This Day In Iraqi History - Apr 18

1919 France and England signed Long-Berenger oil deal France got 20% of Iraqi oil via Turkish

Petroleum Company

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

1919 France agreed to help build oil pipeline from Iraq to Mediterranean

1941 UK landed 20^th Infantry Brigade in Basra in response to PM Gaylani and Golden Square

officers’ coup Basra dock workers went on strike

1941 British battalion from India completed deployment to Shaiba air base in Basra

1941 PM Gaylani asked Italian Amb if Axis would give Iraq military aid against British and Axis air

power 1^st time Iraq asked for military intervention from Axis

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Boich World War II In Iraq and Syria)

1941 PM Gaylani asked UK Amb that no more British troops land in Iraq and they all had to leave

(Musings On Iraq review Rashid Ali al-Gailani, The National Movement in Iraq 1939-1941)

(Musings On Iraq review Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq 1941, The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad)

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

1945 Baghdad railway strike for wage increase spread to Basra

1962 KDP’s Ibrahim Ahmed sent letter to Kurdish Major Karani saying Kurds wanted to live with

Arabs and ready to work with army to overthrow Gen Qasim if got democracy and autonomy for Kurds

1980 Khomeini said Baath at war with Islam and called on Iraqi army and people to overthrow Saddam

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

1984 Iraq escalated its attacks on tankers heading for Iran

1988 Iraq recaptured Faw Peninsula in Basra 5,000 Iranians died 10,000 captured Iraq lost 800 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 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 Report 500-1,000 displaced Kurds were dying a day along Iraq-Turkey border

1991 First round of talks between Baghdad and Kurds started with Talabani heading delegation

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

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

1991 Saddam agreed to UN setting up offices in Iraq to help displaced following Shiite and Kurdish

uprisings

1991 Iraq provided first disarmament declaration to UN Was incomplete and hid lots of activities like

nuke and WMD programs

1996 State Dept official Deutsch went to Kurdistan to try to broker ceasefire in PUK-KDP civil war

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

2002 CIA report said Iraq might have been able to make chemical weapons since 1999

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

2003 Sadrists held demonstration in Sadr City to condemn U.S. and western culture

(Musings On Iraq A Divided Sadr Trend)

2003 Some American officials worried that Iraq had sent its WMD to other countries That’s why wasn’t

found

2003 INC’s Chalabi said he expected an interim govt to be formed soon to run most duties in Iraq

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld said it would take time to find Iraq’s WMD

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

(Musings On Iraq How The Administration Reversed Itself On Finding Iraq’s WMD)

(Musings On Iraq review Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War)

2003 Arabs that were expelled from Daquq Kirkuk by Kurds tried to retake town but driven off by Kurds

2004 Bremer admitted that Iraqi forces would not be able to deal with insurgency on their own when

sovereignty returned in June 05

2004 Spain’s new PM Zapatero announced he would withdraw 1300 troops from Iraq

2004 British report said Coalition troops and Iraqi police would soon restore law and order in Iraq

2006 Report CPA plan to disarm and integrate militias never funded and followed through with

2006 Interior Min forces believed to be from Badr surrounded Adhamiya dist Baghdad When tried to

enter were expelled by force

2007 5 car bombs in Baghdad killed 171 wounded almost 200

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

2007 PM Maliki said ISF would take over security for entire country by end of year Didn’t happen for

            several more years

2008 50 soldiers fled their posts in Sadr City rather than fight Mahdi Army

2008 Sadrists refused to disband Mahdi Army after PM Maliki threatened to ban any party with a militia

from elections

2008 Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri speech said US had been defeated in Iraq

2008 Sheikh Abu Risha of Anbar Awakening complained that authorities were trying to stop his

organizing for 09 provincial elections by shutting down offices

2008 Suicide truck bomb hit funeral for Sahwa members killing 50 in Baghdad Part of ISI campaign

against Sahwa

(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)

2008 US forces raided district in Muqdadiya Diyala to arrest Iraqi police involved in death squads

(Musings On Iraq Diyala Province Backgrounder)

2009 US and British officials went to Jordan to talk with ex-Gen Hamdani about reconciliation with

former regime members

2009 Report parliament looking into Trade Min for buying contaminated milk from China Parties

blocked no confidence vote against him Would be arrested few days later Stole up to $400 mil to fund Maliki’s State of Law party 

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

2010 U.S. and Iraqi forces killed ISI leaders Abu Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi near Tikrit

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

2011 Parliament repealed Article 136(b) that allowed ministers to stop corruption investigations

2011 Anbar anti-terror police arrested 12 officers involved with insurgents Some were working with

Syrian intelligence

2011 Protest in Mosul Baghdad other areas calling for better services Some said PM Maliki should step

down

2011 Kurdish security forces moved to evict protesters from Sulaymaniya Police fired into crowd

wounding 6, 1 died, another 90 hurt by beatings

2011 Kurdish court sentenced spokesman for Sulaymaniya protests to one month in jail for defaming a

KRG MP

2011 Were first protests in Irbil Were beaten by police 22 wounded

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

2012 Oil Min Shahristani said Exxon would not start working in KRG until Baghdad approved contract

Exxon went ahead anyway

2014 ISIS commanders killed fighting Ansar al-Sunna in Rashad, Kirkuk

2014 Al Qaeda’s Abu Qatada said ISIS was misguided liars and ignorant

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

2014 Anbar council asked if ISF were competent enough to retake Fallujah

2014 Former Diyala governor and Mutahidun MP said militias were trying to take over Mukhisa and

force people out of town

2014 PM Maliki gave speech in Babil calling for majority govt after elections

2015 Khorasani Brigade pledged allegiance to Ayatollah Khamenei and said it followed valayat al-faqih

Same time said didn’t take orders from Iran

(Musings On Iraq Khorasani Brigade Another Iraq Militia That Returned Home From Syria To Fight The Insurgency)

2015 Govt claimed it fully controlled Baiji Refinery but IS still held sizeable amount of complex

 

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