This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 19

 

1914 Ottomans agreed to merger of Turkish Petroleum Company that was to get oil concession in Mosul

vilayet with Anglo-Persian Oil Company

1917 British forces captured Fallujah from Ottomans

1917 UK Cmdr Gen Maude sent message to Iraqis saying British had not come as conquerors but

liberators and promised eventually Arab state free of foreign rule Said British would not impose their institutions and called on Arabs to help rule

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

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

(Musings On Iraq review A Short History of Iraq)

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

1918 Najaf trader attacked UK political office and killed political officer Led to revolt in city

1921 UK Cairo Conference decided that independent Mesopotamia govt would pay part of British

expenses especially for troops

1921 UK Cairo Conference decided Sir Cox would offer amnesty for those involved in 1920 Revolt

Faisal would offer his services in Mesopotamia as a way into power

1921 UK Cairo Conference decided an Anglo-Mesopotamia treaty would be necessary to ensure

relations between two countries

(Musings On Iraq How England Chose Feisal As 1^st King Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied)

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

1951 Grenade hit US information office in Baghdad

1963 Iraq sent delegation to Syria to talk about uniting two countries

1981 Iraq attacked Susangard in south after ceasefire offer rejected by Khomeini

1982 Iran broke Dezful siege in Khuzistan Iraqis lost 10000 dead 15000 wounded 15450 captured Iran

lost 4000 dead 8000 wounded 6000 captured Recaptured 940 sq mi of Iranian territory from Iraqis

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980-May 1982)

1982 Saddam sent envoy to Islamic mediation mission with cease-fire proposal and offer to withdraw

from Iranian territory

(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)

1988 End of 1^st Anfal campaign that destroyed PUK’s bases in Sergalou and Bergalou, Sulaymaniya

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Anfal Campaign And The Destruction Of The Kurdish Opposition)

1991 Saddam’s troops recaptured Karbala from Shiite rebels Went district to district taking young men

and executing them

1991 Govt forces arrested Ayatollah Khoei 105 relatives staff students and clerics in Najaf after uprising

put down there

1991 Bush admin officials accused Iran of trying to overthrow Saddam and place friendly Shiites in

power in Baghdad

(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)

(Musings On Iraq When The US Helped Start A Rebellion In Iraq That It Didn’t Want)

1998 Ahmed Chalabi and King Hussein sent letter to Clinton saying Saddam should be overthrown

(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)

2002 CIA Dir Tenet told Senate no Iraq Al Qaeda connection but Iraq couldn’t be ruled out from

involvement in 9/11 Said no doubt Iraq-Al Qaeda links

2002 CIA Dir Tenet said Iraq developing nuclear weapons

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Created An Iraqi Nuclear Threat In 2002)

2002 DIA Dir Adm Wilson briefed Senate Armed Services Comm on threats to US Didn’t include Iraq

Said Iraq contained only residual WMD programs

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

2003 German French and Russian Foreign Ministries condemn impending Iraq invasion saying it had no

UN approval

2003 CIA told Pentagon Saddam Uday Qusay might be at Dora farms in south Baghdad Sec Def

Rumsfeld brought intel to White House

2003 Sec State Powell Sec Def Rumsfeld VP Cheney Natl Sec Adv Rice Dep Natl Sec Adv Hadley all

advocated hitting Dora farm to try to take out Saddam Uday and Qusay

2003 US Stealth bombers hit Dora farm hoping to kill Saddam and family Saddam appeared on state TV

later that day US would speculate for weeks that he was dead

2003 US Polish Australian Special Forces entered Basra seizing oil and port infrastructure

(Musings On Iraq review Special Operations Forces in Iraq)

2003 US Special Forces seized airbase in eastern Anbar to be used for operations in rest of province

Other Special Forces entered west Anbar from Jordan to look for SCUD missiles

2003 U.S. Special Forces seized key road crossings and bridges around Nasiriya and Samawa to allow

invasion force could move north

2003 Bush called Coalition members to tell them war starting

2003 Bush went on TV to announce war

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

Tragedy)

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

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

2003 White House spokesman Fleischer told press disarmament of Iraq had begun

2003 Iraq fired 17 missiles at Coalition bases in Kuwait but all missed or were destroyed

2003 Army Chief Gen Shinseki told Congress he couldn’t say how much rebuilding Iraq would cost

2003 UN inspector said WMD decontamination trucks US pointed out were water or fire trucks

(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)

2003 Turkish parliament approved US overflights for invasion

2004 Justice Dept drafted opinion that Iraqis and foreigners in Iraq could be taken out of the country by

CIA Legal experts said violated Geneva Conventions

2004 UN responded to reports that UN officials involved in fraud with Oil for Food program

2004 Team arrived in Baghdad to try to come up with interagency plan for rebuilding Iraq 1^st time

happened since invasion

2004 BBC poll of Iraqis 56% said better than year ago 23% About the same 18% worse 48% right for

U.S. to invade Iraq 39% wrong

2006 Iyad Allawi said Iraq was in civil war no matter what others said

2006 Gen Easton who commanded US training effort for Iraqi forces until 2004 said Sec Def Rumsfeld

failed to build Coalition in Iraq and ignored advice of military

2007 ISI surrounded two police stations in Dhuluiya Salahaddin Told policemen to repent and give

loyalty to ISI then blew up stations 3 other stations destroyed in town in last 2 weeks

2007 BBC Poll 50% of Iraqis said things worse in Iraq then before 2003 US invasion 53% said Maliki

govt was doing bad job 53% said security bad

2008 Report US gave $20 mil contract to repair bridge Only cost $1 mil rest disappeared

(Musings On Iraq interview with Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen on Iraq’s fight with corruption) 

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

2008 Sadrists withdrew from reconciliation conference hosted by Maliki govt saying it was all

            for show

2009 PM Maliki met with US Cmdr in Iraq Gen Austin Maliki worried US withdrawing too fast

and ISI would make a comeback US wanted police to take control of cities Maliki said he didn’t trust police, wanted army in the cities and was trying to control is by putting loyalists into command positions

2009 Last UK cmdr in Basra city said Iran and Hezbollah involved in mortar attacks upon British

in city Said IEDs constant threat

2009 Pres Talabani said he expected PKK to end fighting Turkey after intl meeting in Irbil of

Kurdish leaders

2011 PM Maliki said no secret prisons in Iraq after Camp Honor secret prison found in Baghdad

2012 Sadrists held Day of the Oppressed protests in Basra for better services

2013 Cabinet announced postponing provincial elections in Anbar and Ninewa for 6 months because of

security

2013 After criticizing PM Maliki Sadr withdrew his ministers from cabinet

2016 Ruling parties said they would not support Abadi’s new cabinet unless quotas maintained

2016 PM Abadi Pres Masum Speaker Jabouri and political leaders agreed to form 3 committees to deal

with reforms and new cabinet

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