armed struggle in Kurdistan. After the September 1976 conference the party continued to expand its membership, primarily in Britain and France. In 1978 and early 1979, sectors of the party began to adopt the Three Worlds Theory of Mao Zedong. In 1979, the Baathist regime contacted the party and offered them an alliance. At the time the Baathists were in the process of breaking their alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party. The invitation sparked a split in the party, and effectively the party was divided into two separate parties. Both claimed to the legitimate heirs of the legacy of the party and both of them publishing their own version of Widhat al-Qa'idah. One of the groups now adhered to the Three Worlds Theory. Both groups disappeared in the early 1980s. Adil Mahdi and his followers turned into Shi'a Islamists, initially supporting the Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr and later supporting the line of Ayatollah Khomeini. Mahdi later became Vice President of Iraq. References Defunct communist parties in Iraq Iraqi Communist Party breakaway groups