This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 21

 

1914 British troops entered Basra after Ottomans abandoned city

1926 Jaffar al-Askari became PM of Iraq for 2^nd time Were 14 govts under Mandate

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

1927 King Faisal asked for full Iraqi independence and ending roll of British High Commissioner in

negotiations over new Anglo-Iraq Treaty

1946 PM Umari forced to resign in aftermath of Kirkuk Massacre where oil strikers killed

1946 Nuri al-Said became PM 4^th time 1922-58 were 59 cabinets

(Musings On Iraq interview with Historian Phebe Marr comparing PM Said with PM Maliki)

(Musings On Iraq review ‘Independent Iraq’ The Monarchy & British Influence, 1941-1958)

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

1963 Syria said it would send 2^nd army brigade to help fight Barzani revolt if Baghdad

asked Arif govt said no

1963 New govt led by PM Yahya said it wanted peace with Kurds

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

1983 Iran’s Op Wa al-Fajr 4 ended Took 180 sq mi of land in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan Iran lost

5000 dead 15,000 wounded Iraq lost 2800 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 review Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1997 UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)

1998 Adviser to UN chief said could never 100% prove WMD disarmament and at some

            point inspections became political and impossible to prove negative

2001 Bush told Natl Sec Adv Rice he wanted Def Sec Rumsfeld to start planning for Iraq

(Musings On Iraq Was Iraq An Imminent Threat To The West?)

2001 Bush told Def Sec Rumsfeld to update war plans for Iraq Wanted it done secretly Was first

official step in Iraq invasion

(Musings On Iraq review Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessment)

(Musings On Iraq review Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy

Tragedy)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)

(Musings On Iraq review Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account Of The Decision To

Invade Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review The Endgame, The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from

George W. Bush to Barack Obama)

2002 NATO summit Bush was talking about war with Iraq and using new UN inspections as

catalyst for action

2003 UN turned over Oil for Food program to CPA

2003 UK intel report Badr Brigade maintained close ties to Iran that armed and funded it

(Musings On Iraq Overview of Iran’s Influence In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

2004 Iraq Election Commission announced vote for transitional assembly to draft constitution would

happen 1/30/05 along with provincial vote

2006 Iraq and Syria announced renewal of diplomatic relations which were broken during Iran-Iraq War

2006 UN reported 3,709 civilians killed in Oct 06 was highest since 2003 invasion

2006 Report US training mission for Iraqi forces full of problems Officers leading teams poorly picked Many

hadn’t seen combat Didn’t understand mission and weren’t prepared Didn’t have standardized guidelines for mission Didn’t get support from US military Didn’t get supplies and enough interpreters Didn’t get full teams

2007 Gen Petraeus said number of foreign fighters coming to Iraq down by about 1/3 in part due to greater

interdiction by Syria

2008 Presidential Council said Tribal Support Councils should be integrated into provincial govts Were

created as part of patronage network by PM Maliki before 09 election

2009 Report on failed US funded reconstruction projects $270 mil water plant in Nasiriya only worked at

limited capacity because too sophisticated for Iraqi workers $4 mil maternity hospital in Hilla doesn’t have staff of enough supplies Iraqis never trained on equipment US installed $98 mil wastewater treatment plan in Fallujah only reached 1/3 of homes because govt didn’t deliver fuel $7.9 mil hospital in Baghdad didn’t have staff or supplies so it was closed $165 mil Basra Children’s Hospital was $115 mil over budget

(Musings On Iraq More On Wasted Reconstruction Projects In Iraq) 

2019 Kataib Hezbollah said Def Min bought tear gas used vs protesters after Def Min

Shammari claimed that 3^rd party shooting demonstrators

(Musings On Iraq Hashd Retaliate Against Iraq’s Defense Minister For Comments On Protests)

(Musings On Iraq Instrument Of Iran’s Power In Iraq And Syria Kataib Hezbollah)

2019 Report Natl Sec Adv Fayad Badr head Amiri PM Abdul Mahdi’s chief of staff

Hashemi met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran Said protests would be put down with force and PM Abdul Mahdi supported 

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Review Inside The Resistance, Reporting From Iraq’s Danger Zone

Chehab, Zaki, Inside The Resistance, Reporting From Iraq’s Danger Zone, New York: Nation Books, 2005

 

Inside The Resistance, Reporting From Iraq’s Danger Zone is a completely rambling collection of thoughts by journalist Zaki Chehab about the first two years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. From the title and the first few chapters the reader would think the book is about why there was an insurgency in Iraq. That would be misleading as after that the book goes in all kinds of directions from the Iraqi opposition to Saddam and the American neoconservatives to the regional impact of the war in Iraq to the role of Palestinians in the country, and then some ideas on how Iraqi government might turn out. There is little rhyme or reason to the chapters and lots of repetition. Zaki was a reporter who obviously dearly missed the aid of an editor when he wrote this book.

This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 20

 

1914 Arab tribes told British forces Ottomans had abandoned Basra British forces set out to

take city

1920 US complained 3^rd time to UK about San Remo agreement that divided up Iraqi oil between

France and England

1920 British worked out ceasefire with Hachcham tribe last one fighting in 1920 Revolt

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

1922 Abd Sadoun became Iraq’s 2^nd PM His orders were to organize elections for an assembly to

write constitution Were 14 govts under Mandate

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

1922 Lausanne conference convened to end WWI with Ottomans and decide whether British to

Turks got Mosul vilyat

(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)

1958 Iraqi Communist Party and United Democratic Party of Kurdistan issued joint statement

            on cooperation Communists wanted to take over Kurdish party

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)

1963 Pres Arif put down Baathist National Guard revolt in Basra Baghdad Mosul

1963 Tahir Yahya became premier Held office 2 times

1973 KDP and Communists agreed to end hostilities between the two KDP had been attacking

Communists for its alliance with Bakr govt

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)

1982 Tariq Aziz accused US and Soviet Union of allowing weapons to be sent to Iran during Iran-

Iraq War

1997 Russia brokered deal to allow US members of UN inspectors back into Iraq In return

inspections would be completed quickly and UN would begin talks over ending sanctions

(Musings On Iraq Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)

1998 UN inspectors asked for 12 documents were told some documents never existed and would

only turn over edited version of others

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

2001 US Embassy in Niger reported that Niger official said no way it could produce enough uranium

reports claimed Iraq bought from it

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

2001 Wall St Journal OpEd by Eliot Cohen said Iraq helped Al Qaeda and had WMD so should be

attacked

2003 Suicide truck bomb hit PUK office in Kirkuk killing 5

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2003 US army team with dogs arrived at Abu Ghraib prison which were used to abuse prisoners

2005 Report on how US relied upon Iraqi defector CURVEBALL for intel on Iraq’s WMD when

they were warned he was unreliable

(Musings On Iraq How Iraqi Defector CURVEBALL Became Basis For US Claims That Iraq Had WMD)

(Musings On Iraq Look Who The LA Times Dug Up – CURVEBALL)

(Musings On Iraq The Story Of CURVEBALL And Iraq’s Mobile Biological Weapons Labs)

2006 Joint Chiefs told to prepare plan for surge in troops in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

2006 Pentagon claimed US carried out Marshall Plan in Iraq and accomplished minor miracle

rebuilding country

2006 Report Sec Def Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs were resistant to acknowledge insurgency in Iraq

            when it started

2007 Captured ISI financier from Mosul said he had $6 mil budget and 500 men in his unit Got money

from extortion kidnapping and from Syria Said ISI had connections to most businesses in Mosul

2007 Report 46,000 refugees returned to Iraq in Oct 07 Displaced Min said 10,000 went to Baghdad US

commander in Baghdad said displacement in city mostly ended Nov 07 UN said not yet time for Iraqis to return Still 2.3 mil displaced Govt was inflating return numbers

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

(Musings On Iraq review Children of War, Voices Of Iraqi Refugees)

2008 PM Maliki accused Kurds of violating constitution Said had diplomatic offices from other countries

Peshmerga were outside KRG Signed oil contracts Called for constitution to be amended to increase power of central govt to counter Kurds

2008 Sadrists twice disrupted reading of Status of Forces Agreement in parliament Rushed speaker and

threatened ministers Security guards called in to stop them

2008 Report competition between Islamic Party that ran Anbar and Awakening growing Sheikhs claimed

Islamic Party bribing voters and handing out land Islamic Party said same thing about Awakening Also trying to divide Awakening sheikhs Sheikh Abu Risha joined with Islamic Party

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Carter Malkasian on Anbar Awakening)

2008 Report PM Maliki demanding Diyala Sahwa be turned over to govt control by Jan 09 Govt agreed to

integrate 33% of Diyala Sahwa into ISF Build vocational training centers for rest Maliki appointed Diyala police chief accused of running death squads and targeting Sunnis Arrested Diyala Sahwa who were going to run in 09 election

2009 ISCI head Hakim said Baathists should be able to take part in Iraqi politics if didn’t have blood on

their hands Was counter to PM Maliki increasingly talking about Baathist threat before 2010 elections

(Musings On Iraq Maliki Returns to Sectarian Politics)

2009 Fadhil Baghdad Sahwa head Mashhadani sentenced to death for murder during civil war Part of PM

Maliki’s crackdown on Sahwa

(Musings On Iraq Fadhil Sons of Iraq Leader Sentenced To Death)

2009 US review found ISF too dependent upon Coalition and couldn’t hold cleared territory or

Syrian border Said IS disjointed Couldn’t carry out major attacks couldn’t penetrate cities couldn’t garner popular support

(Musings On Iraq US Report Finds Continued Shortcomings In Iraqi Forces While Islamic State Disjointed)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Kataib Hezbollah Likely Behind Latest Rocket Attack Upon Baghdad’s Green Zone

Truck found in Baghdad's's Amin neighborhood used to fire rockets at Green Zone (Al Hurra)

 

On the night of November 17 seven rockets were fired at Baghdad’s Green Zone. Four hit their target while three landed on a residential area resulting in the death of a child and wounding 5 others. They were launched from a truck in the Amin neighborhood. This was the first attack by a pro-Iran group since October 24 when an IED hit a convoying in Basra carrying supplies to the United States. The last time rockets were used was on October 5 when they were fired on Baghdad’s International Airport with some falling short and hitting the Jadriya area. It appears that Kataib Hezbollah was behind the incident.

This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 19

 

1914 British troops took Ottoman fort at Sahil in the city of Basra

1973 KDP and Communists began talks to end hostilities between two KDP had been attacking

Communists for its alliance with Bakr govt

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)

1991 UN report said Iraqi forces used torture and mass killings to put down Shiite uprising after Gulf

War

1997 KDP recaptured lost territory from PUK

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

1997 UN told that dramatic increase in Iraqi oil smuggling through Iran violating UN sanctions

1997 Wash Post OpEd by Wolfowitz and Khalilzad called for US to overthrow Saddam

(Musings On Iraq review The Road to Iraq, The Making of a Neoconservative War)

(Musings On Iraq review The United States And Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents)

1998 Iraqis refused to hand over documents to UN inspectors

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

1999 UN Res 1275 extended Oil for Food program for Iraq

2002 UK Def Min official warned Blair’s office that without proper postwar planning Iraq war could

fail

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

2003 Car bomb at Sheikh Suleiman’s home after he made deal with US for police to take over security in

Ramadi

2004 Assoc of Muslim Scholars announced Sunni boycott of Jan 05 elections claiming results would

be fake and non-representative

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

2004 Gen Smith dep cmdr CENTCOM said insurgents were carrying out effective intimidation

campaign before Jan 05 elections

2005 Marines killed 24 civilians in revenge for Marine being killed by IED in Haditha

2006 Dep Health Min Saffar kidnapped by policeman run by Mahdi Army Killed him under orders of Dep

Health Min Zamili

2006 Suicide car bomb hit day laborers in Hillah killing 22 wounding 40 3 car bombs hit bus station

            east Baghdad killing 10 injuring 45

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

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2006 Syrian Foreign Minister visited Baghdad 1^st high ranking Syrian official to visit since 2003 Said

Assad backed Maliki govt and wanted foreign troops to withdraw

2006 Iraqi Islamic Party said warrant for Dhari head of Muslim Scholars Assoc ended Maliki’s

reconciliation program Iraqi Accordance Front demanded warrant be withdrawn 1,000 protested in Adhamiya against warrant

2006 AP reported more Iraqis died in first three weeks of Nov than all of Oct Nov 1-19 1,319 dead vs

1,216 in Oct

2007 US-Iraqi raids on Sadrists in Diwaniya and Najaf Dozens of Mahdi Army members arrested 70

police in Diwaniya dismissed for connections to militia Was part of Op Lion’s Leap vs Mahdi Army Came after fighting between Mahdi Army and Badr

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

2007 Report Maliki govt denied services to Baghdad’s Ghaziliya Neighborhood split between Sahwa

Ghaziliya guardians and police connected to sectarian killings

2019 Most of the ruling parties met in Baghdad Agreed to give PM Abdul Mahdi 45 days

to carry out reforms

2019 Human Rights Commission called on PM Abdul Mahdi to stop ISF kidnapping

            activists and journalists

(Musings On Iraq Iraqi Forces Kidnapping Protesters In Intimidation Campaign)

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Kazemi Latest Iraqi PM To Order The Close Of All Displaced Camps

(AP)

Prime Minister Mustafa Kazemi has decided that he will end the displacement crisis in Iraq by closing down all the camps and declaring the problem solved. This has been the wish of all the previous premiers since Nouri al-Maliki. None of them seemed to actually care about the displaced and none of them succeeded either, something Kazemi doesn’t appear to have taken to heart.

This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 18

1534 Ottoman Sultain Suleiman I conquered Baghdad from Safavids

1914 British launched second attack on Ottoman forces in Zain, Basra

1929 Naji al-Suwaidi became PM Were 14 govts under Mandate

1963 Pres Arif removed Baathists from govt including PM Bakr Baath National Guard militia rose up in

Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk Head of Baath National Guard Wandawi bombed Presidential Palace Escaped to Syria afterward

(Musings On Iraq review Socialist Iraq, A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968)

1968 Barzani called on UN to intervene in Iraq during Kurdish revolt Claimed Bakr govt

committing genocide

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

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

1973 Communists said they would stop anti-KDP propaganda campaign attacking it as feudal party

and capitalist tool

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)

1979 Naji Suwaidi became premier of Iraq

1980 UN Special Rep to Iran and Iraq Olof Palme began mediation mission to try to stop war

1987 Iraq bombed 2 abandoned nuclear reactors in south Iran 2^nd time

(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 review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1997 Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Iraqis trying to convince them to cooperate with

weapons inspectors

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

1998 UN inspections began again in Iraq with goal of causing a confrontation to justify US bombing

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In The Eye of the Storm)

(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

2002 New UN inspectors arrived in Baghdad

2005 House Republicans attacked Democrats for trying to cut and run in Iraq by backing withdrawal

US policy was withdrawal

2005 Al Qaeda in Iraq bombed Shiite mosque in Khanaqin Diyala 74 dead

(Musings On Iraq review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)

(Musings On Iraq review The ISIS Reader, Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement)

2005 Study 90-96% of insurgency were Iraqis only 4-10% foreign fighters

2006 Pentagon and Joint Chiefs papers on Iraq said US should follow Gen Casey plan to withdraw turn

things over to Iraqis Joint Chiefs paper said Iraq falling into civil war US strategy not working

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

2006 US intel report on Iraq said US had no good options in Iraq

2006 VP Cheney’s office memo on Iraq said US should back Shiites and Kurds and forget about Sunnis

2008 US signed Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq that set 12/31/11 withdrawal date for US forces

2008 Report PM Maliki fired or replaced 17 anti-corruption officials Some were inspector generals at

Water Culture Trade Youth Mins and perhaps Foreign Affairs Min Central Bank of Iraq Sunni and Christian Endowments Some replaced by Dawa officials to strengthen Maliki’s hold over ministries

(Musings On Iraq Lack Of Commitment To Fight Corruption In Iraqi Government)

2008 US forces arrested another Iranian Rev Guard Quds Force member This time at Baghdad airport

12^th Iranian arrested since Oct US accused him of smuggling weapons into Iraq

(Musings On Iraq Iranians And Special Groups Forces Returning To Iraq)

2008 Presidential Council sent letter to PM Maliki that govt money being spent on his Tribal Support

Councils should be spent upon ISF instead Councils were created as patronage networks for Maliki before 2009 elections

(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)

(Musings On Iraq Disputes Over Tribal Support Councils)

2009 VP Hashemi vetoed parliamentary election law saying it would reduce Sunni seats Kurdish

Alliance State of Law ISCI amended law to cut possible seats for Sunnis

(Musings On Iraq VP Hashemi Shoots Himself In The Foot With Veto Of Iraqi Election Law)

2018 Sheikh Gharawi one of the leaders of the Basra protest movement assassinated

2019 PM Abdul Mahdi’s office said it would issue warrants for teachers behind school

strikes

2019 Some major roads in Basra blocked for strike including some to Rumaila oil field

Road to Karbala airport and refinery blocked

2019 Report on 100s of leaked Iranian documents on its Iraq ties Included head of Mil Intel under PM

Maliki who said that he would do whatever he could to help Iran Intel head helped Iran assassinate Iraqi pilots from Iran-Iraq War and ISF officers

 View the Iraq History Timelines