Violence in Iraq during the fourth week of April 2024 was dominated by pro-Iran groups. The Islamic State was inactive once again.
1916 Ottomans defeated the British at Battle of Kut after 4 months Captured 13,309 prisoners 7,000
of which died in captivity British lost 33,000 casualties One of largest defeats for UK in WWI
1916 UK offered Ottomans all the artillery and 1 mil pounds in return for letting British forces
leave Kut UK forces had been under siege in Kut since Dec Ottomans refused offer
Saleh, Zainab, Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia, Stanford University Press: 2021
Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia by Zainab Saleh is the story of Iraqi expatriates living in London. Saleh interviewed five Iraqi exiles from different backgrounds and experiences about their families, life in Iraq and how they ended up in England. She included her own story about exile as well. Their stories are by far the best part as Iraqi voices are rarely heard in Western books about Iraq. On the other hand this was based upon a thesis. That meant Saleh’s college advisor told her to link her interviews to a larger theory. She chose one about British and American imperialism that didn’t stand up.
1920 San Remo Agreement created British Mandate in Iraq France agreed to give up Mosul vilayet
in return for oil concessions in Iraq
(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Princeton’s Sara Pursley on Sykes-Picot and creation of Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Britain In Iraq, Contriving King and Country)
(Musings On Iraq review The Creation of Iraq 1914-1921)
(Musings On Iraq review Dictatorship, Imperialism & Chaos, Iraq since 1989)
(Musings On Iraq review An Analysis of Hanna Batatu’s The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied)
(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Since 1958, From Revolution To Dictatorship)
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Democratic Moment)
1915 UK Gen Townshend ordered by Mesopotamia cmdr Gen Nixon to take Qurna and Amara
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1915 Lord Curzon asked why British should promise Basra and Baghdad vilayets to Arabs if they
were fighting on Ottoman side
1917 British military governor in Baghdad banned weapons and ammunition for public and
imposed curfew on city
McNab, Chris, Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces, Iraq 2003-06, Osprey, 2024
Coalition Armor vs Iraqi Forces, Iraq 2003-06 is part of Osprey’s versus series of books where they discuss a major confrontation between two weapons systems. Here the focus was much broader covering American and British forces fighting the Iraqi army during the 2003 invasion and then militias and the insurgency afterwards. It’s a mix of technical reviews along with combat stories.
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)
1916 Battle of Bait Isa Turkish counterattack stopped British advance British suffered
1,600 casualties Ottomans 4-5,000 3rd defeat in British effort to relieve siege at Kut
1914 US consul in Baghdad reported rumors spread that all Christians and Jews in city
would be massacred due to start of 2nd Balkans War Rumors started after newspaper asked Mufti and Shiite clergy what was duty of Muslims in war They said to protect Islam and raise money Said Christians were defiling Muslim women in Balkans
1915 UK War Ministry committee heard from Adm Slade leading UK oil expert Said if Ottoman
Empire divided UK had to get Mosul vilayet because had oil
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
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
1915 Battle of Shaiba began in Basra Ottomans and tribesmen launched frontal assault upon fortress
despite German advisers warning against it British artillery decimated Ottoman forces
Benjamen, Alda, Assyrians in Modern Iraq, Negotiating Political and Cultural Space, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, New Delhi, Singapore: Cambridge University Press, 2022
Iraq is one of the most diverse countries in the Middle East and yet there are very few books about the different groups outside of the Kurds that make up the population. That means that Alda Benjamen’s Assyrians in Modern Iraq, Negotiating Political and Cultural Space is a welcomed addition to the canon. She focuses upon the struggle by Assyrians to achieve their rights within the country from the Ottoman period up to modern Iraq with most of the book focusing upon the 1950s-80s.
1915 Ottomans and tribesmen began probing attack upon British outpost in Shaiba, Basra to try to
expel UK forces from vilayet
1917 US consulate report Economy in Baghdad collapsing after British took city Trade cut off No
business
1915 New UK cmdr in Iraq Gen Nixon arrived Ordered to take all of Basra Secure Tigris to protect
Anglo-Persian Oil Company in Persia Plan for advance on Baghdad 1st step in escalating war from protecting oil concession to taking all of Mesopotamia
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In World War I, From Ottoman Rule to British Conquest)
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1915 PM Asquith ordered committee created to determine which parts of Ottoman Empire
UK should get Would lead to creation of Iraq
(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)
1915 UK Gen Nixon ordered to prepare attack on Nasiriya and Amara to protect Basra vilayet and
Persian oil concession
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In World War I, From Ottoman Rule to British Conquest)
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1916 Battle of Sannaiyat by Kut British attacked Ottomans Took Hanna and Fallahiya British had
1,885 casualties
Gulmohamad, Zana, The Making of Foreign Policy in Iraq, Political Factions and the Ruling Elite, London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: I.B. Tauris, 2021
Zana Gulmohamad set out to try to explain the complicated story of how Iraq formulates its foreign policy in The Making of Foreign Policy in Iraq, Political Factions and the Ruling Elite. His thesis was that Iraq’s foreign affairs are shaped by each ethnosectarian group, political party, and leading officials in Iraq under the influence and interference of foreign nations. That leads to a contradictory stance as each actor follows its own path to the detriment of the country.
1927 UK official wrote Foreign Sec Chamberlain saying UK got Mosul by trick Promised 25 yr Iraq
Mandate Now pushing Iraq independence
1929 Shah and King Faisal passed notes that legal barriers over Persian nationals In Iraq had been
lifted
I was quoted in this article "Iraqi Militias Are Targeting Israel, But Israel Probably Won't Retaliate With Strikes Inside Iraq" by Paul Iddon in Forbes.
You can see all of Musings On Iraq's citations here.
1941 Regent of Iraq arrived at UK airbase at Habaniya Anbar after Golden Square officers tried to
arrest him after coup Regent tried and failed to organize resistance to coup in Basra Then fled to Jordan
(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s First Battle Of Fallujah 1941)
(Musings On Iraq interview World War II In Iraq and Syria Interview With Case Western’s Prof Broich)
(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 Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)
872 Brother of the Caliph Muwafaq defeated by Zanj slave rebellion in Basra
Musings On Iraq review The Revolt Of African Slaves In Iraq in the 3rd/9th Century
Violence in Iraq during the fourth week of April 2024 was dominated by pro-Iran groups. The Islamic State was inactive once again.