This Day In Iraqi History - Apr 18

1919 France and England signed Long-Berenger oil deal France got 20% of Iraqi oil via Turkish

Petroleum Company

(Musings On Iraq book review The Creation of Iraq 1914-1921)

1919 France agreed to help build oil pipeline from Iraq to Mediterranean

1941 Britain landed 20^th Infantry Brigade in Basra in response to PM Gaylani and Golden Square

officers coup Basra dock workers went on strike

1941 British battalion from India completed deployment to Shaiba air base in Basra

1941 PM Gaylani asked Italian Amb if Axis would give Iraq military aid against British and Axis air

power 1^st time Iraq asked for military intervention from Axis

1941 PM Gaylani asked UK Amb that no more British troops land in Iraq and they all had to leave

Iraq

(Musings On Iraq book review of Rashid Ali al-Gailani, The National Movement in Iraq 1939-1941)

(Musings On Iraq book review of Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq 1941, The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq And Syria 1941, The Politics and Strategy of the Second World War)

1980 Iran said Baath at war with Islam and called on Iraqi army and people to overthrow Saddam

1984 Iraq escalated its attacks on tankers heading for Iran

1988 Iraq recaptured Fao Peninsula 5,000 Iranians died 10,000 captured Iraq lost 800 dead

(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 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)

1991 Report 500-1,000 displaced Kurds were dying a day along Iraq-Turkey border

1991 First round of talks between Baghdad and Kurds started with Talabani heading delegation

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

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

1991 Saddam agreed to UN setting up offices in Iraq to help displaced following Shiite and Kurdish

uprisings

1991 Iraq provided first disarmament declaration to UN Was incomplete and hid lots of activities like nuke

and WMD programs

1996 State Dept official Deutsch went to Kurdistan to try to broker ceasefire in PUK-KDP civil war

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

2002 CIA report said Iraq might have been able to make chemical weapons since 1999

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq, One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

2003 Sadrists held demonstration in Sadr City to condemn U.S. and western culture

2003 Some American officials worried that Iraq had sent its WMD to other countries That’s why wasn’t

found

2003 INC head Chalabi said he expected an interim govt to be formed soon to run most duties in Iraq

2003 Rumsfeld said it would take time to find Iraq’s WMD

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq, One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

2003 Arabs that were expelled from Daquq Kirkuk by Kurds tried to retake town but driven off by Kurds

2004 Bremer admitted that Iraqi forces would not be able to deal with insurgency on their own when

sovereignty returned in June 05

2004 Spain’s new PM Zapatero announced he would withdraw 1300 troops from Iraq

2004 British report said Coalition troops and Iraqi police would soon restore law and order in Iraq

2006 Report CPA plan to disarm and integrate militias never funded and followed through with

2007 5 car bombs in Bagdhad killed 171 wounded almost 200

(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

2007 PM Maliki said ISF would take over security for entire country by end of year Didn’t happen for

            several more years

2008 50 soldiers fled their posts in Sadr City rather than fight Mahdi Army

2008 Sadrist said Mahdi Army might disarm if Badr Brigade did the same

(Musings On Iraq article on the history of Badr Organization)

2008 Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri speech said US had been defeated in Iraq

2008 Shiekh Abu Risha complained that authorities were trying to stop his organizing for 09 provincial

elections by shutting down offices

2008 Suicide truck bomb hit funeral for Sahwa members killing 50 in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

2008 US forces raided district in Muqtadiya Diyala to arrest Iraqi police involved in death squads

(Musings On Iraq article on Sahwa-police tensions in Diyala)

2009 US and British officials went to Jordan to talk with ex-Gen Hamdani to talk about reconciliation with

former regime members

2010 U.S. and Iraqi forces killed ISI leaders Abu Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi near Tikrit

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval War College’s Prof Whiteside on who Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was)

2011 Parliament repealed Article 136(b) that allowed ministers to stop corruption investigations

2011 Anbar anti-terror police arrested 12 officers involved with insurgents Some were working with Syrian

intelligence

2011 Protest in Mosul Baghdad other areas calling for better services Some said Maliki should step down

2011 Kurdish security forces moved to evict protesters from Sulaymaniya Police fired into crowd wounding

6, 1 died, another 90 hurt by beatings

2011 Kurdish court sentenced spokesman for Sulaymaniya protests to one month in jail for defaming a

KRG MP

2011 Were first protests in Irbil Were beaten by police 22 wounded

(Musings On Iraq interview with journalist Wladimir Van Wilgenburg on 2011 KRG protests)

2012 Oil Min Shahristani said Exxon would not start working in KRG until Baghdad approved contract

Exxon went ahead anyway

2014 ISIS commander killed fighting Ansar al-Sunna in Rashad, Kirkuk

2014 Anbar council asked if ISF were competent enough to retake Fallujah

2014 Former Diyala governor and Mutahidun MP said militias were trying to take over Mukhisa and force

people out of town

2014 Maliki gave speech in Babil calling for majority govt after elections

2015 Khorasani Brigade pledged allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei and said it followed valayat al-faqih

Same time said didn’t take orders from Iran

2015 Govt claimed it fully controlled Baiji Refinery but IS still held sizeable amount of complex

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