This Day In Iraqi History - May 16

1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement broke up Ottoman Empire into British and French Spheres Basra and

Baghdad to England Mosul to French France was to be buffer with Russia

(Musings On Iraq interview with Princeton’s Sara Pursley on Sykes-Picot and creation of Iraq)

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

1941 While British planes bombed Iraqi column outside Rutba, Anbar English ground forces were attacked

by German planes

1941 German commander in Iraq agreed with Baghdad’s plan to retake Habaniya but didn’t have forces to

do it

1941 German planes attacked Habaniya base British destroyed 10 German planes in Irbil and Mosul

1941 Mullah Mustafa Barzani escaped Baghdad and headed for Sulaymaniya

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

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

1977 Saddam interview with US News & World Report said Iraq would never accept Israel’s right to exist

1984 US offered to provide air cover to any Arab country’s oil tankers in Persian Gulf to protect them from

Iranian attack

1986 Iraq launched operation to seize Mehran Iran 1^st offensive since 1983 Saddam wanted to seize

Iranian territory and swap it for Fao Peninsula

1988 Iran Op Bait al-Moqaddas 6 Gained 25 sq km in Kurdistan Turkey worried about Iranian offensives in

Kurdistan Threatened intervention if continued

(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)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

2003 CPA Order 1 disbanded Baath Party Came from Undersec of Def Feith He would later deny

responsibility

(Musings On Iraq article on deBaathification)

2003 ORHA Head Garner met with Iraqi Leadership Group exiles and Iraqi notables put together by Barzani

and Talabani Bremer told Leadership Group he was in charge not them

2003 Bremer announced that interim Iraqi govt would not be formed and that CPA would govern Iraq

2003 CPA picked Phillip Carroll to be top US adviser to Oil Ministry Said he was against privatizing

industry

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq and the Politics of Oil, An Insider’s Perspective)

2003 Sadrists attacked movie theater in Baghdad for showing indecent movies

2003 Arabs claimed they were beaten by Kurds at a market and bridge in Kirkuk

(Musings On Iraq interview with Petit of 173^rd Airborne Bgd on operations in Kirkuk)

2004 Sec State Powell some sources on Iraq WMD were inaccurate wrong and sometimes deliberately

misleading

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

2004 Maysan chief of police Kabir assassinated by members of governor’s tribe Many claimed governor had

chief assassinated because believed he tipped off British about ambush planned by tribe

2005 US issued order unless US forces directly involved in abuse of Iraqis should report incident and do

nothing else

2008 Parliament integrity committee said arms deal with Serbia illegal Def Min refused to answer questions

about it

2008 PM Maliki gave insurgents 10 days to hand in weapons in Mosul as part of Mother of Two Rivers

offensive

2009 PM Maliki promised major crackdown on corruption

(Musings On Iraq interview with Special Inspector Gen for Iraq Reconstruction Bowen on corruption in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq interview with fmr anti-graft official Vincent Foulk on corruption in Iraq)

2009 Kurds deployed Peshmerga to Zummar, Ninewa in response to ISF move there Part of tension with

Hadbaa running Ninewa govt

2009 Head of British Army Gen Dannatt said UK’s participation in Iraq damaged its military reputation

with US

2010 Abu Bakr al-Bahgdadi named new leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi killed April 2010

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

2011 Gulf Cooperation Council rejected Iraq’s bid to join

2011 Senior Iraqi Air Force official said Iran tried to block Iraq buying F-16s from US using friendly

political parties

2011 Security official blamed militias for wave of assassinations and sticky bombs in Baghdad

2011 Qadisiyah council voted to make province a federal region

2011 Investigation into IS prison break in Basra caught in political controversy with ruling parties

interfering 2 members of Maliki’s office implicated

2011 Sadrists rejected any talk of extending US troop presence in Iraq past end of year

2012 End of deadline set by Sadrists for PM Maliki to implement Irbil power sharing agreement Maliki did

not respond

2012 Pres Barzani said he was fed up with PM Maliki and could not work with him anymore

2012 PM Maliki allowed Dep PM Mutlaq back to work after dismissing him as political threat during no

confidence move

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

2013 Gov Nujafi of Ninewa escaped IED attack on his convoy

2013 ISF raided Sheikh Suleiman’s farm in Anbar leading to shootout with guards

2014 Reports of barrel bombs and indiscriminate shelling of Fallujah by ISF leading to large displacement of

civilians

2015 IS leader Baghdadi issued speech saying Anbari displaced being mistreated by Baghdad for sectarian

reasons

2015 Ramadi fell to IS after months of fighting Report IS went through city executing government workers

and Sahwa members

(Musings On Iraq interview with Ahmed Ali on fall of Ramadi) 

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