page_title: Al-Ansar (Iraq)
section_title: Early phase
hierarchical_section_title: Al-Ansar (Iraq) / Early phase
caption_attribution_description: Partisans, northern Iraq, 1980s
context_page_description: Al-Ansar was a guerrilla force attached to the Iraqi Communist Party, active between 1979 and 1988.
context_section_description: When the alliance between the Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ended, a wave of harsh repression against the Communist Party followed. In 1977 the regime launched a crackdown against the communists. A number of communist cadres fled to the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq to escape arrest. By January 1979, the exiled communists had established partisan fighting units. By April 1979, the al-Ansar movement was operational. Headquarters of the partisan units were established in Kirkuk and as-Sulemaniyah, and bases were established in Irbil. Later, bases were also set up in Dohuk and Nineveh. The build-up of al-Ansar did however occur without the full consent of the politburo of the party.
  In South Yemen, a number of Iraqi Communist Party cadres began military training before joining the guerrillas in northern Iraq. The training was administered by the South Yemeni government.
caption: Partisans in the Sulemaniyah region
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