[3] The squadron was officially declared operational on 11 June 1961 and envisaged as a "flying praetorian guard" for regime of Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim.

[4] During the 8–10 February 1963 Ramadan Revolution, between four and six of its aircraft were destroyed on the ground by a pair of Hawker Hunters flown by pilots supporting the coup, while none of No.

Midway through the conversion to the newer variant, with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War on 6 October, all training stopped and the squadron's older MiG-21s were transferred to al-Wallid Air Base the next morning.

By the afternoon of 7 October, the first 10 aircraft were forward deployed to Dmeyr and Tsaykal Air Bases, in Syria.

[9] The pilots quickly started flying combat air patrols, and had their first contacts with Israeli fighters less than an hour after their arrival.

[10] The next day, a pair of MiG-21s intercepted two Israeli McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, but they were targeted by several air-to-air missiles and had to disengage.

Later that day, a pair of MiG-21s acted as baits for a group of Israeli Mirages, one of which was shot down by surface-to-air missiles.