11- Ibrahim Jalal, Southern Kurdistan and the September Revolution, Foundation and Collapse, 1961-1975. Fourth Edition, 2021, p. 615.