Abdul Rahman Arif
Iraqi President Abdul Rahman Arif and Iraqi Prime Minister Tahir Yahya were ousted during the 17 July coup d'état led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Ba'ath Party, which had previously held power in 1963 and was led primarily by al-Bakr, who served as its leader, and Saddam Hussein. Saddam, through his post as chief of the party's intelligence services, became the country's "de facto" leader by the mid-1970s. During al-Bakr's "de jure" rule, the country's economy grew, and Iraq's standing within the Arab world increased. However, several internal factors were threatening the country's stability, among them being the government's conflict with various factions within the Iraqi Shia Muslim community as well as with the Iraqi Kurdish community in the north (see Shia–Sunni sectarian violence in Iraq and the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict). Additionally, Iraq's conflict with the neighbouring Imperial State of Iran due to bilateral border disputes over the Shatt al-Arab waterway served as a major external threat to the country's stability as well.