This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 16

1917 UK War Cabinet created Mesopotamia administration committee to decide on form of govt in

captured areas

1921 Churchill told Foreign Secretary Lloyd George there was no longer a plan for a Kurdish state

            Instead Kurds would be included in new Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on Churchill’s views on Mesopotamia)

(Musings On Iraq book review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

1959 Gen Qasim signed economic agreement with Soviet Union to move away from England and

west

1959 Nasser organized 50,000 anti-Iraq protest in Cairo

(Musings On Iraq interview with Western Kentucky’s Prof Romero on the Qasim govt)

1975 Iraqi forces launched new offensive against Kurds after Iran stopped supporting them as part of

Algiers agreement

(Musings On Iraq book review of The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq book review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

(Musings On Iraq book review Killing Hope, U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II)

1982 Iraq’s Dep PM Yassin Ramadan said Iraq ready to withdraw from Iran and would accept ceasefire in

Iran-Iraq War

1984 Iran fought off Iraqi effort to free Majnoon Islands Iran-Iraq War

1984 CIA Station Chief in Lebanon William Buckley kidnapped by Islamic Jihad-Hezbollah and sent

to Iran Was retaliation for US support for Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on Buckley’s kidnapping)

1985 Republican Guard joined counterattack against Iran Op Badr in south Iran threw in reserves Iraq

recaptured Ajrada Sabkha Beida 2,000 Iranians captured

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Anthony Tucker-Jones on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Tom Cooper on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq book review of Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1988 Saddam accused residents of Halabja of working with Iran Said “Kill them all” Ordered mustard and

nerve gas attack upon town Killed 5,000 Kurds to recapture town

(Musings On Iraq article on the attack upon Halabja)

1991 Saddam made 1^st address since Gulf War Blamed southern uprising on Iran Said Kurds worked

with foreigners and always defeated

(Musings On Iraq interview with National Univ of Singapore’s Fanar Haddad on the Impact of the 1991 Uprising)

(Musings On Iraq article on 1^st hand accounts of 1991 Uprising)

(Musings On Iraq article on Saddam’s view of 1991 Uprising)

(Ahulbayt Video on 1991 Uprising)

(Musings On Iraq article on how US encouraged 1991 uprising)

1992 Saddam govt set off car bomb in Irbil after warning Kurds not to ally with foreign powers

2003 Azores summit with Bush Blair Portuguese Premier Barroso Bush said that Iraq war would start in

days not weeks

2003 Blair got transcript of 60 Minutes interview with Pres Chirac who said he wanted 30 more days for UN

inspections

2003 Blair Bush Barroso agreed to give 2^nd UN resolution 24 more hours and pull it if didn’t have enough

votes

2003 Bush and Blair gave UN 24 hour ultimatum to enforce its own resolutions on Iraq disarming or they

would invade

2003 Blair complained that US screwed up a 2^nd UN resolution on Iraq

2003 VP Cheney told Meet The Press that Americans would be greeted as liberators in Iraq Said that Army

Chief of Staff Gen Shinseki was wrong that US would not more troops to occupy Iraq than invade Told NBC that if world didn’t deal with Iraq it would go back to producing WMD Was already reconstituting its nuclear weapons program Claimed UN inspectors were wrong about Iraq’s weapons program in general citing Iraq buying aluminum tubes which US claimed were for centrifuges Said Iraq had had long standing relationship with Ql Qaeda

(Musings On Iraq article on the aluminum tubes story)

(Musings On Iraq article on how poor US intel work led to claim Iraq rebuilt its nuclear weapons program)

2004 UK Parliament report said British forces had bad intel on Iraq and govt limited them due to fears of

anti-war sentiment

2004 DepDefSec Wolfowitz said Iraq invasion proved US view on Iraq’s links to terrorism

2006 New Iraqi parliament seated after Dec 05 elections

2007 2 PM Maliki aides said premier had told Sadr to stand down Mahdi Army start of Surge In return

Maliki would push U.S. to focus upon insurgency rather than militias

2007 ISI set off chlorine bomb in Anbar Killed 2 sheikhs in Fallujah and Ramadi that opposed ISI

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Green on Fallujah during the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq review Fallujah Redux The Anbar Awakening and the Struggle With Al Qaeda)

2007 Sadr called on followers to resist U.S. occupation 1000s of Sadrists marched

2008 PM Maliki said he was going to take on security in Basra and that he was going to lead effort

personally

2015 PM Abadi asked US for airstrikes to help Tikrit operation that was stalled

2018 Turkey launched operation against PKK moving 15km into Irbil province

2018 Hundreds protested in Baghdad over lack of services Blocked a main road