This Day In Iraqi History - May 16 Sykes-Picot agreement made between French and UK officials to divide up Ottoman Empire in Mideast

 

1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement broke up Ottoman Empire Basra and Baghdad to UK Mosul to France

Would be independent Arab state under UK and French influence

(Musings On Iraq interview with Princeton’s Sara Pursley on Sykes-Picot and creation of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review The Creation of Iraq 1914-1921)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)

 

1935 Gen Sidqi put down Rumaitha tribal revolt

1941 While British planes bombed Iraqi column outside Rutba, Anbar English ground forces were

attacked by German planes

(Musings On Iraq interview World War II In Iraq and Syria Interview With Case Western’s Prof Broich)

1941 German commander in Iraq agreed with Baghdad’s plan to retake Habaniya but didn’t have

forces to do it

1941 German planes attacked Habaniya base British destroyed 10 German planes in Irbil and Mosul

(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)

1941 Mullah Mustafa Barzani escaped Baghdad and headed for Sulaymaniya

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

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

1948 Iraqi attack upon Kibbutz Gesher failed 1^st Arab-Israeli War

1963 Jalal Talabani went to Egypt to Lobby Gen Nasser to support Kurds Got nothing

(Musings On Iraq review Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)

1966 Def Min Gen Shurki said Kurds were defeated New campaign actually failed

(Musings On Iraq review 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)

1977 Saddam interview with US News & World Report Said Iraq would never accept Israel’s right to

exist

1984 US offered to provide air cover to any Arab country’s oil tankers in Persian Gulf to protect them

from Iranian attack

(Musings On Iraq Review The Twilight War, The Secret History Of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict With Iran)

1986 Iraq launched operation to capture Mehran Iran

1988 Iran Op Bait al-Moqaddas 6 Gained 25 sq km in Kurdistan Turkey worried about Iranian

offensives in Kurdistan Threatened intervention if continued

(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)

2003 CPA Regulation 1 made it the occupying power in Iraq

2003 CPA Order 1 disbanded Baath Party Came from Undersec of Def Feith He would later deny

responsibility

(Musings On Iraq New DeBaathification Law)

(Musings On Iraq Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Chapter 6 Charting A New Course)

(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1 – Ch 6 Lost In Transition May-July 2003)

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

Sectarian War of 2006)

(Musings On Iraq The Baathist Purge In Post-Saddam Iraq, A Short History Of DeBaathification)

(Musings On Iraq review Baghdad at Sunrise, A Brigade Commander’s War in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Review Lessons Of The Iraqi De-Ba’athfication Program For Iraq’s Future And The Arab Revolutions)

(Musings On Iraq review My Year in Iraq, The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope)

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation of Iraq, Winning The War, Losing The Peace)

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

2003 Opposition parties met Barzani said no one knew what US wanted Said no security and US

wouldn’t allow opposition to handle it Complained ex-Baathists returning to jobs Discussed deBaathification and who should be banned Barzani said Garner wanted an Iraqi govt quickly but now Bremer dropped idea

2003 Bremer met with Iraqi Leadership Group exiles and Iraqi notables put together by Barzani and

Talabani Bremer told Leadership Group he was in charge not them Talked about deBaathification which Dawa’s Jaafari supported and INC’s Chalabi said should go deeper Bremer said CPA would take incremental steps which most Iraqis objected to demanding quick transfer of power Bremer thought Group not representative

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

Tragedy)

(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)

2003 Bremer announced that interim Iraqi govt would not be formed and that CPA would govern Iraq

(Musings On Iraq When The US Decided ON A Long Term Occupation Of Iraq)

2003 CPA picked Phillip Carroll to be top US adviser to Oil Ministry Said he was against privatizing

industry

(Musings On Iraq Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction’s Hard Lessons Chapter 13 Restarting Oil Production)

(Musings On Iraq Did The U.S. Plan On Privatizing Iraq’s Oil After The 2003 Invasion?)

2003 Sadrists attacked movie theater in Baghdad for showing indecent movies

2003 Arabs claimed they were beaten by Kurds at a market and bridge in Kirkuk Started 3 days of

            fighting in city

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

(Musings On Iraq How Did Kirkuk Become Such A Divisive Issue? A Portrait of The City In

2003)

2003 Combined Joint Task Force 7 US military command in charge of Iraq sent back to Iraq

2003 MI6 chief Sir Dearlove wrore that Iraqis were coming forward with info on Iraq’s WMD

programs

2004 Sec State Powell some sources on Iraq WMD were inaccurate wrong and sometimes deliberately

misleading

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

2004 Maysan chief of police Kabir assassinated by members of governor’s tribe Many claimed

governor had chief assassinated because believed he tipped off British about ambush planned by tribe

2005 US issued order unless US forces directly involved in abuse of Iraqis should report incident and

do nothing else

2007 200 insurgents attacked prison in Mosul with 6 suicide car bombs and IEDs laid on surrounding

streets to block ISF response units Also attacked house of Ninewa police chief and deputy governor

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2007 Iraqi army security sweep through Diwaniya looking for militiamen led to 7 hr battle with Mahdi

Army Also fighting between Mahdi Army and ISF in Nasiriya

2008 PM Maliki gave insurgents 10 days to hand in weapons in Mosul as part of Mother of

            Two Springs offensive ISF captured ISI emir of Ninewa

2008 Parliament’s integrity committee said PM Maliki’s arms deal with Serbia was illegal Called on

Def Minister to testify He refused Was $236 mil no bid deal

2009 PM Maliki promised major crackdown on corruption Nothing happened

(Musings On Iraq Corruption In Iraq An Interview With Stuart Bowen Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Trouble Fighting Corruption Interview With Vincent Foulk Former US Anti-Graft Official)

2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named new leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi killed April 2010

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval War College’s Prof Whiteside on ISI leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi)

2010 China’s CNOOC and Turkey’s TPAO signed deal to develop Maysan oil field

(Musings On Iraq 12^th Oil Deal Signed By Iraq)

2010 Sadrists said they opposed 2^nd term for PM Maliki Said not following agreements Politicized

security

2011 Gulf Cooperation Council rejected Iraq’s bid to join due to Iraq’s criticism of Bahrain

(Musings On Iraq Iraq Will Have To Wait For Its Return To The Regional Stage)

2011 Senior Iraqi Air Force official said Iran tried to block Iraq buying F-16s from US using friendly

political parties

2011 Security official blamed militias for wave of assassinations and sticky bombs in Baghdad

2011 Qadisiya council voted to make province a federal region to protest neglect by Baghdad

2011 Investigation into IS prison break in Basra caught in political controversy with ruling parties

interfering 2 members of Maliki’s office implicated

2011 Sadrists rejected any talk of extending US troop presence in Iraq past end of year

2012 End of deadline set by Sadrists for PM Maliki to implement Irbil power sharing agreement

Maliki did not respond

(Musings On Iraq What Does Iraq’s Sadr Want?)

2012 Report PM Maliki’s arrest of Election Comm head seemed to turn Sadr against PM Started

talking about no confidence vote Met with Kurds and Speaker Nujafi 2 biggest opponents of Maliki Issued list of demands for Maliki to follow then did nothing

2012 Pres Barzani said he was fed up with PM Maliki and could not work with him anymore

(Musings On Iraq How The No Confidence Move Against Iraq’s Premier Split The Kurdish Parties)

2012 PM Maliki allowed Dep PM Mutlaq back to work after dismissing him as political threat during

no confidence move

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Premier Maliki And His Deputy Mutlaq Reconcile)

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

2013 Gov Nujafi of Ninewa escaped IED attack on his convoy

2013 ISF raided Sheikh Sulaiman’s farm in Anbar leading to shootout with guards

(Musings On Iraq Rising Tensions In Iraq’s Anbar Province, Raids, Kidnapped Soldiers, Collapse of Talks Offer)

2014 Reports of barrel bombing and indiscriminate shelling of Fallujah by ISF leading to large

displacement of civilians

(Musings On Iraq Human Cost Of Government Shelling And Air Strikes On Iraq’s Fallujah)

2015 IS leader Baghdadi issued speech saying Anbari displaced being mistreated by Baghdad for

sectarian reasons

2015 Ramadi fell to IS after months of fighting Report IS went through city executing government

workers and Sahwa members

(Musings On Iraq Why Did Iraq’s Ramadi Fall To The Islamic State?)

(Musings On Iraq interview The Political Fallout From The Loss Of Iraq’s Ramadi Interview With EPIC’s Ahmed Ali)

(Musings On Iraq Political Ramifications Of The Fall of Iraq’s Ramadi)

2018 Reports Quds Force Cmdr Gen Suleimani in Baghdad Met with Shiite parties to discuss forming new govt Was opposed to Sadr and 2^nd term for PM Abadi

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

2018 Report Maliki and Allawi last two winners of elections saw huge decline in votes 2010 Maliki won 622,000 votes Allawi 407,000 2014 Maliki won 721,000 votes Allawi 229,000 Early results from 2018 showed no candidate won over 100,000 votes Was rally in Baghdad where people chanted Bye Bye Maliki

2019 Report Iran’s Quds Force Cmdr Gen Suleimani met with Tehran’s allies in Baghdad telling

them to mobilize for a possible confrontation with US

(Musings On Iraq Tehran And Its Allies Respond Asymmetrically To Trump Admin’s Iran Policy)

2019 Head of Axis list Khamis al-Khanjar said he wanted to remove Speaker Halbusi

Accused Halbusi of turning on Axis

2021 Meeting of activists in Karbala after assassination of protest leader in Karbala Deep division

over whether to participate in 2021 election Decided to march May 25

(Musings On Iraq New Wave of Protests In Iraq Over Executions Of Activists)

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

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

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