Topic summary
1941 Iraqi coup d'état
IraqGolden SquareRegent of Iraq
Taha al-Hashimi
Prime Minister of Iraq
Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh
3rd Division Commander
Kamil Shabib
1st Division Commander
Fahmi Said
Independent Mechanized Brigade Commander
Mahmud Salman
Chief of the Air Force
1st Infantry Division
Independent Mechanized Brigade
The 1941 Iraqi coup d'état (Arabic: ثورة رشيد علي الكيلاني, Thawrah Rašīd ʿAlī al-Kaylānī), also called the Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani coup or the Golden Square coup, was a nationalistcoup d'état in Iraq on 1 April 1941 that overthrew the pro-British regime of Regent 'Abd al-Ilah and his Prime Minister Nuri al-Said and installed Sharaf bin Rajeh as Regent and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as Prime Minister.
The coup was led by four Iraqi nationalist army generals, known as "the Golden Square", who intended to use the war to press for full Iraqi independence following the limited independence granted in 1932. To that end, they worked with German intelligence and accepted military assistance from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The change in government led to the British invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation until 1947.