This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 11

 

1917 British army captured Baghdad from Ottomans

(Musings On Iraq book review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

1922 Wahabi Ikhwan from Saudi Arabia attacked south of Nasiriya slaughtering civilians

1959 Nasser gave speech in Damascus attacking Communists as being against freedom not

supporting Arab nationalism and taking orders from a foreign country meaning USSR Aimed at Iraqi Communists who supported Qasim 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)

1963 Pres Arif formed govt that didn’t include Nasserites Purged them from military

1963 Deputy PM Sadi said Kurds would remain under govt authority for foreign economic

and military affairs during negotiations with Mullah Mustafa Barzani He said he would accept decentralization

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)

1970 Bakr govt agreed to Kurdish autonomy deal Included self-rule with an assembly Recognized

Kurdish language Promoted Kurdish culture Kurdish vice president Share of Kurdish oil revenue Mullah Mustafa Barzani agreed to give up heavy weapons and have Peshmerga integrated into army

1970 Since fighting started in 1968 some 60,000 killed in Kurdish rebellion 300,000 displaced

1974 After talks with KDP broke down Bakr govt announced Autonomy Law for Kurdistan which KDP

rejected

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

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

1984 Report Iraq had 3 poison gas plants producing chemical weapons for Iran-Iraq War

(Musings On Iraq Origins Of Iraq’s WMD Programs)

1985 Iran bombed Baghdad and 10 other Iraqi cities Started 2^nd War of Cities

1985 Iran started Op Badr trying again to cut Basra-Baghdad highway take back initiative in war Started

with diversionary attack then infiltration into Hoveyzah marshes Overran Iraqi 35^th Division

1986 Iraqi Special Forces unit destroyed attempting to storm beaches on Faw Peninsula in Basra

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

1987 Limited Iranian attack in Basra stopped by Iraqis

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War Volume 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

1988 Iran and Iraq signed truce in war of cities in Ankara Didn’t last War of Cities went on for another

month

(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)

1991 Shiite uprising in Hillah put down

1991 Rebels from Najaf met French forces who said they would meet Gen Schwarzkopf Never happened

1991 Kurdish uprising started in Irbil

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

1991 Massoud Barzani offered amnesty for soldiers who surrendered to Peshmerga

1991 Peshmerga began attacking Kirkuk, Iraqi army responded by taking hostages inside city

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

(Musings On Iraq Remembering The 1991 Uprising In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Saddam’s View of Iraq’s 1991 Uprising)

1992 Saddam said Kurds could not hold elections for parliament until they gave up protection of

Coalition forces

1992 Iraq objected to UN inspections claiming they were trying to deindustrialize country by

blocking use of dual use equipment

(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)

1995 PUK suicide bomber hit KDP headquarters in Zakho

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

2002 PM Blair told VP Cheney UK would support US action to remove Saddam

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

2003 Bush and NSC met Agreed to keep Iraqi police

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld said US could attack Iraq by itself without other nations Said British might not

participate

2003 UK Embassy in US furious that Sec Def Rumsfeld said British might not take part in war and

complained to White House

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld forced to issue clarification saying British would take part in Iraq war

2003 PM Blair said Britain would help in any US attack upon Iraq

2003 UK acknowledged couldn't get 2^nd UN resolution authorizing force against Iraq before US timetable

for war

2003 UK Chief of Def Staff Adm Boyce said military needed legal directive for war with Iraq

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

2003 CIA assessment said it didn’t dispute IAEA finding that Iraq-Niger uranium docs were fakes

2003 CIA WMD division said it didn’t dispute IAEA finding that Iraq-Niger uranium docs were fakes

and always considered intel on story fragmentary

(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)

2003 ORHA head Garner told press US would keep Iraqi army and would quickly turn over control of

country to Iraqis When asked Garner dismissed talk about US turning over power to Chalabi and INC

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

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

George W. Bush to Barack Obama)

(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)

2003 DepDefSec Wolfowitz and UnderSecDef Feith chastised ORHA head Garner for comments about

INC Garner later told by Pentagon he could no longer talk to the press

(Musings On Iraq review Losing Iraq, Inside The Post War Reconstruction Fiasco)

(Musings On Iraq review The Man Who Pushed America To War, The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmad Chalabi)

(Musings On Iraq review Arrows of the Night: Ahmad Chalabi and the Selling of the Iraq War)

2003 Natl Sec Adv Rice issued memo on postwar Iraq plans Said interim Iraqi authority would be created

Meeting in Baghdad to be held to bring in more Iraqis to authority

(Musings On Iraq Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s “Hard Lessons” – Part I: Planning for Postwar Iraq September 2001 to May 2003)

(Musings On Iraq review State of Denial, Bush At War, Part III)

2004 UK envoy to Iraq John Drawers said US had no leadership strategy or coordination

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

2004 Iran intel opened Office to Help Poor Shiites as front office in Najaf Recruited Iraqis

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2007 US Emb report 11 ministries and Central Bank of Iraq using Article 136(b) of Criminal Code to

block up to 48 investigations and corruption cases Sep 06-Feb 07 Said PM Maliki blocked corruption cases to help political allies

(Musings On Iraq interview with Vincent Foulk former US anti-graf official)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Stuart Bowen Special Inspetor General for Iraq Reconstruction)

2008 Report Awakening had broken up into 3 main factions under Sheikh Abu Risha Sheik Suleiman

and Sheikh Hayes They were fighting for political power in both Anbar and in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq Anbar’s Forgotten Sheikh)

(Musings On Iraq review Illusions of Victory, The Anbar Awakening And The Rise Of The Islamic State)

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

2008 Mahdi Army fought ISCI controlled police in Kut after they raided Sadrist areas Clashes in several

other southern cities ISCI leader in Babil assassinated Sadr said that Mahdi Army could use arms in self defense leading to new round of confrontations with its main rival for control of south Iraq

2009 PM Maliki blamed all corruption in Iraq on Saddam Said his govt would work on being

transparent to counter graft

(Musings On Iraq interview with Vincent Foulk former US anti-graf official)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Stuart Bowen Special Inspetor General for Iraq Reconstruction)

2010 US captured ISI governor for Baghdad Rawi who provided intel that led to killing of ISI leaders

Masri and Baghdadi

2011 KDP held rally against on going protests

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

2013 Anbar council voted to delay provincial elections there due to security concerns

2016 Sadrists protested again in Baghdad demanding reforms

(Musings On Iraq interview with Cambridge’s Michael Clark on Sadr, protests and PM Abadi’s reforms)

2018 Security operation in part of Hawija district began in response to increased insurgent attacks in

area

2018 2 Pro-Abadi MPs said that parliament added too much govt spending to 2018 budget which World

Bank objected to and admitted IMF had problems with budget as well

2020 Kataib Hezbollah fired rockets at Camp Taji in Baghdad killing 2 American and 1

British soldier

(Musings On Iraq As Talk Of Expelling US Forces From Iraq Dies Down Attacks Upon Americans Pick Up)

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