Al-Ansar (Iraq)

Al-Ansar (الأنصار, 'the Partisans') was the paramilitary wing of the Iraqi Communist Party, active between 1979 and 1988.

Early phase
When the alliance between the Iraqi Communist Party and the Iraqi Ba'ath Party ended, a wave of harsh repression against the communists followed. In 1977 the regime launched a crackdown against the communists. A number of communists fled to the Kurdish areas in northern Iraq, which was outside Ba'ath control, to escape arrest. By January 1979, the exiled communists had established Al-Ansar. By April 1979, the al-Ansar movement was active. Headquarters of the al-Ansar units were established in Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, and bases were established in Erbil. Later, bases were also set up in Dohuk and parts of Nineveh. The build-up of al-Ansar occurred without the full permission of the politburo of the Iraqi Communist Party.

In South Yemen, a number of Al-Ansar began their military training before joining the guerrillas in northern Iraq. The training was administered by the South Yemeni government.

Communist Party adopts armed struggle
In 1980, Nahj al-Ansar (نهج الأنصار, 'Path of the Partisans'), the newspaper of Al-Ansar was launched. In November 1981 the Iraqi Communist Party officially adopted armed struggle as part of the struggle of the party and established a Central Military Bureau as a unified command to lead the Al-Ansar movement. By that time, Al-Ansar forces operated throughout all Kurdish provinces of Iraq.

In 1982 a Central Military Council was held clandestinely. It was attended by the Iraqi Communist Party general secretary, politburo, and Al-Ansar commanders. The Council set up the overall strategic line of the armed struggle. By this time a decentralized command structure had been adopted, enabling the partisan forces more flexibility in their confrontations with Iraqi government troops.

End of the movement
After the Pasht Ashan massacre, in June 1987 the movement suffered another severe set-back, as another 150 fighters were killed. The report to the 1998 sixth party congress of the Iraqi Communist Party identified that confusion between the politburo and the local guerrilla forces had been the cause of the defeat.

The June–July 1987 meeting of the Central Committee of the Iraqi Communist Party decided to put al-Ansar in control of the Kurdish faction of the party after the Arab faction failed to lead it. However, by that time, al-Ansar was largely defunct. According to estimates from the Iraqi Communist Party, around 1,200 of al-Ansar were killed during nine years of armed struggle.

Veterans' Society
In 2004 an organization of veterans of the al-Ansar, Iraqi Communist Partisans Society, was founded at a conference in southern Sweden. The Society has branches both in Iraq and in exile.