Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party ( ku, Parti Sosyalisti Demokrati Kurdistan; ar-at, الحزب الاشتراكي الديمقراطي الكردستاني, Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Dimuqrati al-Kurdistani) is a political party in

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region ( ku, هەرێمی کوردستان, translit=Herêmî Kurdistan; ar, إقليم كردستان), abbr. KRI, is an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates of Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok ...

. The first leader was Saleh Yousefi after 1981. After 1992, the party was led by Mahmoud Othman. The party is currently led by Mohammed Haji Mahmoud. It is a

splinter A splinter (also known as a sliver) is a fragment of a larger object, or a foreign body that penetrates or is purposely injected into a body. The foreign body must be lodged inside tissue to be considered a splinter. Splinters may cause initia ...

of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In the 2013 Kurdistan Region parliamentary election the party got 12,501 votes (0.6%) and it won one seat in the Kurdistan National Assembly.

Paramilitary wing

The Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party also has a paramilitary wing of

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

soldiers under the direct command of party leader Mohammed Haji Mahmood, whose '' nom de guerre'' is "Kaka Hama". The party's forces have fought in the Iraqi Civil War against the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

(ISIL), mostly in the region south of Kirkuk. They also took part in the

Mosul offensive (2016) Battle of Mosul may refer to: * Battle of Mosul (1107), a battle in which Kilij Arslan I of the Rum Seljuks conquered Mosul * Siege of Mosul (1743), an offensive in which the Persians besieged the Ottomans * Battle of Mosul (1745), a battle between ...

. Among the party fighters killed in combat against ISIL was Mohammed Haji Mahmood's son Atta.

References

1976 establishments in Iraq Kurdish nationalism in Iraq Kurdish nationalist political parties Kurdish political parties in Iraq Political parties established in 1976 Political parties in Kurdistan Region Social democratic parties in Iraq {{Iraq-party-stub