The Free Officers, inspired by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, struck while troops under Colonel Abdul Salam Arif were passing through Baghdad. Arif's soldiers seized the radio station, and a unit went to the royal palace, where the king, the crown prince and other members of the royal family were shot in the courtyard. The veteran pro-Western prime minister, Nuri al-Said, was caught the next day and killed. Qasim became prime minister. Iraq soon left the Western-backed Baghdad Pact, and the coup began a long era of military rule.
Iraq's monarchy had been installed by Britain in 1921, and by the 1950s it was widely seen as a British client. The Baghdad Pact of 1955, a Western-backed alliance with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, and the union with Jordan early in 1958, angered nationalists who looked to Nasser's Egypt.
In July 1958 the government ordered Arif's brigade to Jordan. Instead, it entered Baghdad before dawn on July 14. Arif broadcast the announcement of the revolution on the radio, calling on people to take to the streets. At the Rihab Palace, King Faisal II and his family surrendered to troops who then opened fire on them in the courtyard. Crowds dragged the body of Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah through the streets.
Nuri al-Said escaped disguised as a woman but was recognised and killed the next day. The coup alarmed Western governments, and within days American marines landed in Lebanon and British paratroopers flew into Jordan. Qasim's rule lasted until 1963, when he was killed in a coup that helped bring the Ba'ath Party to power.
Key people: Abd al-Karim Qasim, Abdul Salam Arif, Faisal II of Iraq, Nuri al-Said