This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 22 Over 200 civilians killed in US airstrike on building used by IS in west Mosul Abadi govt would launch disinformation campaign denying that it happened

 

1921 UK Cabinet approved Colonial Sec Churchill’s choice of Faisal as new ruler in

Mesopotamia

(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 Imagining The Nation, Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq)

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

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

(Musings On Iraq review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923)

 

1921 PM Lloyd George told Colonial Sec Churchill that Sir Percy Cox should return to Iraq and

set stage for Faisal becoming king

1933 UK Amb to Iraq said that parliament full of politicians who never meant what they said Institution

was a sham

1945 Arab League formed Iraq was one of the architects

1961 Qasim govt closed KDP newspaper Last Kurdish paper still publishing

1973 Kuwait demanded Iraq withdraw its troops from its territory after gunfight on Mar 20 Iraq refused

1974 CIA memo said neither US nor Iran wanted a Kurdish govt but didn't want its conflict with Iraq

resolved Just wanted to weaken Iraq

1975 Iran ended military aid to KDP Kurds began fleeing to Iran

(Musings On Iraq review Killing Hope, U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II)

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

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq & the Kurdish Question, 1958-70)

(Musings On Iraq When The Shah and Nixon Manipulated The Kurds)

1975 CIA Dir Colby asked Sec State Kissinger if he’d answered Barzani request for aid Told

secret operations were not missionary work

1977 Baath Regional Command kicked out members who wanted leniency after anti-govt riots during

Karbala pilgrimage

1981 Iraq fired missiles at Dezful and Ahvaz Iran in shift in war as Iraq stopped major land attacks

1983 Helicopter crash revealed Italy providing advanced electronic equipment to Iraq

1984 Soviet Union agreed to build a new nuclear power plant in Iraq to replace Osirak facility destroyed

by Israel in 1981

1985 Iraqi counterattack forced Iranians back into Maysan-Basra marshes 

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

1985 Tehran Tabriz Shiraz and Isfahan bombed by Iraqi air force War of Cities

(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)

1988 Start of 2^nd Anfal Campaign to destroy PUK and KDP bases in Sulaymaniya and Kirkuk

1988 Qara Dagh, Sulaymaniya hit with chemical artillery shells as start of 2^nd Anfal Campaign

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

1990 Canadian Gerald Bull working on supergun for Iraq found dead in Brussels Mossad believed to be

responsible

(Musings On Iraq review Al-Hussein, Iraqi Indigenous Conventional Arms Projects, 1980-2003)

1991 US shot down another Iraqi fighter after warned it no flights during uprisings

1991 Turkey held second meeting with KDP and PUK Talabani said this marked a new page in Kurdish-

Turkish relations

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review Turkey, the US and Iraq)

2002 UK Foreign Office Pol Dir Ricketts memo to Foreign Sec Straw said US scrambling to find Iraq-Al

Qaeda links and argument unconvincing

(Musings On Iraq Overview of America’s Policy Towards Iraq: From The Clinton Years To The

Sectarian War of 2006)

2002 UK Foreign Office Pol Dir Ricketts memo to Foreign Sec Straw said no signs Iraq working on its

WMD or nuke programs

2002 Head of MI5 memo to Home Office Said Iraq not connected to any anti-West terrorism since

it tried to kill ex-Pres Bush in 1993 Found no evidence Iraq connected to 9/11 Were reports Al Qaeda and Iraq met no intel that two had cooperated

(Musings On Iraq 2002 British Memo Said Iraq Not A Threat To The West)

2002 UK Def Min Hoon warned Blair if UK helped overthrow Saddam it would have to stay in Iraq for

years

(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)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 6.4 Planning and Preparation For A Post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, Mid-2001 to January 2003)

2002 Bush said war with Iraq no imminent but Saddam was a bad leader who gassed his own

people and had WMD and could give them to terrorists Bush said he supported regime change

2003 British forces seized Rumaila oil field in Basra

(Musings On Iraq review Special Operations Forces in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Burning Horizon, British Veteran Accounts Of The Iraq War 2003)

2003 US Marines thought no more resistance within Um Qasr in Basra and moved towards port

2003 Iraqi 51^st Mechanized Div attacked Coalition forces but destroyed by casualties and defections in Basra

2003 US intel saw trucks full of Fedayeen moving through Karbala Gap 1^st real reports on this force which US knew little about

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

2003 US forces in Samawa attacked for first time by Fedayeen

2003 Saddam received report large U.S. force attacking west Iraq Led him to believe invasion coming

from Jordan not Kuwait

(Musings On Iraq review Iraqi Perspectives Project, A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam’s Senior Leadership)

2003 Iraqi 1^st Air Defense Region claimed it had averted or shot down 130 cruise missiles planes helicopters Didn’t happen Part of false reports Saddam got that Iraq was winning war

2003 CIA officials told Wash Post they were always skeptical of Iraq-Niger uranium story that was used

in Bush State of Union

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

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

2003 Sec Def Rumsfeld demanded that all Americans to run Iraqi ministries be from Pentagon ORHA

head Garner said no time for replacements

(Musings On Iraq Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Chapter 4 Staging in Kuwait)

(Musings On Iraq on Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Chapter 3 The Department of Defense Takes Charge)

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

2003 International protests in several major cities against Iraq war

2004 Unemployed protest in Basra turned violent Stones and Molotov cocktails thrown at British forces

2004 Natl Sec Adv Rice Wash Post OpEd said would have been irresponsible not to look for link

between Iraq and 9/11

2006 US Iraq cmdr Gen Casey told Def Sec Rumsfeld civil war not imminent nor inevitable Casey

played down civil war throughout spring

(Musings On Iraq US Army History of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 19 The Iraqi Civil War Comes Into The Open, January-June 2006)

2007 Mahdi Army and insurgents fought in 5 Baghdad neighborhoods Came amidst many western

reports that Mahdi Army had withdrawn from streets

(Musings On Iraq Columbia University Charts Sectarian Cleansing Of Baghdad)

2007 Lord Butler told UK parliament UK and US didn't have conclusive intel on Iraq’s WMD UK intel

said in Aug 02 that it knew little about Iraq’s WMD since 1988 yet Blair told govt intel was extensive and authoritative

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

2007 Spec Insp Gen for Iraq Recon issued review of US reconstruction Said Pentagon had no strategy

before and after invasion No unity of effort Little oversight and coordination between US agencies

(Musings On Iraq review Losing Iraq, Inside The Post War Reconstruction Fiasco)

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

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

2007 Sadrists attacked Electricity Dist Dept and burned Fadhila HQ in Basra Came after Sadrist fmr dir

of Electricity Dist Dept arrested by UK Sadrists claimed Fadhila behind arrest Former director accused of corruption and fraud Tribes and Sadrists accused Basra governor from Fadhila of corruption nepotism running oil smuggling rings

2007 SCIRI HQ in Kut Wasit hit by mortars as SCIRI-Sadr rivalry increased in city

2007 GAO Report Hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of tons of munitions were left unguarded by

US after 2003 invasion Much of it looted by insurgents US expected friendly environment after invasion which was why left depots unguarded

2008 PM Maliki told Gen Petraeus pre-emptive action had to be taken immediately in Basra Didn’t want

to wait for plan Said he was going to Basra next day Blamed UK for problems in Basra Asked for US support Petraeus said yes

2009 Report US released 100s of prisoners from Camp Bucca under SOFA ISF afraid releasees would

revive militias and insurgency Intel officer said some regrouping as special groups in Basra and Baghdad while others joining ISI cells in Baghdad and Anbar

2010 9 provinces from central and southern Iraq demanded recount in election

2010 Iran got Shiite parties to agree to keep Talabani as president

2010 Preliminary deal between Baghdad Shell and Mitsubishi to collect and exploit natural gas

from Basra oil fields expired 1^st of many problems with deal Iraq didn’t have money to pay companies or infrastructure to deliver gas to power plants

(Musings On Iraq Shell Natural Gas Deal In Basra Delayed Again)

(Musings On Iraq Shell-Mitsubishi Natural Gas Deal May Be Delayed Indefinitely)

2011 Gorran told Pres Barzani had to make good on his promises of reform after protests in Sulaymaniya

2011 When police tried to break up protest in Halabja violence broke out with one policeman killed

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

2011 Oil Min Luaibi said Iraq would reach 6.5 mill/bar/day oil production by 2014 Didn’t happen

2012 Report PM Maliki attempted to centralize power Set up his own chain of command within security

forces Appointed commanders Tried to control intelligence services

(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq Is Iraq’s Prime Minister Becoming A Dictator? An Interview With Kirk Sowell Of Inside Iraqi Politics)

(Musings On Iraq Is Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki More Like Premier Nuri al-Sa’id Than Saddam? An Interview With Historian Phebe Marr)

2013 ISI took over Buhriz Diyala Set up roadblocks Took over police station Raised its flag then

withdrew

2013 Sadrist cleric gave sermon calling for PM Maliki to step down Said security and economy all

suffered under Maliki

2014 ISIS seized control of Buhriz Diyala Held town for two days Hashd destroyed homes burned 3

mosques after retaken Killed at least 2 civilians

2015 Badr head Amiri called Iraqi army weaklings for asking for Coalition air strikes Rejected any

help from the U.S. in war vs IS Said Iran’s Gen Sulemani provided aid whenever needed

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

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

(Musings On Iraq Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Commander General Suleimani And His Role In Iraq, An Interview With The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins)

(Musings On Iraq What Was Behind Iran’s Social Media Campaign Promoting Gen Suleimani In Iraq?)

(Musings On Iraq Iran’s Propaganda Work In Iraq Interview With Tel Aviv Univ’s Dr Raz Zimmt)

2016 Sadr said he had come up with 90 nominations for Abadi’s new cabinet

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

2017 Def Sec Mattis said US troops would remain in Iraq after IS defeated to help Iraqi forces

2017 Building hit by US air strikes in west Mosul Civil Defense teams and Iraqi

general said 100-108 bodies found in rubble Ended up being over 200 dead

(Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 158, March 23, 2017)

2017 Report 254 civilians dead and wounded in Mosul from IS mortar fire and Coalition and Iraqi

air strikes

(Musings On Iraq Mosul Campaign Day 157, March 22, 2017)

2017 IS seized Rajm al-Hadid neighborhood in west Mosul 1^st time IS seized territory since

start of battle for city

(Musings On Iraq Mosul campaign Day 166-167 March 31-April 1, 2017)

2018 KRG demanded that PKK withdraw from Sinjar to protect civilians from threatened Turkish

military op

(Musings On Iraq Turkey Bluffs Its Way Into Getting PKK To Withdraw From Iraq’s Sinjar)

2018 Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights claimed political parties bought voting cards to

cheat in election

2021 Report constant attacks on activists Hampered organizing political parties for election

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

(Musings On Iraq United Nations Faults Iraq For Failing To Protect Protesters)

2023 Displacement Min Jabro said Sudani govt wanted to end displacement problem in 6 mo

Said govt needed to rebuild fmr war areas provide security services infrastructure to encourage people to return

(Musings On Iraq Iraqi Govt Wants To End Displacement In 6 Months)

View the Iraq History Timelines