This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 26

1920 UK High Commissioner Sir Cox formed Iraqi provisional govt after 1920 Revolt led

British to give up direct rule Abd Naqib of Baghdad was premier Had 21 ministers 12 with no portfolios Naqib opposed giving any ministries to Shiites

(Musings On Iraq book review of Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq book review Dictatorship, Imperialism & Chaos, Iraq since 1989)

1920 UK High Commissioner Sir Cox said Basra province showed no support for Mandate Merchants in

province just wanted to maintain status quo Mid-Euphrates sheikhs and landlords the same Baghdad and Mosul provinces want to have role in govt Intellectuals were nationalists

1952 Baghdad Pharmacy College strike over exams Turned into riot that spread to other cities 

1978 Pres Assad signed National Charter of Joint Action to counter Israel-Egypt peace treaty while

visiting Baghdad

1980 Iraq fired missiles at Dezful, Iran for 2^nd day

1980 Most of the Iranian forces driven out of Khorramshahr Gave Iraq control of Shatt al-Arab Iraq lost

4,000-12,000 casualties

1980 Soviet news agency accused Iraq of aligning with US in Iran-Iraq War

1980 Iran objected to Iraq abrogating 1975 Algiers Agreement in letter to U.N. Said Iran still

following it Iraq broke it

1984 Tariq Aziz told Sec of State Shultz Iraq ready to resume full diplomatic relations with US after

17 yr break

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1989 Sec of State Baker memo said that ties with Iraq important to shape Middle East politics

2001 After anthrax letters sent to Wash DC ABC reported anthrax trademark of Iraq’s WMD

program

2001 Czech Interior Ministry told press 9/11 hijacker Atta met Iraqi intel officer in Prague

2003 DepDefSec Wolfowitz arrived in Baghdad and met with Chalabi who warned him insurgents

knew he was in the country

2003 Baghdad’s Rashid Hotel hit by rocket while Dep Sec of Def Wolfowitz staying there 16 killed

18 wounded

2003 US military said were not many foreign fighters in Baghdad

2003 Iraq Survey Group found aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy were not for centrifuges Pentagon

replied group had not finished its analysis

(Musings On Iraq article on the aluminum tubes story)

2003 Report CIA interviewed head of Iraq’s centrifuge program who said Iraq ended centrifuge work

after Gulf War and tubes had nothing to do with it CIA claimed head of Iraq’s centrifuge program was not telling truth about aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy

2004 PM Allawi blamed US for deaths of 49 army recruits killed in Diyala by Zarqawi

2005 Report CIA review said Zarqawi visited Baghdad May 02 but probably didn’t have protection of

Iraqi govt Review of Zarqawi’s trip based upon interviews with Saddam era Iraqi officials Bush admin originally claimed Zarqawi was given safe haven by Saddam and said sign of Iraq-Al Qaeda ties

2006 PM Maliki interview refuted US timetable for Iraq Said ISF could take over security in 6 months

not 12-18 US set out Said he didn’t agree to timetable Said he met with Sadr and they agreed greatest threat to Iraq was Al Qaeda in Iraq and Baathists not militias

2006 Def Sec Rumsfeld said US had not gotten PM Maliki to agree to crackdown on militias Said Maliki

would work towards US benchmarks but would be no deadlines or penalties if he didn’t

2007 Islamic Army fought ISI outside Samarra Salahddin

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

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

2007 Report US and ISF targeting insurgent finance networks in Mosul Found kickbacks overbilling illegal

sales real estate deals black market gas and propane sales earned $40-$60 mil for insurgents over last few years

2008 US Special Forces raided ISI camp in Syria used to ferry foreign fighters into Iraq captured

huge amount of documents

2017 Iraqi forces renewed west Anbar op This time aimed at liberating Qaim along Syrian border

2017 More clashes between Iraqi forces and Peshmerga in Fishkhabur Dohuk and Altun Kupri Ninewa after

            independence referendum

(Musings On Iraq Baghdad Ups Ante Attempting To Seize Control Of Kurds’ Oil Pipeline)

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

View the Iraq History Timelines 
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Iraq Protesters Outsmart Govt And Security Forces

Protesters in Tahrir Square Thursday (Nas News)

For days now Iraq has been preparing for the return of protests on October 25. As it turned out, demonstrations started a day early catching the authorities off guard.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 25

1922 Gertrude Bell wrote that King Faisal was trying to create his own party but was being

played by politicians

(Musings On Iraq book review of Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

1937 Nuri al-Said’s son told him to return from exile in Egypt after made contact with pan-Arab

Golden Square officers

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

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

1980 Iraq fired missiles at Dezful, Iran

1983 Iran claimed Iraqi troops destroyed Kurdish town of Penjwin

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

1984 Iranian troops recaptured Mehran, Iran ending Op Dawn 7

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

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

2000 Congress authorized increase in support for Iraqi opposition groups to $25 mil in 2001 $18 mil

would go to INC

2002 VP Cheney met with Russian For Min Told him countries that sided with US in war would get

preferential treatment in contracts afterward

2003 Iraqi prisoners were stripped handcuffed and piled in pyramid on top of each other by US

jailers in Abu Ghraib

2004 Report top contracting official at US Army Corps of Engineers questioned Halliburton’s no-bid

Iraq contracts

2004 Report 380 tons of high grade explosives looted from Al Qaqaa site

2004 Kurds marched in Kirkuk demanding Kurdish control of city

2005 Results of Constitutional referendum announced 79% voted for constitution Anbar and

Salahaddin overwhelmingly voted no

(Musings On Iraq interview with constitutional scholar Zaid al-Ali on Iraq’s constitution)

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

2005 Death toll for Americans in Iraq reached 2,000 since 03 invasion

2005 Iraq Body Count est 26,690-30,051 Iraqi civilians and police died since 03 invasion

2006 Bush speech Iraq challenge of our time Knew people weren’t happy with Iraq war and neither

was he Bush speech said US winning in Iraq Bush said he didn’t believe in timetables for Iraq but Gen Casey and Amb Khalilzad issued a timetable the day before Said they were benchmarks and not a timetable At time he thought strategy failing and working on new one

(Musings On Iraq article on pre-Surge US Iraq strategy)

2006 CNN poll found 34% of Americans supported Bush on Iraq 64% disapproved

2006 PM Maliki criticized US timetable for his govt Said no one had right to impose deadlines on Iraqi

govt Said timetable was created for US consumption before Nov elections Amb Khalilzad said Maliki agreed to idea of a timetable

2006 US and ISF raided Mahdi Army areas in east Baghdad PM Maliki complained about raids saying

they wouldn’t happen again

2006 Report British military wanted to withdraw from Iraq within a year British officials told US

that British military near breaking point with long deployments to Iraq

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

2006 Special Insp Gen for Iraq Recon audit found some US reconstruction contracts had 55% overhead

costs Main reason was long delay between signing contracts assembling teams and actual work starting US wrote poor contracts bad to no oversight needless delays poor practices

2006 Report US raid in Washash Baghdad found Mahdi Army papers listing 65 houses that had

Sunni families in them replaced by Shiites Also draft of threats to Sunnis to drive them out

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

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

2006 Report Feb 05 Gen Casey said US would transfer security to ISF by end of 05 Jun 06 Casey

sent plan to White House saying that US troops would start withdrawing by Sep 06 and have 50% out by Dec 07 Oct 24 Casey said that ISF would take over security in 12-15 months

(Musings On Iraq article on pre-Surge US Iraq strategy)

(Musings On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)

2009 ISI bombed Justice and Municipalities Ministries in Baghdad 155 dead 721 wounded PM Maliki

blamed Baathists but was ISI

(Musings On Iraq Fall 09 When Maliki Blamed Islamic State Bombings In Baghdad On Baathists)

2017 KRG offered to freeze results of independence referendum in return for ceasefire and talks Led to halt

in fighting between federal and Kurdish forces PM Abadi demanded full cancellation of referendum

(Musings On Iraq Baghdad Ups Ante Attempting To Seize Control Of Kurds’ Oil Pipeline)

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

2018 Adel Abdul Mahdi sworn in as prime minister

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Review They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate

Review Verini, James, They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019

Seizing Mosul was what marked the rise of the Islamic State in the summer of 2014. It had been rebuilding for years, but taking a major city in Iraq was a shock to the world. The loss of the city to the Iraqi forces backed up by the international coalition three years later, was its biggest defeat. It was inevitable that this would eventually be put into a book, and James Verini a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic was the first to do so in They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate. The author does a good job weaving together his time with the Iraqi forces, speaking to displaced families from Mosul, and plenty of history of Iraq, the Islamic State, and Mosul.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 24

1978 Pres Assad visited Baghdad 1^st time to talk about unifying Iraq and Syria Issued

unification declaration

1980 Iraq took city center in Khorramshahr and declared it taken Fighting continued for four more

days

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

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

1984 US Info Service reopened office in Baghdad Closed since 1958 in first step to reestablish formal

relations between US and Iraq

(Musings On Iraq book review The Saddam Tapes)

1986 Iraq-Saudi pipeline opened

1997 KDP launched offensive against PUK ending last ceasefire in civil war

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

2002 Pentagon’s Policy Counterterrorism Group briefed Rumsfeld on Iraq-Al Qaeda ties

2002 Rumsfeld told press Policy Counterterrorism Group was not an intel unit

2002 Intel officials complained to press that Pentagon politicizing intel on Iraq

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

2003 US secured $13 bil in aid and loans from allies for Iraq at Madrid conference

2003 Maysan police chief assassinated by a local political faction

2005 Palestine Hotel and Sheraton Ishtar Hotel in Baghdad hit by truck bombs

2006 US Cmdr Gen Casey and Amb Khalilzad announced new timetable for US goals in Iraq Said

ISF should take over security in 12-18 months Govt had to demobilize and integrate Shiite militias, Draft bill to divide oil revenues End deBaathification Hold provincial elections Revise constitute Set no date for when goals had to be achieved or any consequences for not meeting them

2006 SCIRI head Hakim gave sermon in Baghdad calling for 8-9 province federal region in south

Said would not mean partitioning of Iraq Condemned a strong central govt Said southern region supported by history when south was Basra province in Ottoman era

(Musings On Iraq history of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq)

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

2006 US forces cordoned off Sadr City after US soldier went missing there Violence dropped 50% in

            district as a result

2007 Fighting broke out between Mahdi Army and Badr in Karbala despite Sadr’s freeze on his militia

and peace deal between Sadr and Hakim signed Oct 6 City was shut off to try to keep militias out Each accused the other of being an Iranian tool

2008 2 Iranian agents intercepted attempting to infiltrate into Wasit One killed one arrested Were

allegedly planning military operations in Iraq 2^nd such incident in Oct

(Musings On Iraq article on Iranian infiltration into Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq article on Iran’s Iraq policy)

2014 Babil’s Jurf al-Sakhr finally cleared after a dozen attempts All civilians forced out of city and

not allowed to return Turned into Hashd base

2017 2 clashes between ISF and Hashd vs Peshmerga in Fishkhabur Dohuk Kurds afraid Baghdad was

attempting to seize its pipeline to Turkey after independence referendum

(Musings On Iraq Baghdad Ups Ante Attempting To Seize Control Of Kurds’ Oil Pipeline)

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

2018 Parliament voted on 14 of PM Abdul Mahdi’s 22 candidates for cabinet

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Report On Violence Used Vs Iraq Protests Covers-Up Govt Responsibility

PM Abdul Mahdi's govt released a report on violence used against protests which whitewashes those responsible (Al Forat)

Under pressure from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who called for the government to hold responsible those who were behind the murder of protesters at the start of October 2019, the Iraqi government released its report on the violence. It claimed that the commanders of the Iraqi forces (ISF) lost control of their troops during the demonstrations and recommended that several officers be removed or investigated. No politicians nor the Hashd were blamed. This was a white wash to cover up those really responsible.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 23

1918 Battle of Shirqat started as British forces moved north from Baghdad to seize Mosul

province and its oil before war ended 

(Musings On Iraq article on how Mosul province became part of Iraq)

1973 Baghdad ordered its units home in 1973 Arab-Israeli War

1977 Ayatollah Khomeini’s son Mustafa died in exile in Najaf Iranian secret police believed to be

behind it

1980 US said Iran’s national integrity was threatened by Iraq Pres Carter was trying to get US

hostages released by Iran

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1991 Baghdad imposed economic embargo on Kurdistan in retaliation for clashes with Peshmerga

1996 PUK and KDP signed ceasefire brokered by US, UK and Turkey

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

1997 UN Resolution 1134 said that Iraq had to fully comply with weapons inspectors and condemned non-

cooperation Were splits within UN security council over continued weapons inspections

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq article Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)

2002 US and UK submitted draft UN resolution for new inspections in Iraq

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

2003 Madrid Conf began with 76 countries to garner international aid for Iraq Germany Russia

France offered nothing having opposed war

2003 US guards at Abu Ghraib prison photographed an Iraqi prisoner with a leash on and other

abuses

2004 Al Qaeda in Iraq dressed as police took 49 Iraqi soldiers off bus and executed them in Diyala

2005 Islamic Army got in gun battle with Al Qaeda in Iraq in Taji north Baghdad over the latter

killing members of the Islamic Army

(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

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

2006 Natl Sec Adv Hadley told UK officials Op Together Forward II failing Said Iraqi army hadn’t sent

enough troops Iraqi police couldn’t hold areas cleared Said Maliki govt didn’t fully support plan

(Musings On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)

2006 White House said US policy was not to stay the course in Iraq despite Bush repeatedily using that

phrase Said U.S. had a flexible policy in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on pre-Surge US Iraq strategy)

2006 Report UN recorded 1.6 mil refugees 1.5 mil displaced 40,000 Iraqis arriving in Syria per month

365,000 new refugees since Samarra bombing in Feb 06

(Musings On Iraq book review Children of War, Voices Of Iraqi Refugees)

2007 State Dept official said Iranian Revolutionary Guard working in Iraq under orders of Tehran’s

leadership

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval Postgraduate School’s Ostovar on history of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard)

(Musings On Iraq book review Vanguard of the Imam, Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard)

2007 Report State Dept couldn't’ account for $1.2 bil contract with DynCorp to train Iraqi police $4 mil

that was supposed to build a police facility spent on an olympic size pool and VIP trailers $4 mil spent on X-Ran machine never used Part of State Dept’s bad contracting in Iraq

2007 Mahdi Army fought Iraqi police in Basra City despite Sadr’s freeze upon his militia

2017 ISF and Peshmerga clashed in Fishkhabur Dohuk Kurds feared Baghdad was attempting to seize

KRG pipeline to Turkey as a result of independence referendum

(Musings On Iraq Baghdad Ups Ante Attempting To Seize Control Of Kurds’ Oil Pipeline)

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

View the Iraq History Timelines