The Kurds in Iraq in the early 1970s staged a rebellion against the
Baathist dictatorship in Baghdad, and they enjoyed some American support.
MILITANT ORGANIZATIONS HAVE PROLIFERATED IN IRAQ SINCE the fall of the
Baathist regime in 2003.
Finally, very reluctantly, the United States is coming around to the long-standing Russian position that the secular
Baathist regime in Syria must survive, as part of some compromise peace deal that everybody except the Islamist extremists will accept (although nobody will love it).
The group's leader is Izzat al-Douri, who was Hussein's right-hand man and the most wanted member of the ousted
Baathist regime to remain at large since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Looking at the turmoil in Syria today it is easy to conclude that one of the few virtues of the
Baathist dictatorship was its opposition to sectarianism.
The departure of the
Baathist regime of Bashar Al-Assad and the transition to a government that respected the fundamental rights of all the Syrian people; on that level, things could not be clearer.
Izzat al-Douri in Diala, strict measures around prisons, security sources BAGHDAD/ Aswat al-Iraq: Security sources are investigating news of
Baathist ex-vice-president Izzat al-Douri movements in three provinces, including Diala, while Iraqi forces increased their strict measures around the prisons following that some of the fleeing prisoners are planning to attack the prisons to free their colleagues, according to London-based al-Hayat daily today.
State and Islam in
Baathist Syria; confrontation or co-optation?
Maliki also called for banning the
Baathist party, the party of former leader Saddam Hussein, saying that
Baathists "are the people who committed heinous crimes against the people." At the same time, Maliki praised former party members "who have returned to serve the country," according to the daily.
In neighboring Salahuddin province, demonstrators took to the streets to support a symbolic move by the provincial council to declare the area autonomous, partly in protest of the
Baathist round-up that has angered minority Sunnis across Iraq.
Hafez, an Allawi, which is a minority sect in Syria, was a military officer in the 1950s who followed
Baathist ideology, which gained popularity in the 50s and 60s.