On February 8, 1963, an army coup was staged, overthrowing the Iraqi Nationalist government of Abd al-Karim Qasim in favour of the pan-Arabist Abdul Salam Arif.

The two had both been members of the free officers movement that orchestrated the overthrow the western-aligned Hashemite monarchy in the 14 July Revolution, but Ideological differences between the two caused tension.

After the coup the new regime instituted Arif as president and moved swiftly to eliminate its opponents, primarily the Iraqi Communist Party followers of Qasim.

The party cells inside the military began contacting cells belonging to the Baghdad Workers Committee, which organized party activities inside trade unions in the capital, to plan an overthrow of the Baathists a few weeks after the Baathist take-over.

Ali directed Muhammad Habib (Abu Salam), a coffee-shop worker, to reorganize the party cells in the army.

[2] Ali was captured by the intelligence services, after Communist Party members turned government informers had revealed his identity.

On the contrary, evidence suggested that Habib had conveyed to Sari that they had the full backing of the entire Communist Party.

The rationale was that once the detained officers had been freed, they would provide leadership for other army units around the country to join the rebellion.

[4] However, even though the rebels had been able to seize the army camp they could not free the detainees as they met unexpected resistance from prison guards.

The CIA also believed "the USSR will work both through propaganda media and covertly to bring about the overthrow of the Ba'ath in Iraq, calculating that any successor regime would be more favorable to Communist interests.