This Day In Iraqi History - Apr 13

 

1915 British won Battle of Shaiba Ottomans had 4200 casualties 700 captured UK 1232 casualties Ottoman

commander Askari killed himself in disgrace British 1200 casualties

1918 British occupied Najaf and put down revolt

1922 Karbala meeting of clergy and sheikhs issued petition calling for tribal force under command

of King Faisal to fight the Wahabi Ikhwan

1941 UK decided to go ahead with troop deployments to Iraq

(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)

1959 Gen Qasim made cover of Time magazine

(Musings On Iraq interview with Western Kentucky’s Prof Romero on the Qasim govt)

1966 Pres Arif died in helicopter crash

1987 Iran and KDP captured strategic mountains near Sulaymaniya city

(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 Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

(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)

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

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

1987 Iraqi 5^th Corps published plans for collectivization in Kurdistan Would force people into govt

run villages

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq in Wartime, Soldiering, Martyrdom, and Remembrance)

1988 PUK decided its Peshmerga and civilian followers would retreat north during Anfal campaign

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

1991 Pres Bush said US would send humanitarian aid to Iraq and condemned Iraqi attacks on civilians

but would not get more involved

1991 Turkish governor of southeast said he wanted all Kurdish refugees returned to Iraq

1992 Sec Def Cheney said US didn’t overthrow Saddam in Gulf War because would be too difficult to

occupy Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review The United States And Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents)

1998 IAEA report to UN Iraq provided full and complete record of its nuclear program and showed no

new activity

(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)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)

1999 CIA paper said 4 reports claimed Iraq offered safe haven to bin Laden Were all false

2003 US forces captured Tikrit

2003 Bush criticized press for reporting on looting in Iraq Blamed Saddam for postwar chaos

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

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld said US would find Iraq’s WMD when people started coming forward and

providing intelligence about where they were hidden

(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 US forces found suspicious missile warheads that might have contained WMD Didn’t 

2003 Turkmen accused Kurds of killing a child Crowd called for revenge and Turkish intervention in

Kirkuk

2003 Turkmen Front demanded that KDP leave its headquarters in Kirkuk giving it eviction notice

(Musings On Iraq interview with Petit of 173^rd Airborne Bgd on operations in Kirkuk)

2003 US Gen Hawkins flew into Baghdad to try to get power grid up and working again since it went

down when city taken by US

2004 CENTCOM cmdr Gen Abizadi said that US needed 7000-10000 more troops in Iraq Bush agreed to

increase

2005 UK intel report on global Islamic terrorism Said Iraq war increased threat of international terrorism

and would continue to do that in the long term Said Al Qaeda in Iraq had benefited from the Iraqi jihad Used it to network with other groups

2006 Gen Swannack fmr cmdr 82^nd Airborne Div became 5^th retired general to call for Sec Def Rumsfeld

to resign over Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review Overreach, Delusions of Regime Change In Iraq)

2007 9 insurgent groups joined together to fight ISI including Islamic Army Ansar al-Sunna 1920

Revolution Brigades Islamic Army called on bin Laden to intervene

(Musings On Iraq The Demise But Not Death of Al Qaeda In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

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

2008 Report PM Maliki signed $833 mil arms deal with Serbia with no competitive bidding didn’t follow

anti-corruption rules Maliki stopped audit Later reduced to $236 mil Most of the equipment was unusable

2008 1300 police and soldiers fired for not fighting Mahdi Army in Kut and Basra

2008 PM Maliki ordered crack down on gas stations and oil distribution centers controlled by Sadrists

2008 Cabinet approved bill that would ban political parties that had militias from taking part in

provincial elections Never enforced

2008 US National Sec Adv Hadley said Iraq had agreed to pressure Iran to stop arming militias

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2009 Sinjar and Makhmour said they would not cooperate with Hadbaa led Ninewa council Both controlled by KDP

(Musings On Iraq Tit For Tat In Ninewa)

(Musings On Iraq Arab-Kurdish Divide Over New Ninewa Provincial Council)

(Musings On Iraq Ninewa Struggles Between Arabs and Kurds Continue)

2009 PM Maliki signed technical military cooperation deal while on visit to Russia Including fixing

equipment and opened door to buying arms

2010 State of Law said it didn’t have any red lines with negotiations with Iraqiya to form new govt but

said some members were tied to Baathists

2010 Basra announced free trade zone with Iran

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Policy Towards Iraq)

2010 KRG parliament passed regional budget Gorran and Islamic Group dissented saying that no reforms

included in it

2011 ISF raided union and women’s organization to arrest protest organizers in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq After America, Strongmen, Sectarians, Resistance)

2011 Baghdad authorities tried to ban protests in Tahrir Square

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Military Adds New Restrictions On Protesters)

2011 Head of Oil Police Gen Ibrahim said his forces were short 12,000 officers Led to signing 8,000

contractors

2011 Report Split within ISCI Wanted to remove Ammar Hakim and Adel Abdul Mahdi and elect new

leadership

2011 Protesters in Sulaymaniya refused to meet with Pres Barzani delegation Protesters called for

Barzani PM Salah and speaker to all step down

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

2011 Report Gulf states asked Arab League to cancel summit in Baghdad due to Iraq criticizing crackdown

in Bahrain

2011 Report PM Maliki 1^st said Iraq needed US military present past 2011 withdrawal Then backtracked

after National Coalition criticized him Sadr threatened to bring back Mahdi Army if US remained ISCI and Fadhila also came out against continued US presence

(Musings On Iraq Iraq May See The Return of Sadr’s Mahdi Army)

2011 Report Mahdi Army graffiti seen in parts of Baghdad ISF tried to remove it but returned Fmr

Mahdi Army cmdr Abu Ali said his men were waiting for orders Said that his men were ready to attack US and Iraqis that worked with it

2012 ISI said it was responsible for March prison break in Kirkuk that freed 19 prisoners

2012 Head of Election Commission and another member were arrested on corruption charges brought up

by PM Maliki to get rid of them

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Prime Minister Takes On Election Commission Once Again)

(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 Report Feb 2012 Exxon withdrew from Common Seawater Supply Facility to help with oil

production

2013 Sadrists in Karbala Basra Babil and Mutahidun in Mosul claimed ISF were being told to vote for State

of Law in provincial elections

2013 Report Pressure growing against KRG Health Min Rashid Expired medicines imported from Turkey

into KRG Blinded 30 patients at Irbil hospital

2014 ISIS held parade in Baiji

2014 ISF said it cleared part of Ramadi from insurgents Start of larger effort to secure city

(Musings On Iraq Iraqi Government Admits To Losing Control Of Parts Of Ramadi)

2015 PM Abadi fired 300 army officers as part of reforming ISF

2015 IS attacked Baiji refinery

2015 VP Maliki said Hashd had become 3^rd military force in country after army and police and said any

negative stories about them were all lies

2015 Hashd arrived at Assad base in Anbar for Albu Faraj op Would later claim they were not in Anbar

due to PM Abadi and US

2015 Report Kataib Hezbollah and Peace Brigades said they would take part in Anbar offensive Asaib Ahl

Al-Haq Hezbollah Nujaba and Badr said wouldn’t take part unless PM Abadi asked them

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

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

(Musings On Iraq Instrument Of Iran’s Power In Iraq And Syria Kataib Hezbollah)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi and Hezbollah al-Nujaba)

2016 Fist fight broke out in parliament over PM Abadi’s technocratic cabinet

(Musings On Iraq interview with Reidar Visser on PM Abadi’s reform program)

2017 KRG said independence referendum would happen in fall 2017

(Musings On Iraq review The Great Betrayal, How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The Middle East)

2017 Report UN tracking battle damage in Mosul by satellite More than 1,140 housing sites

destroyed Damage in west Mosul two and half-times greater than in east

(Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 179, Apr 13, 2017)

2018 Baiji refinery restarted work after 4 years Extensively damaged during war vs IS Then looted by Hashd after liberated

2018 PUK purged followers of Barham Salah after he left party and formed his own Democracy and Justice party

2019 Report ISF raid into Hamrin Mts captured large number of IS documents Covered

new leaders and plans Used Hamrin to operate in Diyala and Salahaddin Group wanted to recognize and return after its defeat

2021 IS started Ramadan offensive Lethality of attacks down due to lack of resources and

inexperienced members

View the Iraq History Timelines