The first step of his elimination began with his arrest and removal at the age of three; the Ottoman Empire, due to the revolution of Sheikh Abdulsalam Barzani, put him and his family in the Mosul prison and later decided to deport them to Sulaymaniyah. After this, Barzani reached the age to take up arms and in the war, he relied on himself and step by step his name fell on the lips of every Kurd.
First: the attempt to assassinate Mullah Mustafa Barzani in 1936
After the suppression of the First Barzan Revolution and the surrender of Sheikh Ahmed Barzani and Mullah Mustafa Barzani by the Turks to the Kingdom of Iraq, he and his families were arrested in Mosul, also after Khoshawi Awdish started the Khoshawi revolution, the monarchical government, especially Hassameddin Juma, who at that time was both the director of police and also managed the affairs of the former governor Omer Nazmi, they believed that Mullah Mustafa was the one who encouraged the Khoshawi movement and they drew their inspiration from him, because of this in 1936 he tried to Mustafa Barzani poison and put poison in his coffee, after this Mullah Mustafa remained unconscious for two weeks and miraculously survived death.
In the attempt to save Mullah Mustafa, these names are mentioned: Sheikh Ajil Yawer and the Kashmula and Abawin family, also there are rumors that a French doctor who lives in Syria played a role in the treatment of Mullah Mustafa.
Second: the attempt to assassinate Mullah Mustafa Barzani in 1961
After the start of the September Revolution of September 11, 1961, and the success of the Peshmerga in several battles, it appeared that the Iraqi government was trying to approach and negotiate with the Kurdish political leadership, especially General Mustafa Barzani, but they secretly tried to kill Mullah Mustafa several times and announced his death and assassination several times.
Abdul Karim Qasim, who had completely lost his mind and was trying to further strengthen his dictatorial rule in Iraq and wanted Mullah Mustafa Barzani to give up the legitimate rights of the people of Kurdistan and go to sit in Barzan for himself, with this intention he sent a letter to Sheikh Ahmed Barzani and asked him to encourage Leader Mustafa Barzani and sit with them, Sheikh Ahmed did not refuse and sent his two representatives to Mullah Mustafa to agree to meet with Abdul Karim Qasim's representative, Brigadier Hassan Abboud, who was the commander of the Fifth Brigade. Masoud Barzani in the first part of the third volume of his book titled (Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement) says:
On December 17, the government had designated a place near Sarsing for both negotiators, but Barzani did not go there and stayed in a place near the village of Bamarne, then he sent messengers to the place that had been designated for the meeting, so that they would wait for the arrival of Hassan Abboud and take him to the place that Barzani had chosen for the meeting. His view turned out to be correct and Qasim wanted to kill him and his representative Hassan Abboud together at their meeting place. As soon as Hassan Abboud left his place and went with Barzani's representatives to Barzani, four planes arrived and bombed that place very heavily and accurately. Hassan Abboud was a witness to the heavy bombardment from afar and was very ashamed and that situation was very heavy for him.
As this story shows, the experience and foresight of the immortal Barzani thwarted the enemies' plan and did not allow their wishes to be fulfilled and their terrorist attempt failed. Barzani told Hassan Abboud: “I do not want anything from Qasim to give me. Let him give the rights of the Kurdish people and I will leave Iraq.”
Third: the attempt to assassinate Mullah Mustafa Barzani in 1971
Although the September Revolution had achieved some of its goals, and it was also the first time that the autonomy of Kurdistan had been officially accepted, however, the enemies of Kurdistan and Leader Mustafa Barzani did not give up their efforts and continued with plans to assassinate him.
On September 15, 1971, two religious scholars, one of whom was Abdul Jabbar Azami, a Sunni Mullah, and Abdul Hussein Dakhili, a Shia Mullah, visited Mustafa Barzani and he also welcomed them warmly. Both religious scholars said that they made this visit because of the bad situation between the revolution and the Iraqi regime and the impact of this situation on public opinion, they also informed that they intend to launch a campaign among religious scholars and among the people in general, to reduce conflicts and strengthen the existing peace, because of this they needed the opinion of Leader Mustafa Barzani .
Barzani told them his opinion and liked their efforts and supported them. So far the work is normal, but the unusual thing is that the driver who brought both Mullahs was a man from the Iraqi intelligence agency to see security measures for the protection of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, he had also come to know the geography of the area and the base of the immortal Barzani and to see where Barzani lives and where he welcomes his guests.
On September 29, 1971, a delegation arrived in Haji Omaran consisting of Abdul Hussein Dakhili, Sheikh Abdul Jabbar Azami, Sheikh Abdul Wahab Azami, Sheikh Ibrahim Khanim Khuzai, Sheikh Ahmed Hiti, Sheikh Baqir Muzaffar, Sheikh Ghazi Al-Dulaimi, Sheikh Noor Yasin, and Sheikh Abdul Jalil Al-Musawi, and they had come to resolve the problems between the revolution and the Iraqi government. The delegation had arrived in two cars, one of which was a Toyota pickup and the other a 1963 Chevrolet, which were driven by Sulaiman Kokhi and Mohammed Kamil Ismail, and both were linked to the Baghdad intelligence agency.
At the Haji Omaran checkpoint, the cars were not allowed to pass, but the delegation member Abdul Jabbar Azami threatened the guards that if they did not let them pass, he would complain about them to Leader Mustafa Barzani , because of this they were allowed to pass.
When the delegation arrived, Leader Mustafa Barzani, Dr. Mahmoud and Masoud Barzani were together. Barzani was informed that his guests had arrived and the names of the guests were announced to him, Barzani decided to see them after the evening prayer.
The guests had brought a Quran and another book of Sharia for Mullah Mustafa, he accepted it and thanked them. After this, the center's tea server came inside and, to Sheikh Hadi Khazraji who was sitting opposite President Mustafa Barzani began serving tea. Sheikh Hadi, who had secretly brought a voice recorder with him to record Mullah Mustafa's voice, had found an opportunity and the tea server had obstructed him and he had put his finger on the recorder, but instead of recording, the recorder exploded and the sheikh was torn to pieces there and the room was filled with smoke.
Masoud Barzani who was with President Mustafa Barzani before the explosion, went directly to the scene of the explosion after hearing the sound of the explosion, he says: At first I thought my father's house had been bombed, then it became clear to me that my father had gone to the guests earlier than he had scheduled and the terrorist attack had taken place there. I thought my father had been killed, but one of his guards told me that President Mustafa Barzani was only hit by a piece and is alive.
Masoud Barzani describes the events after the terrorist attack as follows:
In the reception room, 4 of the people who came were killed by the bomb. The people on the chairs to the right and left of my father were also wounded and whoever could run, ran, Barzani left the room and told the Peshmerga: “Do not kill any of them, but both drivers did not reach the Chevrolet - which, like the other one, had been booby-trapped and rockets had been tied in place of the taillights so that if the drivers succeeded and escaped, they could see them and follow them in the car, as these two drivers were walking, they threw hand grenades... At five twenty-five, everything was cut off with the killing of the conspirators.
In this terrorist act, 9 mullahs and 2 drivers were killed, 2 Peshmerga were also martyred and fourteen were wounded. Also, when they dispersed all the people, the planned Toyota also exploded, but no damage was done.
For condolences to Barzani and their happiness! with the survival of General Mustafa Barzani from the terrorist attempt, first the leadership of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party sent a letter, then President Abdul Sattar Jawari, who was a minister, sent it on his own behalf to President Barzani and both of them showed their lack of awareness of that terrorist act.
To reveal the facts and identify those who had a hand in that terrorist act, a joint committee was formed, but it was fruitless, because according to the information obtained by the Revolution Security Agency, the regime had prepared this plan itself.
Nazim Gizar, the then head of the Iraqi intelligence agency, may have had an influential role in the implementation of the plan, but the decision-maker was above him, and he was only the executor.
Masoud Barzani in the third volume of the second part of his book titled Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, says that Mam Jalal told me that when he was in Baghdad for negotiations in 1983, Saddam had admitted that he was aware of the attempt to kill Mullah Mustafa and because this attempt did not succeed, he was very dissatisfied.
Fourth: the attempt to kill Mullah Mustafa Barzani in 1972
After the terrorist attempt by the Iraqi intelligence agency at the Barzani headquarters, the agency did not learn a lesson and continued its terrorist activities, on July 15, 1972, a person named Ibrahim Gabari came to Iraq from Syria and it was claimed that the Syrian government was looking for him, Gabari visited the fifth branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) many times and established his relations with the Iraqi intelligence agency, they also assigned him a task.
Nazim Gizar, who was the head of Iraqi intelligence at that time, ordered Ibrahim Gabari to get close to the Barzani headquarters and attempt to kill him, if he cannot kill him, then either Idris Barzani or Masoud Barzani who were the sons of the leader of the Kurdistan Liberation Movement, kill one of them. Gabari accepts and heads to the liberated areas under the control of the revolution and there requests to see Masoud Barzani because he has an important secret.
Masoud Barzani meets with Gabari and Gabari tells Masoud Barzani about the request of the Iraqi intelligence, he even tells him not to give up and continue his work, in case they want something else from him.
The Iraqi intelligence agency, in order to believe that he is close to the Barzani headquarters, asked Gabari to take pictures with President Mustafa Barzani, Idris Barzani and Masoud Barzani , this request of Gabari is carried out by Masoud Barzani . By taking the pictures to Nazim Gizar, he believed Gabari and sent a bag full of TNT to the liberated areas under the control of the revolution, to kill Mullah Mustafa Barzani and if he could not, to detonate the TNT with one of his two sons.
The bag of TNT was handed over to the Revolution's intelligence and then the news of the failed attempt to kill Barzani was published in the Khabat newspaper, but the Ba'ath regime, like its previous terrorist acts, denies this terrorist attempt and announces its ignorance and the Ministry of Interior also denies the existence of any Iraqi government agency in this terrorist attempt.
Saddam Hussein formed a fact-finding committee consisting of Abdul Khaliq al-Samarrai, representative of the Ba'ath Party, Mukarram Talabani, representative of the Communist Party, Muhammad Mahmoud Abdul Rahman, representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Aziz Sharif, Dara Tawfiq, and Ihsan Sherzad. The committee came to Nawpirdan and looked at the documents and met with Ibrahim Gabari, who confessed to everything about himself and revealed the names of the officers who participated in the conspiracy, including Officer Basil al-A'raji and Abdul Khaliq al-Samarrai, and asked Ibrahim Gabari about the appearance of the officers and his statement turned out to be true, because he knew them. Samarrai promised to report the results of the investigation committee to his superiors, but the Ba'ath Party did not take any steps regarding this incident, until Nazim Gizar staged a coup on June 20, 1973, to remove President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr from power and seize power in Iraq, the Ba'ath regime at that time admitted that the terrorist attacks of September 29, 1971 and July 15, 1972 were the work of Nazim Gizar and were carried out by foreign hands.
In addition to these attempts, there were several other terrorist attempts aimed at undermining the security of the revolution, but due to the vigilance of the revolution's security agencies, they could not do anything. More importantly, never and under any circumstances did the leadership of the revolution respond to terrorist attempts with terrorist attempts, and the Revolution and the Kurdistan Liberation Movement always take revenge on those who committed this terrorist act, not women, children, and innocent people; this was what President Mustafa Barzani fully believed in and always encouraged his entourage and the leaders of the Kurdistan Peshmerga Forces never to carry out an operation in which innocent people would be killed.
Source:- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Vol. 1, 1931-1958, First Edition (Erbil, Ministry of Peshmerga Press, 2004).
- Masoud Barzani, Barzani and the Kurdish Liberation Movement, Vol. III, Part II, September Revolution 1961-1975, First Edition (Erbil, Ministry of Peshmerga Press, 2004).
- Archive of the Encyclopedia Board of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.