This Day In Iraqi History - May 13

1915 British forces moved north to try to encircle Ottoman forces in Qurna

1935 Muntafiq tribe joined revolt against monarchy

1941 Iraq told German ambassador to Turkey that it agreed to Turkish offer to mediate with England

1941 Golden Square officers rejected Turkey’s offer to mediate and threatened to shoot PM Gaylani He

offered to resign Mufti of Jerusalem had to intervene

1941 1st trainload of Nazi German war supplies from Vichy France controlled Syria arrived in Mosul to

support PM Gaylani’s govt Never used

1941 British forces bombed Syrian-Mosul railway to try to block Axis aid to Iraq

1941 Jordanians from Palestine arrived at Fort Rutba in Anbar

1941 German planes attacked British forces at Habaniya air base 1 British plane shot down by German

plane over Mosul

1941 Egyptian Chief of Staff Gen Masri arrested while attempting to fly to Iraq to join fight vs British

(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)

1982 Iranian Security Council asked Khomeini’s permission to enter Iraq but denied

1983 Tariq Aziz went to Paris to ask for new arms deal with France

1984 Iran attacked Kuwait tanker carrying Iraqi oil in Persian Gulf Was retaliation for Iraq attacks on Iranian

oil industry  

1987 UN investigation said Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian civilians

(Musings On Iraq article on the origins of Iraq’s WMD programs)

(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 Kurds attacked police station in Zakho

1997 Iraqi army clashed with Bani Said tribe in southern Iraq

2002 Sec Def Rumsfeld said US didn’t need to connect Iraq and 9/11 to go to war Said main reason was

WMD

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq’s Future The aftermath of regime change)

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

2003 CPA official briefed British of plan to disband Iraqi army and build a new one Brits didn’t object

2003 White House official said Iraq may not have had stocks of WMD but just capability to make them

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

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld told Bremer he would be responsible for temporary governing of Iraq

2003 Mass grave of 15,000 victims of 1991 uprising found in Mahawil, Babil

2004 Joint Chiefs head Gen Pace told Senate US interrogation methods used in Iraq violated Geneva

Conventions

2007 Abu Musah arms supplier to Iranian backed Special Groups arrested

(Musings On Iraq interview with Galen Wright of Arkenstone blog on Iranian arms shipments to Iraqi militias) 

(Musings On Iraq article on Iran’s Iraq policy)

2007 Jihad and Reform Front got into gun battle with ISI in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq article on splits within insurgency)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

2007 Fmr CPA head Bremer wrote OpEd in Wash Post defending decisions to ban Baath Party and disband

military Said Iraqi army ahd disbanded itself and Shiite and Kurdish leaders wanted it gone Said right to ban Baath Party US was only doing what it did in Germany with Nazis after WW2 Said it was Iraqis that abused deBaathification but CPA stopped them

2008 ISF raided Sadr offices in Shula Baghdad arresting 30

2008 Report most insurgents fled Mosul before govt started offensive there

2008 Fmr State Dept official said agency never interested in fighting corruption in Iraq

(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 Denmark latest European country to start deporting Iraqi refugees

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

2009 Hadbaa party was in talks with Baghdad to try to force Kurds to participate in Ninewa council that

they were boycotting

2010 Iraqi general said Sahwa were like a militia that needed to be disarmed and that members of Maliki govt

distrusted them

2010 Christian party said insurgents were threatening Christians and Assyrians in Mosul trying to drive

them out of city

2011 Protest in Baghdad called for better services

2011 Iraqiya blamed PM Maliki for assassination attempts on 3 of its members

2011 World Health Org report said Iraq one of only 2 countries where life expectancy went down in MENA

Dropped from 68 to 66 yrs from 2000-09

2012 Report that Pres Talabani supported PM Maliki while Sadr Speaker Nujafi Pres Barzani and Allawi

wanted no confidence vote

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

2012 State Dept cut Iraq police training program

2012 Report that Syrian govt was arresting and deporting Iraqis

2013 Arguments between Ramadi and Fallujah sites over which represented Anbar demonstrators

2013 Sheikh Saadi said talks beginning between Ramadi protest site and govt

2014 ISF claimed progress in Fallujah op MPs and experts warned that ISF failing due to bad logistics

2014 ISIS began car bomb wave

2015 Rumors of suicide bombers led to riot amongst Shiite pilgrims in Adhamiya, Baghdad burning homes

and cars

2016 IS attacked ISF bases around Ramadi with 20 suicide car bombs

2016 Protests in Wasit Muthanna Babil Basra Dhi Qar Baghdad calling for govt reform

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