On the morning of February 8, 1963, the fourteenth of Ramadan, the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party and allied Arab nationalist officers moved against Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, who had ruled since the 1958 revolution. Conspirators assassinated the communist air force commander Jalal al-Awqati and tank units seized the Abu Ghraib radio station; two days of heavy fighting followed, with communist sympathizers resisting in the streets and Qasim holed up in the Ministry of Defense. On February 9 Qasim offered to surrender in exchange for safe passage abroad; the request was refused, and after a summary trial he was executed the same afternoon on the orders of the new National Council of the Revolutionary Command, his body shown on television.
Abdul Salam Arif, Qasim's estranged 1958 partner and not a Baathist, was made president with largely ceremonial powers, General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr became prime minister, and Baath secretary general Ali Salih al-Sadi held real power through the National Guard militia, which killed and detained thousands of suspected communists and Qasim loyalists in the weeks that followed. The Baathist government was itself overthrown by Arif that November.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, captured on February 9, 1963 after his surrender offer was refused, summarily tried, and executed on the orders of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command; his body was displayed on television.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Abd al-Karim Qasim (deposed prime minister, executed February 9)
Abdul Salam Arif (installed as president, not a Baathist)
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (Baathist general made prime minister)
Ali Salih al-Sadi (Baath secretary general, de facto power through the National Guard)
Jalal al-Awqati (communist air force commander assassinated at the coup's start)
Sources
The Ramadan Revolution was a February 1963 military coup by the Baath Party's Iraqi wing that overthrew Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim between 8 and 10 February; Qasim's former deputy Abdul Salam Arif, not a Baathist, was given the largely ceremonial title of president while Baathist general Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was named prime minister, and secretary general Ali Salih al-Sadi, controlling the National Guard militia, organized a massacre of hundreds if not thousands of suspected communists and other dissidents.
The coup began in the early morning of 8 February 1963 with the assassination of communist air force chief Jalal al-Awqati and the occupation of the Abu Ghraib radio station by tank units; a bitter two day struggle followed with Qasim taking refuge in the Ministry of Defense, and on 9 February his offer to surrender in return for safe passage out of the country was refused, after which he was executed on the orders of the newly formed National Council of the Revolutionary Command following a mock trial, his body displayed on television.
SOURCE REVIEWEDMilitary History wiki, Ramadan Revolution (mirroring the Wikipedia article)open source ↗
On the order of the newly formed National Council of the Revolutionary Command, Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul Kareem Qasim was executed on 9 February 1963, and the following nine month Baath rule has been described as a reign of terror with the detention and execution of thousands of Qasim loyalists and communists, ending in November 1963 when President Arif took power in a coup within a coup.
SOURCE REVIEWEDOurIraq (Goethe-Institut Iraq history project), The Ramadan Revolution, A Coup within a Coup and the Arif led Eraopen source ↗
Persistent claims of CIA involvement rest on sources including a September 1963 statement by King Hussein of Jordan that the February 8 events had American intelligence support, and later testimony by diplomats and Baathists, while declassified documents and former CIA officers indicate no direct American role in the coup itself, though the agency had been seeking a replacement for Qasim and had prior knowledge of Baathist plotting; the question remains debated in the scholarship.
Handled per checklist caution on killings: Qasim's February 9 execution, the refused surrender, the radio trial, and the televised display of his body are each sourced, as are the post-coup National Guard killings, without editorializing. The CIA involvement question is recorded as contested rather than resolved. Arc links: Qasim himself took power in the July 14, 1958 revolution; the Baathist government installed here fell to Arif's November 18, 1963 countercoup; and the Iraqi coup encouraged the Syrian Baathist coup of March 8, 1963, one month later.
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim, captured on February 9, 1963 after his surrender offer was refused, summarily tried, and executed on the orders of the National Council of the Revolutionary Command; his body was displayed on television..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; killed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Nasserite Coup in Iraq Topples Kasim’s Regime,” by Dana Adams Schmidt, February 9, 1963
“Army Said To Oust Baathists In Iraq President Reported To Lead Revolt Communications From Baghdad Cut Guard to Be Dissolved ARMY SAID TO OUST BAATHISTS IN IRAQ Curfew Is Proclaimed Events Leading to Revolt,” November 18, 1963
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 →