1959 Mosul uprising

1959 Mosul Uprising
	Part of the Arab Cold War and Aftermath of the 14 July Revolution
	Mosul
Date	7–11 March 1959
Location	Mosul, Iraq
Result	Attempted coup fails Iraq remains outside of the UAR; Degradation in Iraq-UAR relations; Iraqi Communists increase in power; Iraqi Ba'athists begin to increase in strength;
Belligerents
Iraqi Government; Communist Party; Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian peasants;	Arab nationalists; Ba'ath Party; Sympathetic Arab tribes; Supported by:; United Arab Republic; United States; CIA (alleged);
Commanders and leaders
Abd al-Karim Qasim; Kamil Kazanchi †	Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf †; Saddam Hussein; Ahmed Ajil †; Gamal Abdel Nasser
Casualties and losses
	2,426

The 1959 Mosul Uprising was an attempted coup by Arab nationalists in Mosul who wished to depose the then Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, and install an Arab nationalist government which would then join the Republic of Iraq with the United Arab Republic. Following the failure of the coup, law and order broke down in Mosul, which witnessed several days of violent street battles between various groups attempting to use the chaos to settle political and personal scores.

Background

During Qasim's term, there was much debate over whether Iraq should join the United Arab Republic, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan had dissolved the Arab Federation after Qasim had the entire royal family in Iraq put to death, along with Prime Minister Nuri al-Said.

Qasim's growing ties with the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) provoked a rebellion in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul which was led by Arab nationalists in charge of military units. In an attempt to intimidate any individuals plotting a potential coup, Qasim had encouraged a Communist backed Peace Partisans rally in Mosul that was held on 6 March 1959. Some 250,000 Peace Partisans and Communists thronged Mosul's streets on 6 March, and although the rally passed peacefully, by 7 March, skirmishes had broken out between the Communists and the nationalists. This degenerated into a local civil war over the following days.

Attempted coup

Qasim's attempt to stop dissent was successful to some extent, as Colonel Abdel Wahab Shawaf, the stocky 40-year-old Arab nationalist Commander of the Iraqi Army's Mosul Garrison, was discomforted by the Communists' show of force. Following clashes between the Communist Party's Popular Resistance Militia and local Nasserites which culminated in the burning down of a Nasserite restaurant, Shawaf phoned Baghdad to ask for permission to use the soldiers under his command to keep order.^[8]

Shawaf was given an ambiguous response by Baghdad. So Shawaf decided to try and carry out a coup d'état on 7 March. Shawaf was supported in this endeavour by other disgruntled Free Officers, who were primarily from prominent Arab Sunni families and who opposed Qasim's growing relationship with the ICP.^[9] Shawaf ordered the fifth brigade, which was under his command, to round up 300 members of the Communist Peace Partisans, including their leader, Kamil Kazanchi, a well known Baghdad lawyer and politician, who was executed.^[8]

Shawaf sent word to other northern Iraqi Army commanders in an effort to convince them to join his attempted coup. He kidnapped a British technician and portable radio transmitter from the Iraq Petroleum Company and took over Radio Mosul, which he attempted to use to encourage Iraqis to rise up against Qasim.^[8] Shawaf also sent word to sympathetic local tribesmen, including the Shammar, of whom thousands then travelled to Mosul to show their support.^[8]

On the morning of 8 March, Shawaf sent two Furies to Baghdad on an aerial bombing raid. The crew of the aircraft had been ordered to bomb the headquarters of Radio Baghdad. The raid was a failure, with the planes doing little damage one .Of the two pilots who bombed the capital. One was arrested and the other attempted to flee to syria but he landed on Iraqi territory and committed suicide,^[10] he was called Saeb Sabry al-Safi. In response, Qasim sent four Iraqi Air Force planes to attack Shawaf's headquarters, situated on a bluff above Mosul. The attack on the headquarters killed six or seven officers, and wounded Shawaf. Whilst Shawaf was bandaging himself, he was killed by one of his sergeants who believed the coup had failed.^[8]

Ensuing violence

Although Shawaf was dead, the violence was not yet over. Mosul soon became a scene of score settling between rebel and loyalist soldiers, alongside Communists and Arab nationalists. Bedouin tribesmen who had been called on by Shawaf prior to his death to support the coup also engaged in pillaging, and the violence within Mosul was also used as a cover by some to settle private scores. Shawaf's body was beaten and dragged through the streets of Mosul before being thrown in a car and taken to Baghdad.^[8]

Three pro-government Kurdish tribes moved into Mosul and fought the Arab Shammar tribesmen, their long time opponents who had rallied around Shawaf. Sheik Ahmed Ajil, the chief of the Shammars was spotted by Kurdish militiamen in his car and was killed, along with his driver, and both were later hung naked from a bridge over the Tigris.^[8] By the fourth day government troops had begun to impose order and began clearing the roads as well as removing naked and mutilated bodies which had been strung up from lamp posts. The total dead was estimated at approximately 500.^[8]

Around the same time, ICP members violently attacked alleged "reactionaries" in Basra.^[11]

Aftermath

Although the rebellion was crushed by the military, it had a number of adverse effects that was to affect Qasim's position. First, it increased the power of the communists. Second, it encouraged the ideas of the Ba'ath Party's (which had been steadily growing since the 14 July coup). The Ba'ath Party believed that the only way of halting the engulfing tide of communism was to assassinate Qasim.

The growing influence of communism was felt throughout 1959. A communist-sponsored purge of the armed forces was carried out in the wake of the Mosul revolt. The Iraqi cabinet began to shift towards the radical-left as several communist sympathisers gained posts in the cabinet. Iraq's foreign policy began to reflect this communist influence, as Qasim removed Iraq from the Baghdad Pact on 24 March, and later fostered closer ties with the USSR, including extensive economic agreements.^[12] However communist successes encouraged attempts to expand on their position. The communists attempted to replicate their success at Mosul in similar fashion at Kirkuk. A rally was called for 14 July. This was intended to intimidate conservative elements. Instead, it resulted in widespread bloodshed.^[13] Qasim consequently cooled relations with the communists signalling a reduction (although by no means a cessation) of their influence in the Iraqi government.^[11]

Qasim and his supporters accused the UAR of having supported the rebels,^[8] and the uprising resulted in an intensification of the ongoing Iraq-UAR propaganda war,^[14] with the UAR press accusing Qasim of having sold out the ideas of Arab nationalism. The disagreements between Qasim and Cairo also highlighted the fact that the UAR had failed to become the single voice of Arab nationalism, and the UAR had to recognize that many Iraqis were unwilling to recognise Cairo's leadership, thereby revealing the limits of Nasser's power to other Arab governments.^[15]

Extent of UAR involvement

Although the attempted coup may have been driven in part by Arab nationalist sentiment and a desire to join the United Arab Republic, the exact extent of UAR involvement in the coup has largely been unclear. Shawaf kept in close contact with the UAR during the development of the attempted coup, with some claiming that the UAR ambassador in Baghdad acted as an intermediary between the UAR and the rebels. There is also evidence that suggests that Radio Mosul may have been transmitting from the Syrian side of the border.^[16]

References

^ Batatu. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. ISBN 9780863567711.
^ Mohammed Mughisuddin (1977), [1] p. 153
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Wolf-Hunnicutt, Brandon (2011). The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972. Stanford University. p. 36.
^ Davies, Eric (2005). Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. University of California Press. p. 118. ISBN 9780520235465.
^ "Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot - UPI.com". UPI. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
^ Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 85. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "IRAQ: The Revolt That Failed". Time. 23 March 1959. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
^ Iraqi Revolution and Coups
^ Dan, Uriel (1969). Iraq under Qassem: A Political History, 1958–1963. London: Pall Mall Press. p. 1969. ISBN 978-0269670640.
^ ^a ^b Ahram, Ariel Ira (2011). Proxy Warriors: The Rise and Fall of State-Sponsored Militias. Stanford University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780804773591.
^ Marr, Phebe; “The Modern History of Iraq”, page 164
^ Batatu, Hanna (2004). The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement In Iraq (PDF). Saqi Books. pp. 912–921. ISBN 978-0863565205. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
^ Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 87. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.
^ Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 88. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.
^ Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 86. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.

[1] Batatu. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. ISBN 9780863567711.

[2] Mohammed Mughisuddin (1977), [1] p. 153

[3] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] Wolf-Hunnicutt, Brandon (2011). The End of the Concessionary Regime: Oil and American Power in Iraq, 1958-1972. Stanford University. p. 36.

[5] Davies, Eric (2005). Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. University of California Press. p. 118. ISBN 9780520235465.

[6] "Exclusive: Saddam key in early CIA plot - UPI.com". UPI. Retrieved 13 June 2024.

[7] Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 85. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.

[TimeRevolt-8] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ "IRAQ: The Revolt That Failed". Time. 23 March 1959. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2013.

[9] Iraqi Revolution and Coups

[10] Dan, Uriel (1969). Iraq under Qassem: A Political History, 1958–1963. London: Pall Mall Press. p. 1969. ISBN 978-0269670640.

[Proxy_Warriors-11] Ahram, Ariel Ira (2011). Proxy Warriors: The Rise and Fall of State-Sponsored Militias. Stanford University Press. pp. 74–75. ISBN 9780804773591.

[12] Marr, Phebe; “The Modern History of Iraq”, page 164

[13] Batatu, Hanna (2004). The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement In Iraq (PDF). Saqi Books. pp. 912–921. ISBN 978-0863565205. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2013.

[14] Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 87. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.

[15] Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 88. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.

[16] Podeh, Elie (1999). The Decline of Arab Unity: The Rise and Fall of the United Arab Republic. Sussex Academic Press. p. 86. ISBN 1-902210-20-4.

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v t e List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
1910s	Italo-Turkish War World War I Middle Eastern theatre Battle of Robat Karim Arab Revolt Armenian genocide Assyrian genocide Mount Lebanon starvation Unification of Saudi Arabia Simko Shikak revolt 1919 Egyptian revolution Turkish War of Independence Anglo-Turkish War Al-Jazeera Front Greco-Turkish War Turkish–Armenian War Franco-Turkish War Revolts United States Mahmud Barzanji revolts
1920s	Franco-Syrian War Iraqi Revolt (1920) Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine Adwan Rebellion Arab separatism in Khuzestan Great Syrian Revolt Sheikh Said rebellion
1930s	Ararat rebellion Ahmed Barzani revolt Simele massacre Saudi–Yemeni War (1934) Goharshad Mosque rebellion 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts 1935 Yazidi revolt 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Dersim rebellion
1940s	World War II Italian bombing of Palestine Allied invasion of Iraq Syria–Lebanon campaign Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran 1943 Barzani revolt Al-Waziri coup Al-Wathbah uprising Kurdish separatism in Iran Iran crisis of 1946 Arab–Israeli conflict 1948 Arab–Israeli War Suez Crisis 1967 Six-Day War 1973 Yom Kippur War 1982 Lebanon War
1950s	1952 Egyptian revolution 1953 Iranian coup d'état Jebel Akhdar War Cyprus Emergency Suez Crisis Yemeni–Adenese clan violence 1958 Lebanon crisis 1958 Iraqi revolution 1959 Mosul uprising
1960s	Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict First Iraqi–Kurdish War Second Iraqi–Kurdish War Dhofar Rebellion North Yemen Civil War Feb. 1963 Iraqi coup Mar. 1963 Syrian coup Nov. 1963 Iraqi coup Aden Emergency 1964 Hama riot Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1948 Palestine war First Intifada Second Intifada 1966 Syrian coup d'état
1970s	Black September in Jordan Yemenite War of 1972 Turkish invasion of Cyprus Shatt al-Arab clashes Lebanese Civil War Political violence in Turkey Islamist uprising in Syria 1977 Shia uprising in Iraq NDF Rebellion Yemenite War of 1979 Iranian Revolution Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution 1979 Qatif Uprising Grand Mosque seizure 1979–1980 Shia uprising in Iraq
1980s	Iran–Iraq War 1980 Turkish coup d'état Kurdish–Turkish conflict Turkey–PKK conflict South Yemen civil war 1986 Egyptian conscripts riot 1986 Damascus bombings 1987 Sharjawi coup d'état attempt Mecca massacre Abu Nidal's executions
1990s	Gulf War (1990–1991) 1991 Iraqi uprisings Terror campaign in Egypt (1990s) Yemeni Civil War (1994) Iraqi Kurdish Civil War Islamic insurgency in Saudi Arabia (2000–present) Operation Desert Fox al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq
2000s	Iraq War Balochi insurgency in Iran 2004 Qamishli riots Houthi insurgency in Yemen Iran–Israel proxy conflict 2006 Lebanon War Fatah–Hamas conflict South Yemen insurgency
2010s	2011 Bahraini uprising Egyptian Crisis Sinai insurgency Insurgency in Egypt (2013–present) Syrian civil war Turkish involvement in Syria Syrian War spillover in Lebanon Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013) War in Iraq (2013–2017) Islamic State insurgency in Iraq (2017–present) Yemeni crisis Yemeni civil war (2014–present)
2020s	2021 Beirut clashes Israel–Hamas war Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present) Red Sea crisis
This list includes World War I and later conflicts (after 1914) of at least 100 fatalities each Prolonged conflicts are listed in the decade when initiated; ongoing conflicts are marked italic, and conflicts with +100,000 killed with bold.

v t e Protests and coups in Iraq
OETA (1918–1920)	1919 Mahmud Barzanji revolt
Mandatory Iraq (1920–1932)	1920 Iraqi Revolution
Kingdom of Iraq (1921–1958)	1922 Mahmud Barzanji revolt 1931–1932 Ahmed Barzani revolt 1933 Simele massacre 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts 1936 Iraqi coup d'état 1941 Iraqi coup d'état 1943 Barzani revolt 1948 Al-Wathbah uprising 14 July Revolution (1958)
Iraqi Republic (1958–1968)	1959 Mosul uprising Ramadan Revolution (1963) November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état 1965 Iraqi coup d'état attempt 1966 Iraqi coup d'état attempt 17 July Revolution (1968)
Republic of Iraq (1968–2003)	Second Iraqi–Kurdish War 1977 Shia uprising in Iraq 1979–1980 Shia uprising in Iraq 1983–1986 Kurdish rebellions in Iraq 1991 Iraqi uprisings Iraqi Kurdish Civil War 1996 Iraqi coup d'état attempt 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq
Republic of Iraq (since 2003)	2011 Iraqi protests 2011 Duhok riots 2012–2013 Iraqi protests 2015–2018 Iraqi protests 2019–2021 Iraqi protests 2020 Kurdish protests in Sulaymaniyah Governorate

v t e Arab nationalism
Ideology	Arab socialism Ba'athism Nasserism Pan-Arabism Third International Theory
History	Arab Revolt Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Iraqi Revolt Arab separatism in Khuzestan 1979 Khuzestan insurgency Great Syrian Revolt 1941 Iraqi coup d'état Anglo-Iraqi War Arab–Israeli conflict Suez Crisis Six-Day War War of Attrition Yom Kippur War Israeli–Palestinian conflict 1952 Egyptian revolution Iraqi Intifada Algerian War 14 July Revolution 1959 Mosul uprising 1961 Syrian coup d'état Arab Cold War North Yemen Civil War Ramadan Revolution 1963 Syrian coup d'état Dhofar War November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état Aden Emergency 1966 Syrian coup d'état 17 July Revolution 1969 Sudanese coup d'état 1969 Libyan revolution Black September Lebanese Civil War Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict Yemeni unification
Concepts	Arab identity Arab Union Arab world Arabization
Personalities	Butrus al-Bustani Michel Aflaq Jassem Alwan Yasser Arafat Abdul Rahman Arif Abdul Salam Arif Zaki al-Arsuzi Bashar al-Assad Hafez al-Assad Jamal al-Atassi Mansur al-Atrash Sultan al-Atrash Tariq Aziz Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Ahmed Ben Bella Salah al-Din al-Bitar Izzat Darwaza Faisal I of Iraq Muammar Gaddafi Rashid Ali al-Gaylani George Habash Sati' al-Husri Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz Saddam Hussein Amin al-Husseini Salah Jadid Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi Mostéfa Merarda Gamal Abdel Nasser Adnan Pachachi Ameen Rihani Fuad al-Rikabi Abdullah Rimawi Hamdeen Sabahi Constantin Zureiq
Organizations	Al-Awda Al-Fatat Al-Mourabitoun Arab Ba'ath Arab Ba'ath Movement Arab Federation Arab Higher Committee Arab Islamic Republic Arab Liberation Army Arab Nationalist Movement Arab Socialist Action Party Arab Socialist Union (Egypt) Arab Socialist Union (Iraq) Arab Socialist Union (Libya) Arab Socialist Union Party (Syria) Arabian Peninsula People's Union Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order Ba'ath Party Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction) Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction) Fatah Federation of Arab Republics General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries Independence Party (Mandatory Palestine) Islamic Legion Lebanese National Movement National Liberation Front (Algeria) Palestine Liberation Organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Rejectionist Front Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation Unified Political Command Union of Arab Republics (1972) United Arab Republic United Arab States
Literature	The Arab Awakening The Battle for One Destiny On the Way of Resurrection
Symbolism	Coat of arms of the United Arab Republic Eagle of Saladin Flag of the Arab Federation Flag of the Arab Revolt Hawk of Quraish Arab Liberation Flag Pan-Arab colors
Related topics	Algerian nationalism Egyptian nationalism Greater Mauritania Greater Morocco Greater Syria Greater Yemen Iraqi nationalism Islamism Jordanian nationalism Lebanese nationalism Libyan nationalism Palestinian nationalism Pan-Islamism Sahrawi nationalism Syrian nationalism Tunisian nationalism
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