This Day In Iraqi History - May 4

 

1920 Nationalist group Haras al-Istiqlal leader Timam went to Karbala and met with Grand

Ayatollah Shirazi clergy and sheikhs Shirazi said worried couldn’t military beat British Wanted peaceful protests

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

1941 UK bombed Iraqi air bases in Baghdad and Baquba Destroyed or damaged 29 planes in

Baghdad 14 in Baquba

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

1941 British bombers arrived at Habaniya airbase in Anbar from Egypt while Iraqis continued to shell

base 150 UK troops also flown into base

1941 British troops in Habaniya base Anbar launched attacked and failed to take Sin al-Dhibban used to

cross Euphrates and supply Iraqi troops outside base

1941 British dropped leaflets on Baghdad saying war was with Gaylani govt not Iraqi people

1941 Regent broadcast radio message asking people not to follow Gaylani govt Baghdad radio called on

govt to arm the people

1941 PM Gaylani sent diplomat to Tehran and told embassy in Turkey to pressure Germans to send aid

1941 UK Chiefs of Staff told Mid-East commander Gen Wavell he had to take action against the Gaylani

govt

1941 UK War Sec Eden told Iraqi charge d’affaires if war continued and Germany joined all of Iraq

would become a battlefield

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against A Fascist State In Iraq and the Levant, 1941)

1966 PM Bazzaz push for negotiations with Kurds overruled by military Govt launched new

offensive against Kurds aimed at sealing border with Iran

(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)

1981 Iraq began shelling Iran’s oil refinery at Abadan

(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 Iraqi forces attacked PUK in Askar Kurdistan during 4^th Anfal campaign

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

1989 Saddam’s cousin and Defense Minister Adnan Kairallah died in helicopter crash

Hussein Kamal later admitted to killing him on orders from Saddam

1991 2^nd round of peace talks between Kurds and Baghdad postponed due to differences between KDP

and PUK over need for international help and oil

1995 Turkey withdrew 15,000 troops after KDP said it would crackdown on PKK in Kurdistan

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

2003 Sec State Powell said sure US would find Iraq’s WMD Sec Def Rumsfeld said US never claimed

finding WMD would be easy Powell denied stories that Iraq sent its WMD to Syria

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

2003 US official said unlikely to find any large MWD or nuke stocks in Iraq Said sanctions had led Iraq

to get rid of most of its WMD

2003 Iraqi scientists told US investigators Iraq had no WMD for years

2003 ORHA memo said security was still top priority in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq and Back, Inside The War To Win The Peace)

2004 Shiite leaders called on Sadr to withdraw his Mahdi Army from Najaf and Karbala

2004 US announced it would not be withdrawing forces from Iraq as planned

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

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

2004 CIA started investigation into whether it kept undocumented prisoners in Iraq It did

2005 Sadrist cleric in Basra talked about imposing Islamic Law on city including bombing liquor stores

imposing Islamic dress attacking mixed picknickers Said movement didn’t want to be like Iran because most Iranians were corrupt

2005 Doctors in Basra said Mahdi Army tried to stop male doctors from serving female patients Posted

pictures of Sadr in hospitals

2006 Zarqawi gave presentation saying Al Qaeda in Iraq needed to expand its base from Anbar into

Salahaddin and Diyala Said Ramadi was to be named capital of emirate

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

2006 Fmr CIA National Intelligence Officer Pillar said that Bush admin manipulated evidence to tie Iraq

to Al Qaeda before invasion Part of CIA vs White House blame game for prewar intel

2007 US broke up arms smuggling ring in Sadr City bringing in EFPs and other arms from Iran into Iraq

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

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2007 Iraqi Accordance Front said joining politics was a disaster Said it agreed to join politics based upon

promises of constitutional reform and reconciliation but didn’t happen

2008 ISF destroyed Thar Allah HQ in Basra after weapons found there

2008 Govt spokesman said Iraq had hard evidence of Iranian support for militias and violence Later in

day changed to saying didn’t have hard evidence It did

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

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

2008 Iraq general in Karbala said Iran giving weapons to militias in city and undermining security

2008 PM Maliki adv Haidar Abadi said Iran denied they were sending weapons to Iraq Iran told Iraq it

would be foolish to send arms with Iranian markings on them That’s actually what Iran did

2008 Report Captured Mahdi Army militiamen admitted to being trained by Hezbollah in camps in Iran

run by Iran Rev Guards Quds Force

(Musings On Iraq on Iran training Iraqi militias)

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

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

(Musings On Iraq Hezbollah’s Role In Iraq)

2009 Sadr said he had given up on armed struggle against US and wanted to focus upon politics

(Musings On Iraq A Divided Sadr Trend)

2009 ISCI MP from Diyala said that no one trusted ISF or new Op Promise of Good II in province Said false

info being used to conduct arrests Another MP demanded that Gen Ghidan in charge of operation resign

(Musings On Iraq Local Criticism of New Security Operation In Diyala)

2010 Baathist leader apologized for mistakes of party Said wanted to join politics Public needed to

remember achievements of party

2010 State of Law and National Alliance announced joining to form National Coalition after elections

            after meetings organized by Iran

2011 Speaker of US House Boehner said US forces should stay in Iraq past end of 2011 deadline

2011 PM Maliki submitted new list of nominees for security ministries empty since 2010 elections

2012 PM Maliki’s media advisor Ghabban said he thought dispute between Baghdad and KRG over oil

and budget would be over by end of 2012

2012 Pres Barzani gave speech saying Kurds would never live under a dictatorship meaning PM Maliki

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

(Musings On Iraq interview with Inside Iraqi Politics’ Sowell on whether Maliki became a dictator)

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

2012 KRG called for Baghdad to pay oil companies operating in Kurdistan

2012 KRG said in talks with Turkey to build an oil and gas pipeline between two

2013 Election Commission announced final results for provincial elections State of Law lost 30% of its

seats from 09 vote

2013 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq rally in Baghdad announced it was fighting in Syria as part of Abu al-Fadhl

al-Abbas Brigade

(Musings On Iraq Asaib Ahl Al-Haq From A Breakaway Sadr Militia To Defenders Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Abu Fadhl Al-Abbas Brigade From Fighting In Syria To Iraq)

2014 Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri said that ISIS fighting in Syria was a disaster

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

2014 Fighting between Ansar al-Sunna and ISIS in Kirkuk

2014 Sadrists said talks with ISCI Kurds and Allawi to block Maliki from 3^rd term as PM

2017 Iraqi forces attacked Mosul from northwest opening new front in city

(Musings On Iraq Review They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate)

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