1979 Ba'ath Party Purge
Hafiz al-Assad (centre) with Iraqi vice president Saddam Hussein (left), Algerian foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika (right), and Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam (far right, half-covered) at the 1978 Arab League summit in Baghdad. | |
| Native name | Comrades Massacre |
|---|---|
| Date | 22 July 1979 |
| Location |  Ba'athist Iraq |
| Also known as | Khuld Hall Incident, Comrades Massacre |
| Type | Purge |
| Cause |
|
| Organised by | Saddam Hussein |
| Outcome |
|
| Deaths | 21 executed |
| Arrests | 68 |
The 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge (
Six days after the resignation of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Hussein's accession to President of the Iraqi Republic, Regional Secretary of the party, and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council on July 16, 1979, he organized a Ba'ath conference on July 22 in Al-Khuld Hall in Baghdad to carry out a campaign of arrests and executions that included Baathist comrades, who were accused of taking part in a pro-Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam.
The list included most of the comrades who opposed Saddam Hussein's rise to power after Al-Bakr,
Background
Syria–Iraq unification talks
Various rounds of unification talks were ongoing between the two Ba'athist parties at the official level, with the
Resignation of al-Bakr
On 11 July 1979, an ailing Ahmed Hussein al-Bakr announced his resignation before a meeting of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and his intention to transfer the presidency to Saddam Hussein.[7] US government's Radio Free Europe claimed in 2003 that it was a "coup" orchestrated by Saddam who compelled the ailing President to retire "for health reasons".[8]
RCC member Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi fiercely objected to al-Bakr's resignation during the session and urged al-Bakr to take a temporary vacation without transferring power to his successor, a proposition that was declined by Al-Bakr. This had raised the suspicion of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi second-in-command who became president on 16 July 1979. In an assembly of party leadership convened on 22 July, Saddam staged a purge against the military wing of the Baath-Party whom he accused of collaborating with Syria to topple the regime in Iraq.[9][6]
Event
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 BBC News "Saddam's 1979 Baath Party purge", Footage of the purge from a Ba'ath Party video |
Saddam hurriedly convened an "emergency session" of party leaders on July 22. During the assembly, which he ordered to be videotaped,[3] he claimed to have uncovered a fifth column within the party. Abdul-Hussein "confessed" to be part of a Syrian-financed faction established in 1975 that played a major role in the Syrian-backed plot against the Iraqi government. He also gave the names of 68 alleged co-conspirators.[10] These were removed from the room one by one as their names were called and taken into custody. After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty. Those arrested at the meeting were subsequently tried together and found guilty of treason. Twenty-two men, including five members of the Revolutionary Command Council,[11] were sentenced to execution. Those spared were given weapons and directed to execute their comrades.[12][13]
Some of the victims are listed below:
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Muhammad Mahjub | |
| Muhammad Ayish | |
| Adnan Hussein Abbas al-Hamdani | |
| Ghanim Abdul-Jalil | Member of the Regional Command from 1974 to 1979 |
| Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi | Member of the Regional Command from 1974 to 1979 Secretary of president al-Bakr. |
Aftermath
Details of the events were publicised on 28 July 1979, and Iraqi media began accusing Syria of backing the alleged plot. Syrian Ba'athists responded by denying any relations to the coup plotters.[7] On August 8, the Iraqi News Agency announced that twenty-one of the twenty-two Iraqis were executed by firing squad for "their part in a plot to overthrow Iraq's new president". The twenty-second man was condemned to death in absentia because he was "nowhere to be found", the agency said.[11] A tape of the assembly and of the executions was distributed throughout the country. Shortly thereafter, in early August 1979, Hussein took to the balcony of the presidential mansion in Baghdad to inform “a chanting crowd of 50,000 supporters that he had just witnessed the punishment the state court had ordered for 21 of those men: They had been executed by a firing squad. The crowd cheered.”[14]
The events led to a complete rupture of ties between the Ba'athist governments of Syria and Iraq. Hussein’s personal conclusion, which he conveyed to Syrian president Assad, was that Syrian Ba'athists "were deep in the plot,” though he continued to provide Syria with the financial support originally offered during the
References
- ^ a b c صدام وإعدام البعثيين, retrieved 2022-07-14
- ^ a b "بعث العراق وسوريا... صراع الإخوة الأعداء". اندبندنت عربية (in Arabic). 2021-08-28. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- ^ YouTube
- ^ Saddam Hussein's 'Official' Biography
- ISBN 0-415-15675-0.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ ISBN 0-691-00254-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-691-00254-1.
- ^ Moore, Kathleen (9 April 2008). "Iraq: The Rise And Fall Of Saddam Hussein". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
- ^ "The 1979 Saddam Hussein coup d'état in Iraq". Iraq Now. 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2023-01-16.
- ISBN 0-691-00254-1.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Bay Fang. "When Saddam ruled the day." U.S. News & World Report. 11 July 2004. Archived 16 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Edward Mortimer. "The Thief of Baghdad." New York Review of Books. 27 September 1990, citing Fuad Matar. Saddam Hussein: A Biography. Highlight. 1990. Archived 23 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ BEHIND IRAQ'S BOLD BID, by Claudia Wright, 26 October 1980, The New York Times|url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/10/26/114147903
- ISBN 0-691-00254-1.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-60127-077-1.
- ISBN 0-415-15675-0.)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-1-4742-9102-6.
