1979 Ba'ath Party Purge

A public purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party was orchestrated on 22 July 1979 by then-president Saddam Hussein six days after his arrival to the presidency of the Iraqi Republic on 16 July 1979. Six days after the resignation of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Hussein's accession to President of the Iraqi Republic, Regional Secretary of the party, and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council on 16 July 1979, he organized a Ba'ath conference on 22 July in Al-Khuld Hall in Baghdad to carry out a campaign of arrests and executions that included Ba'athist comrades, who were accused of taking part in a pro-Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam. The list included most of the comrades who opposed Saddam Hussein's rise to power after Al-Bakr, and among these was the former president's secretary, Muhyi Abdul-Hussein Mashhadi. Names of people were announced and they were taken outside the hall and into custody; 21 of them were later executed. Ba'athist propaganda at the time showed that they were convicted of conspiracy and high treason to the party. Iraq subsequently cut off diplomatic relations with its fellow Ba'athist regime in Syria, accusing Hafez al-Assad of organizing the plot.