This Day In Iraqi History – Mar 31 Iraqi Communist Party founded

(Alamy)

 

1934 Iraqi Communist Party founded

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq A History Of The Iraqi Communist Party Interview With Univ of East Anglia’s Johan Franzen)

1940 Rashid Ali al-Gaylani became PM 2^nd of 3 times in deal with Nuri al-Said and Golden Square officers

Attempt by Regent to reconcile two groups

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)

1941 Pan-Arab Golden Square officers decided to remove PM Hashemi in coup

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Role of the Military In Politics, A case study of Iraq to 1941)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)

1946 Mullah Mustafa Barzani named general in Mahabad Republic in Iran

(Musings On Iraq Explaining Kurdish Nationalism Interview With Teen Tech Univ Prof Michael Gunter)

1981 Egypt began selling military equipment to Iraq in Iran-Iraq War

1985 Since Jan 1 in Tanker War Iraq hit 30 ships and Iran 7 in Persian Gulf

1985 UN Sec Gen arrived in Iran Told Iraqi air raids killed 1450 civilians and wounded 4000

1988 Iran claimed 44,000 of its troops suffered from Iraqi chemical attacks

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

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Use Of Chemical Weapons In Iran-Iraq War And Their Western Origin)

(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)

(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)

1989 Iraq exported oil for 1^st time from Basra after Iran-Iraq War closed down ports

1989 Israel said Iraq embarked on crash course to build a nuclear bomb and a missile to deliver it

1990 Iraqi embassy in London organized protest outside mosque holding service for Observer reporter

Bazoft who was executed by Iraq for reporting on its missile program

1991 Govt op to retake Sulaymaniya from Peshemerga began

(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)

2000 UN Res 1293 doubled amount of spare parts Iraq could import to maintain its oil industry under Oil

for Food program

2002 PM Blair offered a division and UK bases to US for invasion

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

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 6.1 Development of the Military Options for an Invasion of Iraq)

2003 CENTCOM cmdr Gen Franks flew to ground forces cmdr Gen McKiernan’s HQ Grilled him saying only special forces and UK fought so far Franks dismissed Fedayeen as an enemy force Franks said Fedayeen could be easily swept up Said US had to push north and engage Republican Guard Franks also wanted to destroy 2 Iraqi divisions NE of Basra which McKiernan thought no threat

2003 Saddam didn’t give televised speech as expected Instead Information Minister Sahaf did Called on

Iraqis to carry out suicide missions against the invaders

2003 1^st car bomb in Iraq hit US checkpoint north of Najaf

2003 Ansar al-Islam issued statement Said it regrouped in north and would carry out

suicide bombings against the Coalition occupation

2003 US forces engaged Fedayeen and Republican Guard south of Baghdad 101^st Airborne and 3^rd Inf Divs attacked Najaf city 82^nd Airborne attacked Samawa to clear them of Fedayeen

(Musings On Iraq US Army History of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter The Invasion of Iraq)

2003 US forces launched raid on Shatra Dhi Qar after receiving information Chemical Ali Hassan al-

Majid was there

2003 British military believed it could start popular uprising in Basra to take city rather than having to

attack it

2003 Sir David Manning told British would have huge shortage of troops for postwar operations in Iraq

2003 UK Foreign Office official wrote For Sec Straw saying Iraqis mistrusted US and US occupation

would be humiliation and untenable

2003 Israeli Infrastructure Min Paritzky said he wanted to reopen Kirkuk-Haifa pipeline by end of 03

Based upon promises made by Chalabi before war he would get Iraq to export oil to Israel

(Musings On Iraq Review Iraq and the Politics of Oil, An Insider’s Perspective)

2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld memo said important to create Iraqi interim authority as quickly as possible so

Iraqis were in power Had to pick pro-US Iraqis Said exiles could be core for new authority because they supported US goals in Iraq

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

Tragedy)

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

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review Night Draws Near, Iraq’s People In The Shadow Of America’s War)

2004 Insurgents ambushed Blackwater convoy and killed 4 contractors in Fallujah 2 were strung up on

bridge

(Musings On Iraq review No True Glory, A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah)

(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 12 Things Fall Apart Apr 2004)

2004 Bush gave CPA 48 hours to resolve Blackwater attack in Fallujah

(Musings On Iraq review The Battle for Fallujah, Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq)

2004 Bush gave speech US would not give into violence in Iraq and fighting terrorism

2004 Sadrists marched to Green Zone in Baghdad to protest US occupation

(Musings On Iraq review The Triumph of the Martyrs, A Reporter’s Journey into Occupied Iraq)

2005 Robb-Silbermann report called US pre-war intel on Iraq one of largest intel failures in US history US data on Iraq was worthless and analysis wrong US lacked significant new intel on Iraq WMD so relied on Gulf War and 90s UN inspections and extrapolated from them Relied upon Iraqi defectors that were lying and ignored problems with their stories Relied upon satellite photos that showed nothing substantive US intel claimed Iraq made WMD advances that were technically impossible US intel ignored reports that Iraq no longer had any WMD UN inspectors disproved most of US case against Iraq’s WMD but were ignored CIA had little on Iraq’s nuke program outside of aluminum tubes but became basis for Oct 02 National Intel Est on Iraq’s WMD Aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy were for rockets not centrifuges Example of misinterpretation by US Said aluminum tubes was a technical assessment which CIA failed at Went with assumptions rather than facts CIA never looked at Iraqi rockets to see whether they fit aluminum tubes CIA and DIA created theory on tubes that rejected all criticism Report found British and Australian intelligence didn’t believe aluminum tubes were for centrifuges

(Musings On Iraq How A Contested Aluminum Tubes Story Became The Basis For War With Iraq)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The WMD Mirage, Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War)

2005 RAND study showed post-war planning for Iraq was inadequate and never considered security of

Iraqi public

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

2006 100 insurgents attacked Muqdadiya police headquarters Killed 19 police and freed 33 prisoners

2007 PM Maliki made 1^st trip to Anbar and met with tribal leaders and provincial council who complained

about Baghdad’s neglect

2007 PM Maliki endorsed plan to relocate 1000s of Arabs settled in Kirkuk province during Arabization

program Said would get money and land for leaving Iraqiya opposed plan Never implemented

2007 1920 Revolution Brigades commander said ISI killed one of its leaders leaving it to either fight ISI

or work with US

(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 103 people killed by ISI found around Zahamm in Diyala River Valley When ISI first

entered village said they were opposing occupation Set up training camp and weapons caches Then began kidnapping and executing people who worked with ISF or didn’t follow rules like banning music smoking wearing the veil breaking curfew Extorted money from residents

2008 PM Maliki said would continue to go after Mahdi Army in Basra that didn’t follow

            cease-fire

2008 Interior Min announced 1000s of police would be fired for refusing to fight Mahdi Army in Basra

Baghdad and cities in the south 2 army regiments refused to fight Mahdi Army in Baghdad

2008 Report US special forces in Basra to help with air strikes vs Mahdi Army

2009 British ended military mission in Iraq

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

2009 Deadline for power sharing and provincial elections in Kirkuk passed with no progress

(Musings On Iraq Kirkuk Remains In Political Limbo)

2010 VP Hashemi said an Arab should be president no longer a Kurd

2011 Pres Barzani said he would prosecute security members who fired on protesters in Sulaymaniya and

those that led the demonstrations

(Musings On Iraq How Iraq’s Kurdistan Broke Up Two Months Of Protests)

2011 Protests in Kalar, Sulaymaniya became violent with rocks thrown at security forces

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

2011 Report Ugandan company got 146 women to work in Iraq in 2009 Were told they would work at US

army bases Ended up maids for Iraqis Reported abuses including rape One woman got 14 others to escape their employers and into a US base and then home Company was connected to ruling party in Uganda so not held accountable

(Musings On Iraq BBC Reveals Uganda-Iraq Human Trafficking Ring)

2012 Oil Ministry paid oil companies in Kurdistan $650 mil for exports Concession to KRG after it

threatened to stop all exports for Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq Kurds May Be Fighting Losing Battle With Iraq’s Central Government Over Oil Exports)

2012 Audit of State Dept advisory program for Interior Min found 94% of funds went to supporting

personnel and only 6% for the advisers

2014 ISIS released 2^nd annual al-Naba report on its operations

2014 Fmr Communications Min Allawi Fmr Finance Min Issawi and 8 general mangers charged with

corruption

2014 Mutahidun claimed 44 civilians killed by Hashd in Buhriz, Diyala with complicity of ISF

2015 PM Abadi announced Tikrit freed from IS Stories emerged of Hashd looting afterward

(Musings On Iraq Divisions Over Iraq War Exposed In Victory In Tikrit)

2015 Diyala council voted to remove confidence from Gov Yacoub for stealing aid for displaced

2016 PM Abadi presented his list of technocratic ministers Sadr called off his protests afterward

(Musings On Iraq Complaints About Iraq PM Abadi Undermine His Cabinet Reshuffle)

(Musings On Iraq Abadi’s Reform Plan Leads To Chaos In Iraq’s Parliament)

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

(Musings On Iraq A Review Of Iraq Premier Abadi’s Reform Program Interview With Reidar Visser)

2016 Dana Gas won lawsuit vs KRG for nonpayment Court ordered KRG to pay $121 mil for oil

production 2015 Dana Gas won 2 cases against KRG for $1.96 bil in unpaid invoices KRG unable to pay due to budget and oil disputes with Baghdad and bad contracts

2016 PUK official said that Kurdish independence was up to the Kurdish people not one party

meaning KDP

(Musings On Iraq Is Kurdistan Serious About Independence From Iraq?)

2017 Report Iraqi govt dropped flyers over Mosul telling people to stay in their homes and shelter

during fighting Now civilians were being killed in air strikes as a result

2017 Turkey said against holding referendum on Kurdish independence

(Musings On Iraq What’s Next For Kurdistan After The Referendum?)

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

2020 New Iranian Rev Guards Quds Force cmdr Gen Qaani visited Iraq Met with Amiri

Hakim Maliki and Sadr Said Iran wouldn’t interfere in Iraqi politics then said Iran opposed Zurfi becoming PM Zurfi supported protests and criticized pro-Iran Hashd

2020 Report Pro-Iran Hashd controlled Qaim border crossing Used to send foreign fighters

to Syria Kataib Hezbollah main force in Qaim Took 1,600 farms Hashd controlled black market including smuggling fuel to Syria 

(Musings On Iraq Expansion of the Hashd al-Shaabi’s influence In Iraq, Interview With Clingendael’s Erwin van Veen)

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