1979 Ba'ath Party purge
A public purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party was orchestrated on 22 July 1979 by then-president Saddam Hussein, six days after his accession to the presidency of the Iraqi Republic. Six days after the resignation of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Hussein's accession to Presidency of the Iraqi Republic, Regional Secretary of the party, and Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council on 16 July 1979, he organized a Ba'ath conference on 22 July in Al-Khuld Hall in Baghdad to carry out a campaign of arrests and executions that included Ba'athist comrades, who were accused of taking part in a pro-Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam.