Middle East 617
Date(s): December 18, 1965 to January 12, 1966
Participants: 645 Iraq/630 Iran
Outcome (and Settlement): Unclear (Negotiated)
Fatalities: 1–25 deaths
Narrative: The Iraqi government signed a peace agreement with the Kurdish rebels
in 1964, but by April 1965 there was renewed fighting. The Kurds had established
self-government in northern Iraq, on the border with Turkey and Iran. Eighty percent
of Iraq’s 45,000 troops were engaged in the fight. The Kurdish rebels often fled across
the border to Iran, where another large Kurdish community lived; the Iranian govern-
ment also provided support to the Kurdish rebels.
In December 1965 Iraq said it had arrested Iranian guards with Kurdish rebels in
Iraqi territory, and Iran claimed that Iraqi MiGs had strafed several Iranian villages
along the border. Several more border incidents followed as Iraqi forces chased the
rebels. On January 12, 1966, Iraq and Iran signed an agreement whereby Iranian
forces would withdraw from the border, both states would end their propaganda cam-
paigns against each other, and they would establish a joint committee to handle their
border problems.
MID#2107
Dispute Number: 2107
Date(s): May 23, 1966
Participants: 645 Iraq/630 Iran
Outcome (and Settlement): Unclear (None)
Fatalities: None
Narrative: Iraqi MiGs attacked several Iranian border villages. Iranian antiaircraft
batteries fired at the planes, but none were shot down.
MID#1136
Dispute Number: 1136
Date(s): March 6, 1969 to June 14, 1969
Participants: 645 Iraq/630 Iran
Outcome (and Settlement): Unclear (Negotiated)
Fatalities: None
Narrative: On April 19, 1969, Iran abrogated the Shatt al-Arab Treaty of 1937. Iran
also announced that it had put its troops on alert because of earlier Iraqi violations of
the agreement. Iraq was certain that this move marked a renewal of Iranian ambitions
in Iraqi territory and the waters and the Arabian Gulf in general and quickly began to
amass troops on its border with Iran.
Iranian warships continued to escort ships down Shatt al-Arab, and Iranian and
Iraqi forces on the border remained through May. Then on June 14, Iraq proposed
talks with Iran.
Coding changes: Start Date changed from April 6, 1969. End Date changed from
June 13, 1969. Settlement changed from None.