REVOLT IN IRAQ

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 17

REVOLT IN IRAQ

Air Force Jets Attack Palace (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—■Copyright) WASHINGTON, November 13. Iraqi Air Force jet fighters were reported to be attacking the Presidential palace in Bagdad today, according to a report received in Washington from the Iraqi capital. A Bagdad Radio broadcast heard in Beirut indicated that a revolt or civil war may be taking place in Bagdad, the British United Press reported from Beirut.

The broadcast was j an appeal to the ! people by Major- i General Ahmed Hassan el Bakr, the Prime I Minister, and said that the Government was j now’ threatened by I dangers. The Prime Minister’s statement said that all lives must be protected and that all problems must be resolved. There was no mention of any bloodshed or fighting. The Voice of the Arabs ; radio in Cairo said in a I broadcast monitored in Beirut that Bagdad radio had; announced an indefinite cur-! few to come into effect immediately. The Associated Press said Bagdad Radio went off the air suddenly about two hours after the reported bombings. The bombing reports fol-1 lowed the announcement by s

the Iraqi Baath Socialist Party of the election of a new 15-man regional command under the Prime Minister. Notably- absent from the new leadership as listed by Bagdad Radio before it went off the air was the DeputyPrime Minister and Guidance Minister. Mr Ali Salem el Saadi, noted in the past as a Ba’ath strong man and chief organiser of the party in Iraq, the news agency said. The Iraqi revolutionary government, headed by FieldMarshal Abdul Salam Mohammed Arif, came to power in a coup staged on February 8. The revolutionaries killed the Prime Minister. Abdul Karim Kassim, whose regime had itself taken power 1 after a coup against King Feisal in 1958. The Arif regime, which had a number of members of the Ba'ath Party in the Cabinet, has reported several attempted coups since it came to power, but crushed them quickly. Political observers said opposition to it came from three principal sources in

Iraq. They were from the well - organised Communist Party, from followers of General Kassim, and from the dissident Kurdish tribesmen in the north, against whom a long-drawn-out struggle has been waged. In a recent interview with I the editor of Reuters, Mr > Doon Campbell, Major-Gen-eral Ahmed Hassan al Bakr i said it was hoped elections j could be held soon to form I a democratic government I with opposition parties. | The announcement of the I election of the new command jof the Iraqi branch of the I Ba’ath Party followed l closely the formation early | today of a new Ba’ath-domin- ■ ated government in Syria. I headed by General Amin al | Hafez.

' The Ba'ath Party, which | came to power in Syria and ! Iraq in twin revolutions : early this year, professes col- ! lective leadership—one of ' the main causes of their political feuding with President Nasser of the United Arab Republic. The Government succeeds that headed by Mr Salah ed Din Bitar, aged 55, who has headed three Cabinets dominated by the Ba'ath Party since an Army coup on March 8. No official reason was given for Mr Bitar’s resignation, but he is known to have expressed a wish to resign to “smooth the way for the young elements of the Ba'ath Party to take over.” General Hafez became Syria’s "strong man" President at the end of July, shortly after as DeputyPrime Minister, Defence Minister, and Chief of Staff—he had crushed a pro-Nasser revolt in the country.