The National Defense Battalions ( "Jahafel al-Difa' al-Watani") were Iraqi Kurdish paramilitary units. Initially emerging from pro-government Kurdish militia raised by the regime of Abd al-Karim Qasim used against Kurdish insurgents in the 1960s, the Battalions were used quite prominently during the Iran-Iraq War, particularly during the Anfal Campaign. Following the war many units rebelled in 1991 and joined the Peshmerga, although the Battalions survived, albeit in a reduced capacity, until the Ba'athist government was toppled in 2003. Structure The units originated in the early 1960s during the Iraqi government's counterinsurgency operations against Kurdish guerrillas. In the 1970s the Ba'athist Iraqi government exploited tribal divisions amongst the Kurds, and recruited various tribal leaders, allowing them to form militias from their followers. These units were armed with light weapons and were tasked with policing Kurdish areas, as well as providing intelligence to the Iraqi Army. During the Iran-Iraq war the Battalions came under the operational command of the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the Army leadership in the Northern Command. The Northern Bureau of the Ba'ath party was responsible for operating and setting policies of the Battalions, as well as reporting on its leaders political activities, and maintaining control over the Battalion's Kurdish conscripts. The Northern Bureau portrayed the Battalions as part of the Ba'ath party's plan to civilize and modernize the Kurdish population and turn them from tribesmen into Iraqi citizens. A Presidential decree therefore required military-aged men resident in the Autonomous Region to join the Battalions. In spite of official rhetoric the Battalions had been organised along tribal lines from the beginning, with Kurdish tribal leaders being responsible for both raising and maintaining the Battalions. The official title of the Kurdish tribal leaders was that of mutashar (consultant), in an attempt to hide the extent to which the leaders were subject to the power of the central government and government policy, with those deemed ineffective or potentially disloyal being replaced by other leaders within their clans or being forced to disband their units. Others, who chose to rebel, or defect, were summarily executed. One Battalion was disbanded because its leader was claiming he controlled 900 soldiers, when in fact he only had 90. Two other Battalions were disbanded, and their leaders executed, because one had failed to fight against the Iranians alongside the Iraqi Armed Forces, whereas the other had attempted to assassinate the commander of the 5th Army