Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf

Abdul Wahab al-Shawaf ; 1916 – 9 March 1959) was an Iraqi military officer and the leader of the 1959 Mosul uprising in March 1959 against then Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim.

Early life Al-Shawaf was born in 1916 in Baghdad to the prominent al-Shawaf clan of Iraq, a religious and landowning Sunni Muslim family. He attended the Baghdad Military College, then the Baghdad Staff College.

Military career Coup plot Al-Shawaf was a member of the original Free Officers group, which plotted the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy of Iraq,

14 July Revolution With the success of the 14 July Revolution of 1958, which resulted in the overthrow and killing of King Faisal II and long-time prime minister Nuri al-Said, al-Shawaf was to be assigned as Military-Governor General by order of decree. However, due to pressure from leading Free Officer Abd al-Salam Arif, with whom al-Shawaf had differences, al-Shawaf was appointed to the less influential position of garrison commander in the northern city of Mosul on 15 July. He considered this an unjustified demotion by fellow Free Officer and newly inaugurated President Abd al-Karim Qasim, interpreting it as a way keep him distant from Baghdad, the center of Iraqi politics. However, the former President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, claims that al-Shawaf was "one of the most prominent free officers with democratic leanings."

Mosul revolt and death Tensions increased between Qasim and his communist allies on one side (though Qasim was not a communist himself) and United Arab Republic (UAR) President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Arab nationalist supporters in Iraq, including al-Shawaf, on the other side as the two competed for regional influence. By February 1959 Qasim had imprisoned his rival Arif, a pan-Arabist supporter of Iraqi membership of the UAR, which included Egypt and Syria, and ousted all other pro-unity officers from the RCC. Al-Shawaf saw an opportunity to fill Arif's position in Baghdad, but this was blocked by Qasim, who kept al-Shawaf in his post at Mosul.

Qasim, aware of rising dissent in the Mosul region and attempting to stave off a possible insurrection, permitted the communist Partisans of Peace to hold a mass rally in Mosul and dispatched communist-led Popular Resistance Forces from Baghdad to reinforce the Partisans' numbers. Participants in the rally, who were opponents of pan-Arabism, numbered roughly 100,000. Clashes between them and Mosul-based supporters of Nasser erupted between 5–7 March.

Al-Shawaf immediately arrested suspected Qasim loyalists within his Fifth Brigade, as well as a number of civilians believed to be pro-Qasim. The communist leader of the Partisans of Peace, Kamel Kazanji, was also arrested and personally executed by al-Shawaf while in custody. The rebellion received support from some 3,000 fighters from the Shammar tribe, allegedly armed by the UAR, but also faced pro-government Kurdish irregulars and armed members of the Partisans of Peace.

Relations between the UAR and Iraq, and in turn between nationalists and communists, deteriorated further after the failure of the revolt. During a funeral procession near Saladin's tomb in Damascus for Iraqi officers wounded in the Mosul hostilities who later died in UAR hospitals, placards were raised with the exclamation "Shawwaf, you shall be avenged!" and "Qasim the traitor". Arif, who was imprisoned by Qasim, was honored as a hero of pan-Arabism.