Iraq, 1958 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
On 4 November 1958, Colonel Abdul Salam Arif was arrested in Baghdad on charges of conspiring to depose Iraqi prime minister Abdul-Karim Qasim. After the 14 July 1958 revolution that made Qasim leader of the new Iraqi republic, Qasim, an Iraqi nationalist who rejected union with Nasser, fell out with his deputy Arif, an ardent Nasserist who publicly advocated that Iraq join the United Arab Republic. Qasim removed Arif from his posts on 30 September 1958 and sent him to West Germany as ambassador; Egyptian agents in Bonn then worked with Arif on a conspiracy to depose Qasim, and Arif was arrested shortly after returning to Baghdad on 4 November.
The affair marked the definitive rupture between Qasim and the pro-Nasser faction, pushing Qasim to lean increasingly on the Iraqi Communist Party for support.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
64511041958
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Qasim neutralized Arif and consolidated power, ruling until his own overthrow in 1963.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Chicago Daily Tribune
The Manchester Guardian
New York Times
South China Morning Post“Unrest In Iraq: Events That Led To Arrest Of Former Vice-Premier: Coup
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →