الحزب الشيوعي العراقي
Within the Iraqi Communist Party (Central Command) (a splinter group that had opposed the alliance between the Iraqi Communist Party and the Ba'ath Party), claims were made that the Pasht Ashan massacre had been deliberately provoked by the Communist Party leadership. According to this version of events, the Communist Party leadership would have used the killings to remove oppositional forces inside the party (who called for the holding of a new party congress).