- published: 12 Oct 2011
- views: 32480
- author: OSAMAxxxxxxxxxxyz
Vimeo results:
Youtube results:
add
Loading...
Open Collage in a new Window
Email the Collage
- Loading...
Loading suggestions ...
- 11th Division (Iraq)
- 12th Division (Iraq)
- 14 July Revolution
- 1st Division (Iraq)
- 2nd Division (Iraq)
- 3rd Division (Iraq)
- 4th Division (Iraq)
- 5th Division (Iraq)
- 6th Division (Iraq)
- 7th Division (Iraq)
- 82nd Airborne
- 8th Division (Iraq)
- 9th Division (Iraq)
- Abbasid Caliphate
- Abd al-Karim Qasim
- Abdul Rahman Arif
- Abdul Salam Arif
- Abu Deraa
- Abu Theeb
- Abud Qanbar
- Achaemenid Assyria
- Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr
- Air strikes
- AK-47
- Akkadian Empire
- AKM
- Akram al-Kabi
- Al Amarah
- Al Anbar
- Al Diwaniyah
- Al Kazemiyah
- Al Qaeda in Iraq
- Al-Abud Network
- Al-Ahwal Brigades
- Al-Faw Peninsula
- Al-Ghuraba Brigades
- Al-Muqdadiyah
- Ali Ghaidan Majid
- Amarah
- AMZ Dzik
- An Nasiriyah
- Andrew Krepinevich
- Anglo-Iraqi Treaty
- Anglo-Iraqi War
- Ansar al-Islam
- Ar Rustamiyah
- Arab Federation
- Army Day
- Arsenal
- Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq
- Asaeb Ahl el-Iraq
- Assyria
- Assyrian people
- Asuristan
- Ba'ath Party
- Babylonia
- Badr Organisation
- Baghdad
- Baghdad Governorate
- Baghdad Pact
- Ballistic vest
- Barbed wire
- Basra
- Battle Dress Uniform
- Battle of Khafji
- Battle of Nasiriyah
- Belgrade
- BMP-1
- British army
- BTR-94
- Bumbar
- Cabinet of Iraq
- Camp Taji
- Camp Victory
- Central Bank of Iraq
- Chain of command
- Challenger 1 tank
- Chemical weapons
- Chobham Armour
- Christianity in Iraq
- Civil war in Iraq
- Civilians
- Commandos
- Conscript
- Constitution of Iraq
- Corps
- Cougar (vehicle)
- Counter-insurgency
- Coup d'état
- Crossley Motors
- Culture of Iraq
- CZ-99
- David Petraeus
- De facto
- Demographics of Iraq
- Districts of Iraq
- Division (military)
- Diwaniyah
- Diyala Governorate
- Economy of Iraq
- Education in Iraq
- Elections in Iraq
- Engineer
- Euphrates
- Faisal I of Iraq
- Faisal II of Iraq
- Fallujah
- Fedayeen Saddam
- Fliegerführer Irak
- Foreign aid to Iraq
- France
- FV103 Spartan
- Gamal Abdel Nasser
- Geography of Iraq
- Gesher, Israel
- Golden Square (Iraq)
- Green Zone
- Gulf War
- Hamas of Iraq
- Hamrin Mountains
- Hashemite
- Health in Iraq
- Highway of Death
- History of Iraq
- Human wave attacks
- Hungary
- IISS
- Infantry
- Invasion of Kuwait
- Iran-Iraq War
- Iran–Iraq War
- Iraq
- Iraq Levies
- Iraq Stock Exchange
- Iraq War
- Iraqi Air Force
- Iraqi Arabic
- Iraqi Armed Forces
- Iraqi Army
- Iraqi cuisine
- Iraqi diaspora
- Iraqi Dinar
- Iraqi Insurgency
- Iraqi insurgency
- Iraqi Kurdistan
- Iraqi Navy
- Iraqi people
- Iraqi Police
- Iraqi Popular Army
- Iraqi Turkmen
- Islam in Iraq
- Islamic Army in Iraq
- Jaish Abi Baker
- Jaish al-Mujahideen
- Jaish al-Rashideen
- Jaish Ansar al-Sunna
- Jane's
- Jeish al-Fatiheen
- Jeish Muhammad
- Jenin
- Jordan
- Jordan River
- Jund al-Sahaba
- KA7
- Kalev Sepp
- Kata'ib Hezbollah
- Kinetic energy round
- King of Iraq
- King of Syria
- Kingdom of Iraq
- Kirkuk
- Kirkush
- Kurd
- Kurdish language
- Kurdish people
- Kuwait
- Kuwait City
- L3 35
- Lake Habbaniyah
- Lake Hammar
- Lake Milh
- Lake Tharthar
- Languages of Iraq
- Laser rangefinder
- Law of Iraq
- Lieutenant General
- M1 Abrams
- M1114
- M113
- M1151
- M16 rifle
- M16A4
- M1A1 Abrams
- M4 Carbine
- M4 carbine
- M79 Rocket Launcher
- M90 Rocket Launcher
- Mahdi Army
- Mahmoudiyah, Iraq
- Malik Al-Tawus Troop
- Mandaeans
- Mandaeism
- MARPAT
- Maysan
- Mechanized infantry
- Medevac
- Media of Iraq
- Medic
- Medical logistics
- Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamian Marshes
- Military academy
- Military doctrine
- Military of Iraq
- Military police
- Minorities in Iraq
- Mohammad's Army
- Mosul
- Motorized infantry
- Muqtada al-Sadr
- Music of Iraq
- Mustafa Barzani
- Mustard gas
- Nablus
- Naqshabandiya Army
- Nasserites
- Neo-Assyrian Empire
- New Return
- No-mans land
- Nur ad-Din Mahmud
- Nuri as-Said
- Oil reserves in Iraq
- Operation Ramadan
- Otokar Akrep
- Ottoman Empire
- Ottoman Iraq
- Pakistan
- Pan-Arabism
- Panhard
- Paramilitary
- Parthian Empire
- PASGT
- Paul Bremer
- Paul Eaton
- Peshmerga
- PK machine gun
- Poland
- Politics of Iraq
- Pontoon bridge
- President of Iraq
- Provinces of Iraq
- Qadir Obeidi
- Qais al-Khazali
- Quartermaster
- RAF
- RAF Habbaniya
- Regent
- Religion in Iraq
- Republic of Iraq
- Rihab, Jordan
- Roads in Iraq
- Royal Air force
- Royal Air Force
- Royal Navy
- RPG-7
- Russia
- Saddam Hussein
- Sadr City
- Sahaba
- Salafi
- Salafism
- Saray al-Jihad Group
- Sect
- Seleucid Empire
- Serbia
- Shatt al-Arab
- Sheibani Network
- Shi'a
- Shia
- Siege of Sadr City
- Six Day War
- Soldiers of Heaven
- Sons of Iraq
- South Azeri language
- Soviet Union
- Special Forces
- Sport in Iraq
- Staff college
- Stryker
- Sumer
- Sunni
- Switzerland
- Syrian Desert
- T-55
- T-72
- Taha al-Hashimi
- Taji
- Talk Iraqi Army
- Task Force Viking
- Template Iraq topics
- The Times
- Thermal sight
- Tigris
- Trainer aircraft
- Transport in Iraq
- Trench warfare
- Troops
- Tulkarm
- Turkey
- Type 56
- Type 59
- Type 69
- Umm Qasr
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Urban warfare
- USAF
- Utva Lasta
- Vinnell Corporation
- West Bank
- Western world
- Wikipedia INCITE
- Wikipedia Link rot
- World War I
- World War II
- Yom Kippur War
- Zagros Mountains
- Zarqawi
- Zastava M21
- Zastava M84
-
14 July Revolution
The 14 July Revolution was a coup which took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, marking the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy established by King Faisal I in 1932 under the auspices of the British. In 1958, the coup overthrew King Faisal II, the regent and Crown Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said, all of whom were perceived as cooperating with the British. The coup established an Iraqi Republic and was a result of a number of different grievances with Hashemite Iraqi policies. One of the most salient themes that the Free Officers, the group that engineered and executed the coup, represented was anger at Western imperialist control of Iraq through its monarchic mediators.
During World War II, Iraq housed a growing presence of Arab nationalist sympathizers. The Arab nationalists aimed, in part, to remove British imperial influence in Iraq. This sentiment grew from a politicized educational system in Iraq and an increasingly assertive and educated middle class. Schools served as instruments to internalize Pan-Arab nationalist identity because the leaders and the designers of the Iraqi educational system in the 1920s and 1930s were Pan-Arab nationalists who made a significant contribution in the expansion of that ideology in Iraq as well as the rest of the Arab world. The nationalist directors (Sami Shawkat and Fadhil al-Jamal) of the educational system in Iraq employed teachers who were political refugees from Palestine and Syria. These exiles fled to Iraq because of their roles in the anti-British and anti-French contentions, and subsequently fostered nationalist consciousness in their Iraqi students. Institutions like school added to the general awareness of Arab identity and generated criticism of imperialism.
wn.com/14_July_Revolution -
Akkadian Empire
Coordinates: 33°6′N 44°6′E / 33.1°N 44.1°E / 33.1; 44.1
The Akkadian Empire (Akkadian URUAkkad KI, Hittite KUR A.GA.DÈ.KI "land of Akkad"; Biblical Hebrew אַכַּד Akkad) was an empire centered in the city of Akkad (Sumerian: Agade) and its surrounding region in Mesopotamia.
During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism.Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate).
The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests of its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants.[citation needed]
The precise archaeological site of the city of Akkad has not yet been found.[citation needed] The form Agade appears in Sumerian, for example in the Sumerian King List; the later Assyro-Babylonian form Akkadû ("of or belonging to Akkad") was likely derived from this. The etymology and meaning of Akkad (written a.ga.dèKI or URIKI) are unknown. Centuries later, the neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus mentioned in his archaeological records that Ishtar's worship in Agade was later superseded by that of the goddess Anunit, whose shrine was at Sippar—suggesting proximity of Sippar and Agade. Despite numerous searches, the city has never been found. One theory holds that Agade was situated opposite Sippar on the left bank of the Euphrates, and was perhaps the oldest part of the city of Sippar. Another theory is that the ruins of Akkad are to be found beneath modern Baghdad. Reputedly it was destroyed by invading Gutians with the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
wn.com/Akkadian_Empire -
Al Diwaniyah
Al Diwaniyah (Arabic: الديوانية; BGN: Ad Dīwānīyah; also spelled Diwaniya) is the capital city of Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate. In 2002, its population was estimated at 440,927. The area around Al Diwaniyah, which is well irrigated from the nearby Euphrates river, is often considered to be one on the most fertile parts of Iraq, and is heavily cultivated. The town is located on the main rail transport corridor between Baghdad and Basra.
For birdwatchers, Al-Diwaniyah is a city with a rich bird list, as the city has a wide range of biodiversity. Al-Qadisiyah consists of vast agricultural areas, wetlands, arid zones, and semi-desert areas.
The town is the site of a tire manufacturing plant that once provided tires for much of Iraq. The plant is currently active.
Al-Diwaniyah is the headquarters of the Iraqi Army's 8th Division (Iraq).
Coordinates: 31°59′21″N 44°55′29″E / 31.98917°N 44.92472°E / 31.98917; 44.92472
wn.com/Al_Diwaniyah -
Amarah
Amarah (Arabic: العمارة; BGN: Al ‘Amārah; also spelled Amara), is a city in southeastern Iraq, located on a low ridge next to the Tigris River waterway south of Baghdad about 50 km from the border with Iran. It lies at the northern tip of the marshlands between the Tigris and Euphrates.
Predominantly Shia Muslim, it had a population of about 340,000 as of 2002 and about 420,000 as of 2005. It is the administrative capital of the Maysan province. A major trading center for the surrounding agricultural area, it is known for woven goods and silverware.
The city was founded in the 1860s as an Ottoman military outpost from which the empire tried to control the warring Banu Lam and Al Bu Muhammad tribes.
In 1915 Amarah was captured by the British. Before the revolution in 1958 Amarah was known for its feudal system with local estate-holders maintaining private militias.
During the eight year Iran–Iraq War, Amarah and the surrounding province became the sight of several battles, notably Operation Before the Dawn launched by Iran. Since the Baghdad-Basra highway cut through the province, Iran targeted the area due to its strategic significance to the Iraqis.
wn.com/Amarah -
Baghdad
Baghdad (Arabic: بغداد, Baġdād, IPA: [bæɣˈdæːd]) is the capital of Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic World. This in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom) garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 1,200,000 people. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture.
wn.com/Baghdad -
Baghdad Governorate
Baghdad Province (Arabic: محافظة بغداد Muḥāfaẓät Baġdād) (or Baghdad Governorate) is the capital province of Iraq. It includes the City of Baghdad, as well as the surrounding metropolitan area, which includes Al-Mada'in (Seleucia-Ctesiphon), Taji, Mahmudiya District and Abu Ghraib District. The province has a total area of 4,071 square kilometres (1,572 sq mi), the smallest of the 18 provinces of Iraq but the most populous.
Baghdad Province is one of the most developed parts of Iraq, with a better infrastructure than much of Iraq, though heavily damaged from the invasion in 2003 and continuing violence today. It also has one of the highest rates for terrorism in the world with bombs, suicide attackers, and hit squads operating in the city.
Baghdad has at least 12 bridges spanning the Tigris river - joining the east and west of the city. The Sadr City district of the capital is the most densely populated area in Iraq.
Baghdad is governed by the Baghdad Provincial Council. Representatives to the Baghdad Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils of the administrative districts in Baghdad in numbers proportional to the population of the various districts that were represented.
wn.com/Baghdad_Governorate -
Basra
Basra (Arabic: البصرة; BGN: Al Baṣrah) is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is handled at the port of Umm Qasr.
The city is part of the historic location of Sumer, the home of Sinbad the Sailor, and a proposed location of the Garden of Eden. It also played an important role in early Islamic history, being built in 636 CE, or 14 AH. It is Iraq's second largest and most populous city after Baghdad.
The city was called by many names throughout its history, Basrah being the most common. Although some Chaldean Christians argue that the name has Akkadian roots, other sources claim that the name is derived from the Persian word Bas-rah, which means "where many paths meet". During the pre-Islamic era, the area was known to the Arabs as al-Khariba due to the existence of an ancient city called al-Kharba. After the present city was built, it was called by many names, including "the mother of Iraq", "the reservoir of Arabs", "the prosperous city", and "al-Faiha".
wn.com/Basra -
Battle of Nasiriyah
The Battle of Nasiriyah took place from March 23, 2003 to March 29, 2003, and was one of the first major battles of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Heavy fighting took place in the city of Nasiriyah, Iraq in the southern portion of the country, between Ba'athist Iraqi forces and United States Marines over control of key bridges crossing over the Euphrates River and the Saddam Canal.
The battle began early on 23 March when a supply convoy of the United States Army took a wrong turn into the city and was ambushed. Eleven soldiers were killed and six soldiers, including Private First Class Jessica Lynch, were captured.
Some soldiers escaped the ambush. Forming a screen around their wounded, they fought off Iraqi counterattacks for several minutes, until being rescued by the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. After rescuing the soldiers who managed to escape the ambush, the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, under the call sign Task Force Tarawa, attacked north into the city, seizing two major bridges along "Ambush Alley". Eighteen Marines were killed in heavy urban fighting, including at least one Marine who was killed when A-10s mistakenly strafed a company of Marines north of the Saddam Canal.
wn.com/Battle_of_Nasiriyah -
Belgrade
Belgrade (
/ˈbɛlɡreɪd/; Serbian: Београд; [beǒɡrad] (
listen); names in other languages) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. Its name in English translates to White city. The city proper has a population of over 1.1 million, while its metropolitan area has over 1.6 million people, making it one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe.
One of the largest prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved around the area Belgrade in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid 2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times before it became the capital of King Stephen Dragutin (1282–1316). In 1521 Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of a the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841. The north of Belgrade remained a Habsburg outpost until 1918, when it was merged into the capital city. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars and razed to the ground 44 times. Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia (in various forms of governments) from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006.
wn.com/Belgrade -
Camp Taji
Camp Taji was a military installation, also known as Camp Cooke used by coalition forces near Taji or Al Taji (Arabic: التاجي), Iraq. The camp is located in a rural region approximately 20 miles (30 km) north of the city of Baghdad in the Baghdad Governorate.[citation needed]
Al-Taji airfield, in the volatile Sunni Triangle, was originally an Iraqi Republican Guard base during the Saddam era. It was once a center for the manufacture of chemical weapons. UNSCOM found at Taji 6,000 empty canisters designed to be filled with chemical weapons for use in 122mm rockets.
According to the Gulf War Airpower Survey, there was a Sector Operations Center located at Al Taji. The airbase is served by a 5,500-foot-long (1,700 m) runway. Taji was also the largest tank maintenance facility in Iraq.
Taji was heavily bombed during Operation Desert Fox in which 13 different targets in the Camp were hit during the December 1998 air strikes.
The base came under American control following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
wn.com/Camp_Taji -
Central Bank of Iraq
The Central Bank of Iraq (Arabic: البنك المركزي العراقي) is the central bank of Iraq.
The Central Bank of Iraq was established as Iraq's central bank by Central Bank of Iraq Law 2004 with authorised capital of 100 billion dinars. The current Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq is Sinan Al Shabibi.
The bank headquarters were designed by Danish architects Dissing+Weitling And completed in 1985. It is a cubical building constructed of reinforced concrete clad in marble. It has few exterior openings, and is instead organised around an inner courtyard which cuts through the heart of the structure and rises to a height of 40m. The courtyard is surrounded on all sides by offices separated by an interior glass curtain wall.
In August 2010, architect Zaha Hadid was appointed to design new headquarters for the Central Bank in Baghdad. Baghdad-born Zaha Hadid, was approached by the Iraqi authorities earlier that year; initial talks about the project were held in Istanbul on August 14, 2010 in the presence of Central Bank Governor Sinan Al-Shabibi.
wn.com/Central_Bank_of_Iraq -
Fallujah
Fallujah (Arabic: الفلوجة, ʾal-Falūǧah, IPA: [ʔalfaˈluːdʒah]; Aramaic: Pumbeidtha - פומבדיתא) is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 mi) west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries.
The city grew from a small town in 1947 to a population of 326,471 inhabitants in 2010. Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than 200 mosques found in the city and surrounding villages.
The region has been inhabited for many millennia. There is evidence that the area surrounding Fallujah was inhabited in Babylonian times. The current name of the city is thought to come from its Syriac name, Pallgutha, which is derived from the word division or "canal regulator" since it was the location where the water of the Euphrates River divided into a canal. Classical authors cited the name as "Pallacottas". The name in Aramaic is Pumbedita."
The region of Fallujah was a part of the Sassanid Persian province of Anbar. The word anbar is Persian and means "warehouse". Known as Firuz Shapur or Perisapora during the Sassanian Era, it was one the main commercial center of the Lakhmid Kingdom. One mile north of Fallujah lie extensive ruins which are identified with the town of Anbar. Anbar was located at the confluence of the Euphrates River with the King's Canal, today the Saqlawiyah Canal, known in Early Islamic times as the Nahr 'Isa and in ancient times as Nahr Malka. Subsequent shifts in the Euphrates River channel have caused it to follow the course of the ancient Pallacottas canal. The town at this site in Jewish sources was known as Nehardea and was the primary center of Babylonian Jewry until its destruction by the Palmyran ruler Odenathus in 259. The Medieval Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela in 1164 visited "el-Anbar which is Pumbeditha in Nehardea" and said it had 3000 Jews living there.
wn.com/Fallujah -
France
France (English
i/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km2 (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km2 / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
wn.com/France -
Geography of Iraq
The geography of Iraq is diverse and falls into four main regions: the desert (west of the Euphrates), Upper Mesopotamia (between the upper Tigris and Euphratesh rivers), the northern highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Lower Mesopotamia, the alluvial plain extending from around Tikrit to the Persian Gulf.
The mountains in the northeast are an extension of the alpine system that runs eastward from the Balkans through southern Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, eventually reaching the Himalayas. The desert is in the southwest and central provinces along the borders with Saudi Arabia and Jordan and geographically belongs with the Arabian Peninsula.
Iraq holds a special distinction in the history of geography: a clay tablet generally accepted as "the earliest known map" was unearthed in 1930 during the excavation of Ga-Sur at Nuzi Yorghan Tepe, near the towns of Harran and Kirkuk, 200 miles (322 km) north of the site of Babylon. The tablet, measuring 6.8 × 7.6 in (173 × 193 mm), is usually dated from the dynasty of Sargon of Akkad between 2500-2300 BC; an even earlier date for the tablet was promulgated by archeologist Leo Bagrow, placing it in the Agade Period (3800 BC).
wn.com/Geography_of_Iraq -
Green Zone
Coordinates: 33°18′27″N 44°23′25″E / 33.307577°N 44.390259°E / 33.307577; 44.390259
The Green Zone (Arabic: المنطقة الخضراء) is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a 10 square kilometers (3.9 sq mi) area of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental center of the Coalition Provisional Authority and remains the center of the international presence in the city. Its official name beginning under the Iraqi Interim Government is the International Zone, though Green Zone remains the most commonly used term. The contrasting Red Zone refers to parts of Baghdad immediately outside the perimeter, but was also loosely applied to all unsecured areas outside the off-site military posts. Both terms originated as military designations.
The Green Zone was a heavily fortified zone in the center of the Iraqi capital that served as the headquarters of successive Iraqi regimes. It was the administrative center for the Ba'ath Party. The area was not originally home to the villas of government officials though it was the location of a number of military bases, government ministries, and presidential palaces inhabited by Saddam Hussein and his family. The largest of these was the Republican Palace that was President Saddam Hussein's primary seat of power. The area is also known as Karradat Mariam so named for a locally famous woman who helped the poor people of Baghdad.[citation needed]
wn.com/Green_Zone -
Hamrin Mountains
The Hamrin Mountains (Arabic: جبل حمرين Jabāl Hamrīn, Kurdish: Çiyay Hemrîn) are a small mountain ridge in northeast Iraq. The westernmost ripple of the greater Zagros mountains; the Hamrin mountains extend from the Diyala Province bordering Iran, northwest to the Tigris river; crossing northern Salah ad Din Province and southern Kirkuk Province.
In antiquity, the mountains were part of the frontier region between Babylonia to the south and Assyria to the north. In medieval times, Babylonia and Assyria became linguistically Arabicized and Kurdicized respectively, and today the area forms part of the linguistic boundary between most of Arabic-speaking Iraq and Kurdish-speaking Iraq.
Coordinates: 35°01′57″N 43°38′47″E / 35.0325°N 43.6463889°E / 35.0325; 43.6463889
wn.com/Hamrin_Mountains -
Highway of Death
The Highway of Death refers to a six-lane highway between Kuwait and Iraq, officially known as Highway 80. It runs from Kuwait City to the border town of Safwan and then on to Basra.
During the United Nations coalition offensive in the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi military personnel and others escaping Kuwait were attacked on Highway 80 by American aircraft and ground forces on the night of February 26–27, 1991, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of vehicles and the deaths of many of their occupants. The scenes of devastation on the road are some of the most recognizable images of the war, and were publicly cited as a factor in President George H. W. Bush's decision to declare a cessation of hostilities on the next day. Many Iraqi forces however successfully escaped across the Euphrates river and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency estimated that upwards of 70,000 to 80,000 troops from defeated divisions in Kuwait might have fled into the city of Basra.
The road was repaired during the late 1990s, and was used in the initial stages of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S. and British forces, and previously it had been also used during the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait by the Iraqi armored divisions.
wn.com/Highway_of_Death -
Hungary
Hungaryi/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).
wn.com/Hungary -
Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or
i/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: 
جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.
wn.com/Iraq -
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Kurdistan Region (Kurdish: ههرێمی کوردستان, Herêmî Kurdistan; Arabic: إقليم كردستان العراق Iqlīm Kurdistān al-‘Irāq) is an autonomous region of Iraq. It borders Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Syria to the west and the rest of Iraq to the south. The regional capital is Arbil, known in Kurdish as Hewlêr. The region is officially governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
The establishment of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq dates back to the March 1970 autonomy agreement between the Kurdish opposition and the Iraqi government after years of heavy fighting. The Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s and the Anfal genocide campaign of the Iraqi army devastated the population and nature of Iraqi Kurdistan. Following the 1991 uprising of the Iraqi people against Saddam Hussein, many Kurds were forced to flee the country to become refugees in bordering regions of Iran and Turkey. A northern no-fly zone was established following the First Gulf War in 1991 to facilitate the return of Kurdish refugees. As Kurds continued to fight government troops, Iraqi forces finally left Kurdistan in October 1991, leaving the region to function de facto independently; however, neither of the two major Kurdish parties had at any time declared independence and Iraqi Kurdistan continues to view itself as an integral part of a united Iraq but one in which it administers its own affairs. The 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent political changes led to the ratification of a new Constitution of Iraq in 2005. The new Iraqi constitution defines Iraqi Kurdistan as a federal entity of Iraq, and establishes Arabic and Kurdish as Iraq's joint official languages.
wn.com/Iraqi_Kurdistan -
Jenin
Jenin (Arabic: جنين (help·info) Ǧanīn, Hebrew: ג'נין) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank. It serves as the administrative center of the Jenin Governorate and is a major agricultural center for the surrounding towns. In 2007, the city had a population of 39,004 Jenin is under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.
Jenin was known in ancient times as the village of "Ein-Jenin" or "Tel Jenin". Tell Jenin, is located at the center of what is today Jenin's business district. The word "'ayn" means "water spring" in Arabic and the word "Jenin" might be related to the Arabic word جنّة (janna), which means "garden".[citation needed] The arabicized name "Jenin" ultimately derives from this ancient name. The association of Jenin with the biblical city of Ein-Ganim was recognized by Ishtori Haparchi.[citation needed]
Jenin overlooks both the Jordan Valley to the east and the Jezreel Valley (known in Arabic as "Marj Ibn Amer") to the north, and from the south it connects to the Samaria mountains.
wn.com/Jenin -
Jordan
Jordan ( /ˈdʒɔr.dən/;Arabic: اَلأُرْدُنّ, Al-'Urdunn), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Arabic: اَلمَمْلَكَة اَلأُرْدُنِيَّة اَلهَاشِمِيَّة), Al-Mamlakah Al-Urdaniyyah Al-Hashimiyyah) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing control of the Dead Sea with the latter. Jordan's only port is at its south-western tip, at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is shared with Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Over half of Jordan is covered by the Arabian Desert. However, the western part of Jordan is arable land and forests. Jordan is part of the Fertile Crescent. The capital city is Amman. According to the CIA World Factbook, Jordan has the second highest life expectancy in the Middle East, after Israel. The average life expectancy is one position behind the United Kingdom, although the age remains exactly the same (80.05 years).
The precursor to modern Jordan was founded in 1921 as the Hashemite Emirate, and it was recognized by the League of Nations as a state under the British mandate in 1922 known as The Emirate of Transjordan. In 1946, Jordan became an independent sovereign state officially known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. After capturing the West Bank area of Cisjordan during the 1948–49 war with Israel, Abdullah I took the title King of Jordan and Palestine, and he officially changed the country's name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in April 1949.
wn.com/Jordan -
Jordan River
The Jordan River (American English) or River Jordan (British English) (Hebrew: נהר הירדן Nehar haYarden, Arabic: نهر الأردن Nahr al-Urdun) is a 251 kilometres (156 mi) long river in West Asia flowing to the Dead Sea. Currently, the river serves as the eastern border of the State of Israel and of the disputed Palestinian Territories. In Christian tradition, Jesus was baptised in it by John the Baptist. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan takes its name from this river.
The river drops rapidly in a 75 kilometre run to swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Exiting the lake, it drops much more in 25 kilometres to the Sea of Galilee. The last section has less gradient, and the river meanders before entering the Dead Sea, about 422 metres below sea level, which has no outlet. Two major tributaries enter from the east during this last section: the Yarmouk River and Jabbok River.
Its section north of the Sea of Galilee (Hebrew: כינרת kinneret, Arabic: Bohayrat Tabaraya, meaning Lake of Tiberias) is within the boundaries of Israel, and forms the western boundary of the Golan Heights. South of the lake, it forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan (to the east) and Israel and the West Bank (to the west).
wn.com/Jordan_River -
Kirkuk
Kirkuk (also spelled Karkuk or Kerkuk, Arabic: كركوك karkūk, Kurdish: Kerkûk/کهرکووک, Syriac: ܟܪܟ ܣܠܘܟ karḵ sluḵ, Turkish: Kerkük) is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.
It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 236 kilometres (147 mi) north of the capital, Baghdad. Kirkuk city lies 83 km south of Arbil, 149 km southeast of Mosul, 97 km west of Sulaymaniyah, and 116 km northeast Tikrit
It stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Arrapha, which sits near the Khasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement (Kirkuk Citadel). Arrapha reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires—the Neo Assyrian Empire, Babylonia, and Media—which controlled the city at various times.
Kirkuk lies in a wide zone with an ethnically mixed population, which has moreover experienced dramatic demographic changes in the course of the twentieth century. Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs lay conflicting claims to this zone, and all have their historical accounts and memories to buttress their claims.
wn.com/Kirkuk -
Kuwait
Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwaiti/kuːˈweɪt/ (Arabic: دولة الكويت, Dawlat al-Kuwayt) is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the Arabic أكوات ākwāt, the plural of كوت kūt, meaning a fortress built near water. The country covers an area of 17,820 square kilometers (6,880 sq mi) and has a population of about 3.5 million.
Historically, the region was the site of Characene, a major Parthian port for trade between Mesopotamia and India. The Bani Utbah tribe were the first permanent Arab settlers in the region, and laid the foundation of the modern emirate. By the 19th century, Kuwait came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, and after World War I, it emerged as an independent sheikhdom under the protection of the British Empire. Kuwait's large oil fields were discovered in the late 1930s.
wn.com/Kuwait -
Kuwait City
Kuwait City (Arabic: مدينة الكويت, transliteration: Madīnat al-Kuwayt), is the capital of Kuwait. It has a population of 2.38 million in the metropolitan area. Located at the heart of the country on the shore of the Persian Gulf, and containing Kuwait's parliament (Majlis Al-Umma), most governmental offices, the headquarters of most Kuwaiti corporations and banks, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate.
Kuwait City’s trade and transportation needs are served by Kuwait International Airport, Mina Al-Shuwaik (Shuwaik Port) and Mina Al Ahmadi (Ahmadi Port) 50 kilometers to the south, on the Persian Gulf coast.
Kuwait City was first settled in the early 18th century by the Al-Sabāh clan, later the ruling family of Kuwait and a branch of the Al-Utūb tribe (that also included the Al-Khalīfah clan, the ruling family of Bahrain), and their leader, Sheikh Sabāh I. Its name may have derived from an earlier abandoned fort located there, called "Kūt" (كوت) – Arabic for a fortress by the sea.
wn.com/Kuwait_City -
Mesopotamian Marshes
The Mesopotamian Marshes are a wetland area located in southern Iraq and partially in southwestern Iran. Historically the marshlands, mainly composed of the separate but adjacent Central, Hawizeh and Hammar Marshes, used to be the largest wetland ecosystem of Western Eurasia. It is a rare aquatic landscape in the desert, providing habitat for the Marsh Arabs and important populations of wildlife. Draining of portions of the marshes began in the 1950s and continued through the 1970s to reclaim land for agriculture and oil exploration. However, in the late 1980s and 1990s, during the presidency of Saddam Hussein, this work was expanded and accelerated to evict Shia Muslims from the marshes. Before 2003, the marshes were drained to 10% of their original size. After the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, the marshes have partially recovered but drought along with upstream dam construction and operation in Turkey, Syria and Iran have hindered the process.
In the 4th millennium BC the first literate societies emerged in Southern Mesopotamia, often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization, and the first cities and complex state bureaucracies were developed there during the Uruk period. Due to the geographical location and the ecological factors of the Fertile Crescent, a crescent-shape fertile area running from the basins of the Nile in Egypt, northwards along the Mediterranean coast in Palestine and Israel, and southwards again along the Euphrates and the Tigris towards the Persian Gulf, civilizations were able to develop agricultural and technological programmes. The crucial trigger was the availability of wild edible plant species. Farming arose early in the Fertile Crescent because the area had a great quantity of wild wheat and pulse species that were nutritious and easy to domesticate.
wn.com/Mesopotamian_Marshes -
Mosul
Coordinates: 36°20′N 43°08′E / 36.34°N 43.13°E / 36.34; 43.13
Mosul (Arabic: الموصل al-Mawṣil; North Mesopotamian Arabic: el-Mōṣul; Syriac: ܢܝܢܘܐ Nînwe; Kurdish: Mûsil/Nînewe; Turkish: Musul), is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Nineveh Province, some 400 km (250 mi) northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial areas on both banks, with five bridges linking the two sides. The majority of its population is Arab (with Assyrians, Turcoman and Kurdish minorities). It is Iraq's third largest city after Baghdad and Basra.
The fabric Muslin, long manufactured here, is named after this city. Another historically important product of the area is Mosul marble.
In 1987, the city's population was 664,221 people; the 2002 population estimate was 1,740,000, and by 2008 was estimated to be 1,800,000. People from Mosul are called Maslawis.
wn.com/Mosul -
Nablus
Nablus (Arabic: نابلس Nāblus [næːblʊs] ( listen), Hebrew: שכם Šəḵem, Biblical Shechem ISO 259-3 Škem) is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Founded by the Roman Emperor Vespasian in 72 CE as Flavia Neapolis, Nablus has been ruled by many empires over the course of its almost 2,000-year-long history. In the 5th and 6th centuries, conflict between the city's Christian and Samaritan inhabitants climaxed in a series of Samaritan revolts against Byzantine rule, before their violent quelling in 529 CE drastically dwindled that community's numbers in the city. In 636, Neapolis, along with most of Palestine, came under the rule of the Islamic Arab Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin's Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.
wn.com/Nablus -
Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
wn.com/Pakistan -
Parthian Empire
The Parthian (pronounced /ˈpɑrθiən/) Empire (247 BC – 224 AD), also known as the Arsacid (/ˈɑrsəsɪd/) Empire (Modern Persian: اشکانیان Ashkāniān), was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia. Its latter name comes from Arsaces I of Parthia who, as leader of the Parni tribe, founded it in the mid-3rd century BC when he conquered the Parthia region in Iran's northeast, then a satrapy (province) in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. Mithridates I of Parthia (r. c. 171–138 BC) greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now south-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, though it eventually saw a gradual revival of Iranian traditions. The Arsacid rulers were titled the "King of Kings", as a claim to be the heirs to the Achaemenid Empire; indeed, they accepted many local kings as vassals where the Achaemenids would have had centrally appointed, albeit largely autonomous, satraps. The court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of central government shifted from Nisa, Turkmenistan to Ctesiphon along the Tigris (south of modern Baghdad, Iraq), although several other sites also served as capitals.
wn.com/Parthian_Empire -
Poland
Polandi/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
wn.com/Poland -
RAF Habbaniya
Coordinates: 33°22′37.0″N 43°34′4.0″E / 33.37694°N 43.56778°E / 33.37694; 43.56778
Royal Air Force Station Habbaniya, more commonly known as RAF Habbaniya, (originally RAF Dhibban) was a Royal Air Force station at Habbaniyah, about 55 miles (89 km) west of Baghdad in modern day Iraq, on the banks of the Euphrates near Lake Habbaniyah. It was operational from October 1936 until the 31 May 1959 when the British were finally withdrawn following the July 1958 Revolution.
It remained a major Iraqi military airbase.
RAF Habbaniya was constructed on the west bank of the Euphrates and opened on 19 October 1936. The squadrons, units and headquarters and the hospital gradually moved in from RAF Hinaidi, Baghdad, which was vacated by the British and re-named "Rashid Airfield" by the Iraqis. Originally called RAF Dhibban, the station was re-named RAF Habbaniya on 1 May 1938. The station was a large flying training school during World War II, as well as a transport staging airfield. During the Rashid Ali rebellion in 1941 the airfield was besieged by the Iraqi Army encamped on the overlooking plateau. On 2 May 1941, British forces from the airfield launched pre-emptive airstrikes on Iraqi forces throughout Iraq and the Anglo-Iraqi War began. The siege was lifted by the units based at Habbaniya, including pilots from the training school, a battalion of the King's Own Royal Regiment flown in at the last moment, Number 1 Armoured Car Company RAF and the RAF's Iraq Levies. The subsequent arrival of a relief column (Kingcol), part of Habforce sent from Palestine, then a British mandate, combined with the Habbaniya units to force the rebel forces to retreat to Baghdad.
wn.com/RAF_Habbaniya -
Russia
Russiai/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
wn.com/Russia -
Sadr City
Sadr City (Arabic: مدينة الصدر - Madinat aṣ-Ṣadr) is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
Sadr City (or more accurately Thawra District — Arabic: حيّ الثورة - ħayy ath-Thawra) is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. A public housing project neglected by Saddam Hussein, Sadr City holds more than 3 millions Shiite residents.
Sadr City was built in Iraq in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. At the time named Revolution City (مدينة ألثورة "Al-Thawra"), it provided housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, and resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 was strong there.
In 1982, following the Saddam Hussein coup, the district was renamed Saddam City, in honor of Saddam Hussein, the Baath Party leader. After the foreign occupation of Baghdad in April 2003, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
wn.com/Sadr_City -
Serbia
Serbiai/ˈsɜrbiə/, officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија / Republika Srbija, pronounced [rɛpǔblika sř̩bija]), is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the west; additionally, it borders Albania through Kosovo, whose status as part of Serbia is disputed. Serbia covers an area of 88,361 km2 and has a population of just over 7.1 million, while the capital and largest city is Belgrade.
The arrival of the Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century, established several states, eventually forming the Serbian Empire in the 14th century. By the 16th century, Serbia was conquered and occupied by the Ottoman Empire, at times interrupted by the Habsburgs. In the early 19th century the Serbian revolution re-established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism in the Balkans. The former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina united with Serbia in 1918. Following World War I, Serbia formed Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples which existed in several forms up until 2006, when the National Assembly of Serbia declared independence and the legal succession to the former State Union. In February 2008 the parliament of UNMIK-governed Kosovo, Serbia's southern province, declared independence, with mixed responses from international governments.
wn.com/Serbia -
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
wn.com/Soviet_Union -
Switzerland
Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2 (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.
wn.com/Switzerland -
Syrian Desert
The Syrian Desert (Arabic: بادية الشام, bādiyat ash-shām), also known as the Syro-Arabian desert is a combination of steppe and true desert that is located in the northern Arabian Peninsula covering 200,000 square miles (over 500,000 square kilometers). The desert is very rocky and flat.
The Syrian desert is part of the Al-Hamad, which covers portions of Syria, Iraq, Jordan,and Saudi Arabia. Its border on the west is the Orontes Valley, and its border on the east is the Euphrates. In the north, the desert gives way to the more fertile areas of grass. In the south, it runs into the deserts of the southern Arabian Peninsula. Many mini-deserts exist in the Syrian Desert such as Palmyra. Damascus is located on an oasis. The desert's remarkable landscape was formed by lava flows from the volcanic region of the Jebel Druze in southern Syria. The Syrian Desert is the origin of the Syrian hamster.
The desert was historically inhabited by bedouin tribes, and many tribes still remain in the region, their members living mainly in towns and settlements built near oases. Some bedouin still maintain their traditional way of life in the desert. Safaitic inscriptions, proto-Arabic texts written by literate bedouin, are found throughout the Syrian Desert. These date approximately from the 1st century B.C. to the 4th century A.D.
wn.com/Syrian_Desert -
Tigris
The Tigris River (/ˈtaɪɡrɪs/; Arabic: دجله) is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.
The Tigris is 1,850 km long, rising in the Taurus Mountains of eastern Turkey about 25 km southeast of the city of Elazig and about 30 km from the headwaters of the Euphrates. The river then flows for 400 km through Turkish territory before becoming the border between Syria and Turkey. This stretch of 44 km is the only part of the river that is located in Syria. The remaining 1,418 km are entirely within the Iraqi borders.
The Tigris unites with the Euphrates near Basra, and from this junction to the Persian Gulf the mass of moving water is known as the Shatt-al-Arab. According to Pliny and other ancient historians, the Euphrates originally had its outlet into the sea separate from that of the Tigris.
Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, stands on the banks of the Tigris. The port city of Basra straddles the Shatt al-Arab. In ancient times, many of the great cities of Mesopotamia stood on or near the Tigris, drawing water from it to irrigate the civilization of the Sumerians. Notable Tigris-side cities included Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Seleucia, while the city of Lagash was irrigated by the Tigris via a canal dug around 2400 BC.
wn.com/Tigris -
Tulkarm
Tulkarem or Tulkarm (Arabic: طولكرم, Ṭūlkarm; Hebrew: טול כרם) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the northern Samarian mountain range in the Tulkarm Governorate. The Israeli cities of Netanya and Haifa are to the west, the Palestinian Nablus and Jenin to the east. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2007 Tulkarm had a population 0f 51,300 while its adjacent refugee camp had a population of 10,641.
"Tulkarem" means "the bountiful mountain." The Arabic name is derived from the Aramaic words "Toor Karma," meaning "mount of vineyards."
Tulkarm was founded by the Mamluks in the 13th century. It was established as a waqf to support al-Jawhariyya Madrasa, an Islamic religious school. The elite families of Tulkarm were the administrators of this trust, which granted them higher social and economic status. The population was increased through intermarriage with families fleeing clan violence and family feuds.
In 1596, Tulkarm appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Qaqun of the Liwa of Nablus. The largest village in the nahiya, Tulkarm had a population of 176 Muslim households (roughly 968 persons) and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats, beehives and a press for olives or grapes.
wn.com/Tulkarm -
Turkey
Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
wn.com/Turkey -
Umm Qasr
Umm Qasr (Arabic: أم قصر, also transliterated as : Um-qasir, Um-qasser), is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is separated from the border of Kuwait by a small inlet. A bridge across the waterway linked the port with Kuwait prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Umm Qasr was originally a small fishing town, but was used as a military port on several occasions before advancing trades and jobs by building a deep-water port on the coast. It was said to have been the site of Alexander the Great's landing in Mesopotamia in 325 BC. During the Second World War a temporary port was established there by the Allies to unload supplies to dispatch to the Soviet Union. It fell back into obscurity after the war, but the government of King Faisal II sought to establish a permanent port there in the 1950s.
After the Iraqi Revolution of 1958, a naval base was established at Umm Qasr. The port was subsequently founded in 1961 by the Iraqi ruler General Abdul-Karim Qassem. It was intended to serve as Iraq's only "deep water" port, reducing the country's dependence on the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the border with Iran. The port facilities were built by a consortium of companies from West Germany, Sweden and Lebanon, with a railway line connecting it to Basra and Baghdad. The port opened for business in July 1967.
wn.com/Umm_Qasr -
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emiratesi/juːˌnaɪtɨd ˌærəb ˈɛmɪrɨts/ (Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة, Al Imārāt al ‘Arabīyah al Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates or the UAE, is a country situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing sea borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north.
The UAE is a federation of seven emirates (equivalent to principalities), each governed by a hereditary emir, with a single national president. The constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities.
Prior to independence in 1971, the UAE was known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in reference to a 19th-century truce between the local sheikhs, hereditary rulers of the territories, and the United Kingdom. The term Pirate Coast was also used by some to refer to the emirates from the 18th to the early 20th century, owing to the preponderance of pirates operating from Emirati ports.
wn.com/United_Arab_Emirates -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
wn.com/United_Kingdom -
West Bank
The West Bank (Arabic: الضفة الغربية aḍ-Ḍaffah l-Ġarbiyyah, Hebrew: הגדה המערבית, HaGadah HaMa'aravit also known as Hebrew: יהודה והשומרון Yehuda ve-Ha'Shomron (Judea and Samaria)) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The West Bank also contains a significant coastline along the western bank of the Dead Sea. Since 1967, most of the West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation and is referred to as Judea and Samaria Area by Israel. A smaller part of the West Bank is administered by the Israeli civilian authorities as part of Jerusalem District.
wn.com/West_Bank -
Zagros Mountains
The Zagros Mountains (Arabic: جبال زغروس, Aramaic: ܛܘܪ ܙܪܓܣ, Kurdish: زنجیرهچیاکانی زاگرۆس, Lurish: کو یه لی زاگروس, Persian: رشته كوه زاگرس) are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq. With a total length of 1,500 km (932 mi), from northwestern Iran, and roughly correlating with Iran's western border, the Zagros range spans the whole length of the western and southwestern Iranian plateau and ends at the Strait of Hormuz. The highest points in the Zagros Mountains are Zard Kuh-bakhtiari and Dena. The Hazaran massif in the Kerman province of Iran forms an eastern outlier of the range, the Jebal Barez reaching into Sistan.
The Zagros fold and thrust belt was formed by collision of two tectonic plates — the Eurasian and Arabian Plates. Recent GPS measurements in Iran have shown that this collision is still active and the resulting deformation is distributed non-uniformly in the country, mainly taken up in the major mountain belts like Alborz and Zagros. A relatively dense GPS network which covered the Zagros in the Iranian part also proves a high rate of deformation within the Zagros. The GPS results show that the current rate of shortening in SE Zagros is ~10 mm/yr and ~5mm/yr in the NW Zagros. The NS strike-slip Kazerun fault divides the Zagros into two distinct zones of deformation. The GPS results also show different shortening directions along the belt, i.e. normal shortening in the South-East and oblique shortening in the NW Zagros.
wn.com/Zagros_Mountains
-
Abdul Rahman Arif
Hajj Abdul Rahman Mohammed Arif Aljumaily (Arabic عبد الرحمن محمد عارف الجميلي`Abd al-Raḥmān `Ārif) (1916 – August 24, 2007) was the third President of Iraq from April 16, 1966 to July 17, 1968.
He was a career soldier, and supported the military coup in 1958 that overthrew the monarchy. He also supported the coup that brought his brother, Abdul Salam Arif, to power in 1963. His brother appointed him head of the army following the coup, and when the younger Arif died in a helicopter crash in April 1966 (a probable act of sabotage), Prime Minister Abdul Rahman al-Bazzaz became acting president; three days later, al-Bazzaz was chosen to become president, then al-Bazzaz immediately relinquished the presidency to Abdul Rahman Arif. The transfer of power possibly occurred because the Iraqi military thought that Abdul Salam should be succeeded by his weak and easier to manipulate brother instead. Arif was appointed president by the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council. He continued his brother's policies, but with a more nationalistic profile.
wn.com/Abdul_Rahman_Arif -
Abdul Salam Arif
Abdul Salam Mohammed Arif Aljumaily (Arabic: عبد السلام محمد عارف الجميلي`Abd as-Salām `Ārif Al-jumaili) (21 March 1921 – 13 April 1966) was the second President of Iraq from 1963 till his death. He played a leading role in the coup in which the Hashemite monarchy was overthrown on July 14, 1958.
Along with Abdel Karim Qasim and other Iraqi military officers, Arif was a member of the clandestine organisation, the Free Officers of Iraq. During the summer of 1958, Prime Minister Nuri as-Said ordered Iraqi troops under Arif to aid Jordan, as part of an agreement of the Arab Federation. Instead, however, he led his army units into Baghdad and on July 14 launched a coup against the Hashemite monarchy. Qasim formed a government under the newly-proclaimed republic and Arif, his chief aide, was appointed deputy prime minister, interior minister, and deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Almost immediately however, tensions rose between the pan-Arabist Arif and Iraqi nationalist Qasim who also had the support of the Iraqi Communist Party. The former supported a union with the United Arab Republic (UAR)—composed of Egypt and Syria—under president Gamal Abdel Nasser, but the latter opposed merging with the UAR. As a result, the two leaders engaged in a power struggle, ending in Qasim prevailing and the removal of Arif from his positions on September 12. He was appointed the low-ranking post of ambassador to Bonn. Arif refused to take up the post and upon returning to Baghdad on November 4, he was promptly arrested for plotting against the state. He was sentenced to death along with Rashid Ali al-Gaylani in February 1959. Qasim had him released in November 1961.
wn.com/Abdul_Salam_Arif -
Abu Deraa
Abu Deraa ("Father of the Shield") (Arabic: أبو درع) is an Iraqi Shia warlord whose men have been accused of terrorizing and killing Sunnis. His aim has apparently been to avenge Shia deaths at the hands of Sunni militants in Iraq, though he has stated that he is fighting for all Iraqis and only targets the 'occupiers'.
Abu Deraa is this person's nom de guerre, not his real name. Some reports say that his real name is Ismail Al Lami (Arabic: اسماعيل اللامي) or Ismail Hafidh (Arabic:اسماعيل حافظ)
Abu Deraa operated out of Sadr City, which is also the stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army. He has gained a reputation for his command of Shiite death squads and brutal attacks targeting Sunni Muslims and cases of mass kidnappings in broad daylight. Many Shiites see him as a brave warrior who has inflicted misery on Sunni insurgents but Sunnis see him as a sectarian warlord who targets Sunnis because of their background.
He was also accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assassination of Saddam Hussein's lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi. Abu Deraa's son was reported to have pulled the trigger. He is thought to have been recently disavowed, at least tacitly, by Muqtada al-Sadr due to his unmitigated killing sprees.
wn.com/Abu_Deraa -
Abu Theeb
Abu Theeb is the pseudonym of a leader of a Sunni group taking part in the Iraqi insurgency, operating north of Baghdad.
They are engaged in armed struggle against the forces of the US and the US-backed Iraqi government. His group had a dispute with Al-Qaida over tactics in relation to the referendum on the Iraqi constitution in October 2005; they supported a boycott, and his group supported a "no" vote. He also opposed Al-Qaida over indiscriminate attacks on Iraqi Shias.
During the time of the referendum a journalist from The Guardian spent five days with his group, and wrote a report.
wn.com/Abu_Theeb -
Abud Qanbar
Lieutenant General Abud Qanbar is a military officer in the Iraqi military. On January 13, 2007, he was appointed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki as the Iraqi commander for the Baghdad Operational Command, which controls all Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and is charged with securing the capital.
He was a commander in the navy during Saddam Hussein's reign, has not worked with American military officials, who say they know little about him other than that he hails from Amarah, a city in Iraq's Shiite-dominated south, and that he was taken prisoner by American forces near Kuwait during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Qanbar took part in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, and the war over Kuwait in 1990-91. In the latter, he commanded a garrison on the Kuwaiti island of Failaka, and was taken prisoner by U.S. Marines. Once released, he was posted in Basra where he refused to take part in crushing the Shiite revolt. That led to his unofficial exclusion from positions of command under Saddam.
His Chief of Staff is Major General Hassan, and his Chief of Plans is Staff Colonel Abd Alamir.
wn.com/Abud_Qanbar -
Ali Ghaidan Majid
Lt. General Ali Ghaidan Majid (born 1950/1951) is currently the commander of all Iraqi Army ground forces under Iraqi control. (Two of the Iraqi Army's 10 divisions, the 5th and 7th, are under American command.) He is from the Balad Ruz area of Diyala province, Iraq. He served in the Iraqi Army during the regime of Saddam Hussein, but like a number of other generals, was imprisoned by Saddam following the Gulf War.
wn.com/Ali_Ghaidan_Majid -
Andrew Krepinevich
Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr. is a defense policy analyst who currently serves as President of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
A West Point graduate, Krepinevich spent 21 years in the U.S. Army, serving on the personal staff of three Defense Secretaries and in the Office of Net Assessment. While in the Army, Krepinevich received a Ph.D. from Harvard University and published an influential book, The Army and Vietnam, in which he argued that the United States could have won the Vietnam War had the Army adopted a small-unit pacification strategy in South Vietnam's villages, rather than conducting search and destroy operations in remote jungles. While working for the Office of Net Assessment in 1992, Krepinevich authored "The Military-Technical Revolution: A Preliminary Assessment," an influential document in the development of thinking about the "Revolution in Military Affairs."
Following his retirement from the Army, Krepinevich assumed his current position as director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a non-profit think tank focused on defense and national security issues. While at CSBA he has served on the National Defense Panel and Defense Policy Board, and advised senior military and civilian policymakers. In 2005, he published an influential Foreign Affairs article on "How to Win in Iraq". Informed by Krepinevich's previous research on Vietnam, the article called for the adoption of a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy much like the approach implemented during the "Surge" of U.S. forces two years later. In 2009 he published 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century, which presents seven hypothetical scenarios that would severely challenge the U.S. military. His recent work has frequently addressed the challenges posed by the modernization of China's military forces, Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the proliferation of precision-guided munitions.
wn.com/Andrew_Krepinevich -
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people, most commonly known as Assyrians and other later names, such as: Chaldeans, Syrians, Syriacs (see names of Syriac Christians), are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia. They are Eastern Aramaic speaking Semites who trace their ancestry back to the Sumero-Akkadian civilisation that emerged in Mesopotamia circa 4000- 3500 BC, and in particular to the northern region of the Akkadian lands, which would become known as Assyria by the 24th Century BC. The Assyrian nation existed as an independent state, and often a powerful empire, from the 24th century BC until the end of the 7th century BC.
Today that ancient territory is part of several nations; Assyria remained a Geo-political entity after its fall, and was ruled as an occupied province under the rule of various empires from the late 7th century BC until the mid 7th century AD when it was dissolved, and the Assyrian people have gradually become a minority in their homelands since that time. They are indigenous to, and have traditionally lived all over what is now Iraq, north east Syria, north west Iran, and Southeastern Turkey. They are predominantly Christian.
wn.com/Assyrian_people -
Civil war in Iraq
Following the U.S.-launched 2003 invasion of Iraq, the situation deteriorated, and by 2007, the intercommunal violence between Iraqi Sunni and Shi'a factions was described by the National Intelligence Estimate as having elements of a civil war. In a January 10, 2007 address to the American people, President George W. Bush stated that "80% of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles (48 km) of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis." Two polls of Americans conducted in 2006 found that between 65% to 85% believed Iraq was in a civil war; however, a similar poll of Iraqis conducted in 2007 found that 61% did not believe that they were in a civil war.
In October 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iraqi government estimated that more than 365,000 Iraqis had been displaced since the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, bringing the total number of Iraqi refugees to more than 1.6 million. By 2008, the UNHCR raised the estimate of refugees to a total of about 4.7 million (~16% of the population). The number of refugees estimated abroad was 2 million (a number close to CIA projections) and the number of internally displaced people was 2.7 million. In 2007, Iraq's anti-corruption board reported that 35% of Iraqi children, or about five million children, were orphans. The Red Cross has also stated that Iraq's humanitarian situation remains among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources.
wn.com/Civil_war_in_Iraq -
David Petraeus
David Howell Petraeus (pronunciation: /pɨˈtreɪ.əs/; born November 7, 1952) is the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was sworn in on September 6, 2011. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus was a four-star general serving over 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010 to July 18, 2011. His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as Commanding General, Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008. As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.
Petraeus has a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy from which he graduated in 1974 as a distinguished cadet (top 5% of his class). He was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983. He subsequently earned an M.P.A. in 1985 and a Ph.D. degree in International Relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He later served as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.
wn.com/David_Petraeus -
Faisal I of Iraq
Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi, (Arabic: فيصل بن حسين بن علي الهاشمي Fayṣal ibn Ḥusayn; 20 May 1885 – 8 September 1933) was for a short time King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of the Kingdom of Iraq (today Iraq) from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty.
Faisal encouraged overcoming cleavage between Sunni and Shiite to foster common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. While in power, Faisal tried to diversify his administration by including different ethnic and religious groups in offices. He faced great challenges in achieving this because the region was under European, specifically French and British, control and other Arab leaders of the time were hostile to his ideas as they pursued their own political aspirations for power. In addition, Faisal’s attempt at pan-Arab nationalism inevitably isolated certain religious groups.
wn.com/Faisal_I_of_Iraq -
Faisal II of Iraq
Faisal II (Arabic: الملك فيصل الثاني Al-Malik Fayṣal Ath-thānī) (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was killed during the 14 July Revolution together with several members of his family. Faisal's regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven year old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which became a republic.
Faisal was the only son of Iraq's second king, Ghazi, and his wife Queen Aliya, second daughter of 'Ali bin Hussein, King of the Hijaz and Grand Sharif of Mecca. His father was killed in a mysterious car crash when Faisal was three years old; Faisal's uncle 'Abd al-Ilah served as regent until he came of age in 1953.
King Faisal was the model used by Belgian comic writer Hergé for his character Prince Abdullah of Khemed in The Adventures of Tintin. He suffered from asthma.
The young monarch's early minority coincided with World War II, in which Iraq was formally allied with the British Empire and the Allies. In April 1941, his uncle was briefly deposed as Regent by a military coup d'état which aimed to align Iraq with the Axis powers. The 1941 coup in Iraq soon led to the Anglo-Iraqi War. Promised German aid never materialized, however, and Ilah was restored to power by a combined Allied force composed of the Jordanian Arab Legion, the Royal Air Force and other British units. Iraq resumed its British alliance, and joined the United Nations.
wn.com/Faisal_II_of_Iraq -
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein (Arabic: جمال عبد الناصر حسين, IPA: [ɡæˈmæːl ʕæbdenˈnɑːsˤeɾ ħeˈseːn]; 15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of modernization, and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism, including a short-lived union with Syria.
Nasser is seen as one of the most important political figures in both modern Arab history and politics in the 20th century. Under his leadership, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company and came to play a central role in anti-imperialist efforts in the Arab World and Africa. The imposed ending to the Suez Crisis made him a hero throughout the Arab world. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the international Non-Aligned Movement. He is well known for his nationalist policies and version of pan-Arabism, also referred to as Nasserism, which won a great following in the Arab World during the 1950s and 1960s. Although his status as "leader of the Arabs" was badly damaged by the Israeli victory over the Arab armies in the Six-Day War, as well as Egypt's failure to win the subsequent War of Attrition against Israel, many in the general Arab population still view Nasser as a symbol of Arab dignity and freedom.
wn.com/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser -
Hashemite
Hashemite is the Latinate version of the Arabic: هاشمي, transliteration: Hāšimī, and traditionally refers to those belonging to the Banu Hashim, or "clan of Hashim", a clan within the larger Quraish tribe. It also refers to an Arab dynasty whose original strength stemmed from the network of tribal alliances and blood loyalties in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia, along the Red Sea.
The Hashemites trace their ancestry from Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf (died c. 510 AD), the great-grandfather of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, although the definition today mainly refers to the descendants of the prophet's daughter, Fatimah. The early history of the Hashemites saw them in a continuous struggle against the Umayyads for control over who would be the caliph or successor to Muhammad. The Umayyads were of the same tribe as the Hashemites, but a different clan. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, the Abbasids would present themselves as representatives of the Hashemites, as they claimed descent from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, an uncle of Muhammad. Muhammad's father had died before he was born, and his mother died while he was a child[citation needed], so Muhammad was raised by his uncle Abu Talib, chief of the Hashemites.
wn.com/Hashemite -
Iraqi people
The Iraqi people (Arabic: العراقيون ʿIrāqīyūn, Kurdish: گهلی عیراق Îraqîyan, Aramaic: ܥܡܐ ܥܝܪܩܝܐ ʿIrāqāyā) or Mesopotamian people (Arabic: شعب بلاد ما بين النهرين) are the native inhabitants of the country of Iraq, (also known as Mesopotamia), and their related diaspora. From late Assyrian and Babylonian times until the early Islamic era, the Iraqi people spoke Aramaic but also witnessed a minority Arab presence.
Arabic had been a minority language in Iraq since the 8th century BC, it was spoken in Hatra in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and by Iraqi Christians in Al-Hirah from the 3rd century, and from the 8th century following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia it became the common language of Iraqi Muslims, due to Arabic being the language of the Qur'an and the Caliphate. This change was facilitated by the fact that Arabic being a Semitic language, shared a close resemblance to Iraq's traditional languages of Akkadian and Aramaic. Some of Iraq's Christians and Mandaeans retained dialects of Aramaic, since it remained the liturgical language of their faiths. Kurdish-speaking Iraqis live in the mountainous Zagros region of northeast Iraq to the east of the upper Tigris. The Kurds and Arabs of Mesopotamia have interacted and intermarried for well over a millennium. Modern genetic studies indicate that Iraqi Arabs and Kurds are very closely related. Arabic and Kurdish are Iraq's national languages.
wn.com/Iraqi_people -
Kalev Sepp
Dr. Kalev I. Sepp is presently Senior Lecturer in Defense Analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Until January 2009, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations Capabilities.
Dr. Sepp was responsible for the United States Department of Defense global counterterrorism portfolio. This included policy oversight of all special operations worldwide, and formulation of the Department’s global counterterrorism strategy. He received his appointment in July 2007.
A former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, he earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University, and his Combat Infantryman Badge in the Salvadoran Civil War. His unit assignments included the 82d Airborne Division, the 2d Ranger Battalion, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and the 2d Infantry Division, among others. He was also an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
He served as an analyst and strategist in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as an expert member of the Baker-Hamilton Bipartisan Commission on Iraq, a.k.a. the Iraq Study Group. For his service in Iraq and the Pentagon, he has been awarded the Department of the Navy Superior Civilian Service Medal, the Department of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism, and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service.
wn.com/Kalev_Sepp -
King of Syria
The King of Syria, was the title briefly used following the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I. Faysal ibn Husayn of the House of Hashim was proclaimed King of Greater Syria on 8 March 1920 in Damascus, following the Arab revolt against the Ottomans of 1916–1918.
His accession was not recognized by France or the United Kingdom, the two new imperial powers in the region, and on 23 July 1920 the French moved 9000 troops towards Damascus resulting in the Battle of Maysalun. Faisal was expelled from Syria on 25 July and took exile in the United Kingdom. On 10 August, the Treaty of Sèvres divided the region into League of Nations mandates governed by France and the United Kingdom. Following mass revolts in Mesopotamia, the British government decided to step back from direct administration and create a monarchy to head Iraq while they maintained the mandate. Faisal agreed to become King following a referendum showing 96% in favour, and on 23 August 1921, Faisal was crowned King of Iraq.
wn.com/King_of_Syria -
Kurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds (Kurdish: کورد Kurd), are an Iranic people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They speak the Kurdish language, which is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. The Kurds number about 30 million, the majority living in the Middle East, with significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in Armenia, Georgia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia, Lebanon and, in recent decades, some European countries and the United States. The Kurds are an indigenous ethnic minority in countries where the Kurdistan region is located, although they have enjoyed partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991. An irredentist movement pushes for the creation of a Kurdish nation state.
The exact origins of the name, "Kurd", are unclear. Reynolds believes that the term Kurd is most likely related to the ancient term Qardu. The common root of Kurd and Qardu is first mentioned in a Sumerian tablet from the third millennium B.C. as the "land of Kar-da." Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu corresponding to Ararat. According to Asatrian, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym is its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei)
wn.com/Kurdish_people -
Mandaeans
Mandaeism or Mandaeanism (Modern Mandaic: Mandaʻiūtā (מנדעיותא); Arabic: مندائية Mandāʼīyah/Mandāʾiyyah; Persian: مندائیان Mandâ'iyân) is a gnostic religion[citation needed] (Aramaic manda means "knowledge", as does Greek gnosis) with a strongly dualistic worldview.
Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram and especially John the Baptist, but reject Jesus of Nazareth and are hostile to Christianity. They are sometimes identified with mentions in the Quran of the Sabian religion, particularly in an Arabian context, but the Sabian religious community is extinct today.
According to most scholars, Mandaeans migrated from the Southern Levant to Mesopotamia in the first centuries CE and are certainly of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic origin. They are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. They may well be related to the "Nabateans of Iraq" who were pagan, Aramaic speaking indigenous pre-Arab and pre-Islamic inhabitants of southern Iraq.
wn.com/Mandaeans -
Mustafa Barzani
Mustafa Barzani (Kurdish: Mistefa Barzani) (March 14, 1903 – March 1, 1979) also known as Mullah Mustafa was a Kurdish nationalist leader, and the most prominent political figure in the modern Kurdish politics. In 1946 he was chosen as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to lead the Kurdish revolution against Iraqi regimes. Barzani was the primary political and military leader of the Kurdish revolution until his death in March 1979. He led campaigns of armed struggle against both the Iraqi and Iranian governments.
Mustafa Barzani was born in 1903 in Barzan, a village in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, (then part of the Ottoman Empire). Following an insurrection launched by his tribe, he was moved along with his mother and the rest of his family in to jail, when Barzani was only at the age of 5 years. His father, grandfather, and a brother were later executed by the Ottoman authorities for other insurrections. At an early age he joined other tribal fighters in aiding Sheikh Barzinji's revolt against the British in Iraq.
wn.com/Mustafa_Barzani -
Paul Eaton
Major General Paul D. Eaton is a retired United States Army General most known for his command of operations to train Iraqi troops in George W. Bush's invasion of that country. General Eaton served in that capacity between 2003 and 2004, until he returned to the US to become Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Training, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, Fort Monroe, Virginia. He currently serves as Senior Adviser to the National Security Network, a progressive Washington, DC think tank that focuses on foreign policy and defense issues.
Paul Eaton was raised in Oklahoma. His father, Col. Norman Dale Eaton, USAF, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1949 and went on to become an Air Force pilot. He was shot down over Laos in December 1969 and was listed as missing in action for many years.[1] His remains were recovered in 2004, identified, and buried at Arlington National Cemetery in early 2007.
Paul Eaton's wife, P.J., is a daughter of a United States Marine Corps Colonel and a former Army lieutenant who now counsels perpetrators of domestic violence. They were married in 1973. His eldest son is a University of Washington graduate. His second son graduated from West Point and is an infantry captain. He has a daughter, a graduate of the University of Florida.
wn.com/Paul_Eaton -
Qadir Obeidi
Lt. Gen. Abdul Qadir Mohammed Jassim Obeidi al-Mifarji' (Arabic: عبدالقادر محمد جاسم عبيدي المفارجي) was the Defence Minister of Iraq in the Council of Ministers of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from 2006 to 2010. He was not reappointed in the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved on 21 December 2010; as a result, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is the acting defence minister.
He was born in Ramadi and is a Sunni Arab former general in the army of Saddam Hussein. He told the Council of Representatives that he had been demoted after opposing the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and was sentenced to seven years jail in 1994. In 2003, he joined the new Iraqi army, serving first as the commander of the operations room and then commander of military operations in western Iraq. Prior to his appointment as Minister on 8 June 2006, he was commander of the infantry commando units.
During his confirmation hearing in the Council of Representatives one Assembly member accused him of being a "war criminal in a military campaign against the city of Fallujah."
wn.com/Qadir_Obeidi -
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organisation Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region, which espoused ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup, later referred to as the 17 July Revolution, that brought the party to long-term power of Iraq.
As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflict between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and other industries. The state-owned banks were put under his control, leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatuses of government as oil money helped Iraq's economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were filled with Sunnis, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.
wn.com/Saddam_Hussein -
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
wn.com/World_War_I
Send this Playlist by SMS
Email this Page
Saddam Hussain Iraqi Army Parade Video
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:02
- Updated: 26 Feb 2013
Iraqi army parade and Saddam Hussain. Peaceful Iraq under Saddam Hussain
http://wn.com/Saddam_Hussain_Iraqi_Army_Parade_Video
Iraqi army parade and Saddam Hussain. Peaceful Iraq under Saddam Hussain
Iraq army song★ last message★ warning to all terrorist.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:01
- Updated: 28 Feb 2013
we will defeat all saudi terrorist in iraq we shall destroy al-qaeda and saudi terrorist
http://wn.com/Iraq_army_song★_last_message★_warning_to_all_terrorist
we will defeat all saudi terrorist in iraq we shall destroy al-qaeda and saudi terrorist
- published: 02 Oct 2012
- views: 4680
- author: TheIRAQ2013
الجيش العراقي الجديد Iraqi army accused child 12 years of terrorism
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:53
- Updated: 27 Feb 2013
Iraqi army accused child 12 years of terrorism الحكم في العراق هههههه الجيش العراقي الجديد يخاف من طفله تبلغ من العمر 12 سنة ويتهمها بالارهاب
http://wn.com/الجيش_العراقي_الجديد_Iraqi_army_accused_child_12_years_of_terrorism
Iraqi army accused child 12 years of terrorism الحكم في العراق هههههه الجيش العراقي الجديد يخاف من طفله تبلغ من العمر 12 سنة ويتهمها بالارهاب
- published: 25 Feb 2013
- views: 170
- author: nomanoma noma
'Free Iraqi Army' formed by Jihadists in Iraq
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:20
- Updated: 20 Feb 2013
A Jihadist organisation calling itself the 'Free Iraqi Army,' named after the Syrian insurgents often referred to as the 'Free Syrian Army is said to have been formed in Iraq with the purpose of toppling the government. This video was released by the group although I have not been able to confirm the date on which the footage was taken. Mentions of the so called 'Free Iraqi Army' first appeared in late August 2012 and since then it has been subject of speculation in Iraqi media and on Jihadist forums. The Jihadist formation which has been subject to controversy and of which little is known appears to have close ties to Al Qaeda. It's emergence suggests that some Sunni extremists in Iraq wish to emulate the success the Syrian rebels have enjoyed in portraying themselves as 'freedom fighters' despite their own strong links to Al Qaeda. Such success was in no small part due to the use of the largely meaningless 'Free Syrian Army' slogan popularised in the West but of little value due to the fact that Syria's most powerful insurgent groups do not answer to the Turkey based 'Free Syrian Army' commanders whose genuine influence is all but non-existent but otherwise useful in presenting a false image of unity to outside observers.
http://wn.com/'Free_Iraqi_Army'_formed_by_Jihadists_in_Iraq
A Jihadist organisation calling itself the 'Free Iraqi Army,' named after the Syrian insurgents often referred to as the 'Free Syrian Army is said to have been formed in Iraq with the purpose of toppling the government. This video was released by the group although I have not been able to confirm the date on which the footage was taken. Mentions of the so called 'Free Iraqi Army' first appeared in late August 2012 and since then it has been subject of speculation in Iraqi media and on Jihadist forums. The Jihadist formation which has been subject to controversy and of which little is known appears to have close ties to Al Qaeda. It's emergence suggests that some Sunni extremists in Iraq wish to emulate the success the Syrian rebels have enjoyed in portraying themselves as 'freedom fighters' despite their own strong links to Al Qaeda. Such success was in no small part due to the use of the largely meaningless 'Free Syrian Army' slogan popularised in the West but of little value due to the fact that Syria's most powerful insurgent groups do not answer to the Turkey based 'Free Syrian Army' commanders whose genuine influence is all but non-existent but otherwise useful in presenting a false image of unity to outside observers.
- published: 08 Sep 2012
- views: 2268
- author: SyrianRebelWatch
Marines Fight Insurgents In Iraq
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:00
- Updated: 01 Mar 2013
B-roll of US Marines and Iraqi Army personnel battling insurgents. Scenes include Soldiers taking cover, advancing on a target, and firing upon insurgents. Subscribe To The Fastest Growing Armed Forces Channel Here www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Marines_Fight_Insurgents_In_Iraq
B-roll of US Marines and Iraqi Army personnel battling insurgents. Scenes include Soldiers taking cover, advancing on a target, and firing upon insurgents. Subscribe To The Fastest Growing Armed Forces Channel Here www.youtube.com
- published: 26 Feb 2013
- views: 2309
- author: ArmedForcesFootage
Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces Engage Insurgents
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:39
- Updated: 20 Jan 2013
Video of Iraqi army and coalition forces engaging in a fire fight with insurgents. Scenes include Soldiers firing from building tops, tanks engaging insurgents while being fired on by insurgents. Produced by Spc. Michael Kimball. Ifyou like this video take a look at some of the over 2000+ other videos with 12 million views on this channel! www.youtube.com You can also follow us Facebook now! Search the name "Military Videos" we are adding photos from the Frontlines also!! Also on Twitter at "3rdID8487"!!
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army_and_Coalition_Forces_Engage_Insurgents
Video of Iraqi army and coalition forces engaging in a fire fight with insurgents. Scenes include Soldiers firing from building tops, tanks engaging insurgents while being fired on by insurgents. Produced by Spc. Michael Kimball. Ifyou like this video take a look at some of the over 2000+ other videos with 12 million views on this channel! www.youtube.com You can also follow us Facebook now! Search the name "Military Videos" we are adding photos from the Frontlines also!! Also on Twitter at "3rdID8487"!!
- published: 31 Jan 2011
- views: 47521
- author: 3rdID8487
General: Iraq's army not ready
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:26
- Updated: 05 Jun 2012
Iraq's senior military chief says US forces should stay until 2020.
http://wn.com/General_Iraq's_army_not_ready
Iraq's senior military chief says US forces should stay until 2020.
- published: 12 Aug 2010
- views: 8116
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
Iraqi Army T-72 MBT Live Fire
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:41
- Updated: 28 Feb 2013
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army_T-72_MBT_Live_Fire
US and Iraqi Army Soldiers Doing Bridge Work in Taji, Iraq
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:01
- Updated: 20 Feb 2013
Package about how together US and Iraqi Soldiers work hand in hand training with the Standard Ribbon Bridge in Taji, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Crystal Cook shows us how with US Forces 299th Combat Engineers from Ft. Belvoir, Va. and Iraqi Army Forces, the Bridge Regiment, 9th Iraqi Army Division. Produced by Staff Sgt. Crystal Cook. Ifyou like this video take a look at some of the over 2400+ other videos with 13.3+ million views on this channel!. You can also follow us Facebook now! Search the name "Military Videos" we are adding photos from the Frontlines also!! Also on Twitter at "3rdID8487"!!
http://wn.com/US_and_Iraqi_Army_Soldiers_Doing_Bridge_Work_in_Taji,_Iraq
Package about how together US and Iraqi Soldiers work hand in hand training with the Standard Ribbon Bridge in Taji, Iraq, Staff Sgt. Crystal Cook shows us how with US Forces 299th Combat Engineers from Ft. Belvoir, Va. and Iraqi Army Forces, the Bridge Regiment, 9th Iraqi Army Division. Produced by Staff Sgt. Crystal Cook. Ifyou like this video take a look at some of the over 2400+ other videos with 13.3+ million views on this channel!. You can also follow us Facebook now! Search the name "Military Videos" we are adding photos from the Frontlines also!! Also on Twitter at "3rdID8487"!!
- published: 04 Mar 2011
- views: 22580
- author: 3rdID8487
Fierce Iraq Firefight
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:11
- Updated: 27 Feb 2013
B-roll of Task Force 1-26 engaged in Operation Baton Rouge, the battle to free Samarra from anti-Iraqi forces. Scenes include Soldiers making barriers with razor wire and position themselves on street with large mosque in the background, Humvees drive forward and more Soldiers move up the street, more gun fire and small explosions are heard. Subscribe To The Fastest Growing Armed Forces Channel Here www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Fierce_Iraq_Firefight
B-roll of Task Force 1-26 engaged in Operation Baton Rouge, the battle to free Samarra from anti-Iraqi forces. Scenes include Soldiers making barriers with razor wire and position themselves on street with large mosque in the background, Humvees drive forward and more Soldiers move up the street, more gun fire and small explosions are heard. Subscribe To The Fastest Growing Armed Forces Channel Here www.youtube.com
- published: 04 Jan 2013
- views: 2886
- author: ArmedForcesFootage
Iraqi Army M1A1 SA Abrams Live Fire
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:10
- Updated: 25 Feb 2013
9th Armored Division Besmaya Combat Training Center, Iraq On December 10, 2008, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the sale under the Foreign Military Sales Program to the Government of Iraq. The case was for the procurement and upgrade of 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks modified and upgraded to the M1A1 SA Abrams configuration as well as associated equipment and services. Iraq is not the first Arab country to operate the M1 tank. Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia already operate over 1600 of them.
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army_M1A1_SA_Abrams_Live_Fire
9th Armored Division Besmaya Combat Training Center, Iraq On December 10, 2008, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the sale under the Foreign Military Sales Program to the Government of Iraq. The case was for the procurement and upgrade of 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks modified and upgraded to the M1A1 SA Abrams configuration as well as associated equipment and services. Iraq is not the first Arab country to operate the M1 tank. Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia already operate over 1600 of them.
- published: 08 Feb 2011
- views: 17812
- author: jaglavaksoldier
kurdistan's special force 2012
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:51
- Updated: 21 Feb 2013
kurdistan's special force heading towwards kirkuk city ti fight against the iraqi army
http://wn.com/kurdistan's_special_force_2012
kurdistan's special force heading towwards kirkuk city ti fight against the iraqi army
- published: 04 Dec 2012
- views: 3655
- author: TheKurdvideo
Iraqi Army T-72 MBT Live Fire
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:19
- Updated: 27 Feb 2013
Watch'em jump at :04...
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army_T-72_MBT_Live_Fire
Louisiana Army National Guard Patrols Along The Wall at Sadr City in Baghdad, IRAQ
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:13
- Updated: 23 Feb 2013
Lt John Owsley of the LANG 39th Military Police Company talks to film makers Phin Percy and Julie Dermansky while patrolling along the Golden Wall which separates Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, from Baghdad, in March of 2009. The agreement we have with Iraq no longer allows for such patrols. The 39th MP CO is now holed up on Victory Base, unable to train the Iraqi Police or take part in these types of patrols, unless escorted by the Iraqi Police or the Iraqi Army.
http://wn.com/Louisiana_Army_National_Guard_Patrols_Along_The_Wall_at_Sadr_City_in_Baghdad,_IRAQ
Lt John Owsley of the LANG 39th Military Police Company talks to film makers Phin Percy and Julie Dermansky while patrolling along the Golden Wall which separates Sadr City, formerly known as Saddam City, from Baghdad, in March of 2009. The agreement we have with Iraq no longer allows for such patrols. The 39th MP CO is now holed up on Victory Base, unable to train the Iraqi Police or take part in these types of patrols, unless escorted by the Iraqi Police or the Iraqi Army.
- published: 07 Sep 2009
- views: 34474
- author: nolafilms
(COMBAT FOOTAGE) Soldiers Engage Insurgents in Iraq
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:31
- Updated: 27 Feb 2013
US Soldiers from 1st Bat, 9th Inf. Reg engage in a firefight with insurgents in Al Anbar, Iraq on March 24th, 2007.
http://wn.com/COMBAT_FOOTAGE_Soldiers_Engage_Insurgents_in_Iraq
US Soldiers from 1st Bat, 9th Inf. Reg engage in a firefight with insurgents in Al Anbar, Iraq on March 24th, 2007.
- published: 02 Aug 2012
- views: 38519
- author: DmIxProductionZ
The Iraqi Army clashes with insurgents in Ramadi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:57
- Updated: 06 Jan 2013
The Iraqi Army clashes with insurgents in Ramadi with the help of a US MITT team.
http://wn.com/The_Iraqi_Army_clashes_with_insurgents_in_Ramadi
The Iraqi Army clashes with insurgents in Ramadi with the help of a US MITT team.
- published: 28 Jan 2007
- views: 55162
- author: antbar88
Operation Iraqi Freedom War Footage
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:19
- Updated: 27 Feb 2013
Video of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Produced by GySgt. Steven Williams. MarinesTV. Exact location and date unknown Like us on Facebook at "US Military" Follow us on Twitter at @3rdID8487 Subscribe for frequent new videos.
http://wn.com/Operation_Iraqi_Freedom_War_Footage
Video of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Produced by GySgt. Steven Williams. MarinesTV. Exact location and date unknown Like us on Facebook at "US Military" Follow us on Twitter at @3rdID8487 Subscribe for frequent new videos.
- published: 07 Feb 2013
- views: 6916
- author: 3rdID8487
I Almost Died - My Real Life Story - Battle Of Mosul Iraq 2004 - BO2 Gameplay
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 10:26
- Updated: 22 Feb 2013
IRAQI INSURGENT VS US ARMY VETERAN FULL BLOWN ARGUMENT IN COMMENTS! Please check out news article that goes with it. www.stripes.com It was by far the scariest moment in my life. I am so lucky to be alive right now. I only tell this story when I am drunk and somebody wants to hear a war story. Now I am sharing it with the whole world. I hope u enjoy it! LET'S CONNECT! Google+ ► plus.google.com Facebook ► www.facebook.com Twitter ► twitter.com My Call of Duty Clan ►www.prisonersofwarus.com Myspace ► http
http://wn.com/I_Almost_Died_My_Real_Life_Story_Battle_Of_Mosul_Iraq_2004_BO2_Gameplay
IRAQI INSURGENT VS US ARMY VETERAN FULL BLOWN ARGUMENT IN COMMENTS! Please check out news article that goes with it. www.stripes.com It was by far the scariest moment in my life. I am so lucky to be alive right now. I only tell this story when I am drunk and somebody wants to hear a war story. Now I am sharing it with the whole world. I hope u enjoy it! LET'S CONNECT! Google+ ► plus.google.com Facebook ► www.facebook.com Twitter ► twitter.com My Call of Duty Clan ►www.prisonersofwarus.com Myspace ► http
- published: 11 Dec 2012
- views: 1503
- author: joshkeatley
US Marines Battle Enemy Forces In Ramadi, Iraq
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:26
- Updated: 28 Feb 2013
US Marines and Iraqi Army Soldiers, with support from Navy SEAL Team 3, engage enemy forces in the city of Ramadi, Iraq. Footage shot in 2006.
http://wn.com/US_Marines_Battle_Enemy_Forces_In_Ramadi,_Iraq
US Marines and Iraqi Army Soldiers, with support from Navy SEAL Team 3, engage enemy forces in the city of Ramadi, Iraq. Footage shot in 2006.
- published: 06 Feb 2012
- views: 102447
- author: USMilitaryVideos
IRAQi army 2 (sawt alwa6an)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:49
- Updated: 15 Feb 2013
sawt alwa6an saddam-iraq.hi5.com
http://wn.com/IRAQi_army_2_sawt_alwa6an
8th Infantry Support Iraqi Infantry
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:18
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Package made from "8th Infantry on Patrol." B-roll in this section about members from the 8th Infantry supporting the Iraqi army in their daily procedures. Produced by Spc. Elisa Scott.
http://wn.com/8th_Infantry_Support_Iraqi_Infantry
Package made from "8th Infantry on Patrol." B-roll in this section about members from the 8th Infantry supporting the Iraqi army in their daily procedures. Produced by Spc. Elisa Scott.
- published: 04 Nov 2008
- views: 7465
- author: 3rdID8487
Speed Reload With the AK-47
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:40
- Updated: 24 Feb 2013
An Iraqi Army Sergeant demonstrates two techniques to change magazines with the AK-47.
http://wn.com/Speed_Reload_With_the_AK-47
An Iraqi Army Sergeant demonstrates two techniques to change magazines with the AK-47.
- published: 01 Jun 2008
- views: 109952
- author: ClayCA92
Iraqi Army-Saddam
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:21
- Updated: 20 Jan 2013
From Iraqi sattelite TV-Saddam Propaganda ---- Come join this great Military forum today! www.globaldefenceforum.com
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army-Saddam
From Iraqi sattelite TV-Saddam Propaganda ---- Come join this great Military forum today! www.globaldefenceforum.com
- published: 28 Apr 2006
- views: 18552
- author: mav333
photo: AP / Ibrahim Zayed
26 Feb 2013
Updated. February 26, 2013 8.35AM. LUXOR, Egypt — A hot air balloon flying over Egypt’s ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists in one of the world’s deadliest ballooning accidents and handing a new blow to Egypt’s ailing tourism industry ... The balloon then shot up in the air, the investigator said ... The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered ... ....(size: 6.2Kb)
photo: AP / Michael Sohn
28 Feb 2013
Pope Benedict pledged his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor Thursday, then left the Vatican as the first Roman Catholic Church leader to resign in 600 years. Benedict flew from the Vatican by helicopter to the papal residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, several hours before his eight-year papacy was to end officially at 8 p.m., local time (1900 UTC) ... Peter's Square after he left ... ....(size: 2.5Kb)
photo: Russian Presidential Press and Information Office
27 Feb 2013
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the country's top brass on Wednesday to drastically upgrade the armed forces in the next few years as part of response to attempts by the United States and NATO to "tip the strategic balance" in the world. In his address to Russia's defense ministry and top military officials, Putin said Russia is witnessing "insistent attempts" to change that balance and complained about U.S ... ....(size: 2.3Kb)
photo: USAF / Tech. Sgt. Effrain Lopez
26 Feb 2013
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. During the 19th and early 20th centuries developments in technology vastly transformed warfare. The age of machine guns, steam-powered battle ships, and tanks replaced the era of flintlock muskets, sailing wooden ships, and cannonballs ... As national leaders felt more emboldened and invincible, mainly due to the mechanization of weaponry and even war itself, so did their citizen armies ... 57....(size: 4.8Kb)
photo: US Coast Guard / PO1 Matthew Belson
27 Feb 2013
A senior BP executive has told a US court that the oil giant was not solely responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton must also bear portions of the blame for the explosion and resulting spill, Lamar McKay said. The trial, in New Orleans, will determine liability for the spill ... It has also paid $7.8bn in a settlement with people and businesses affected. 'Team effort' ... ....(size: 5.3Kb)
Tulsa World
27 Feb 2013
A cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War was ordered by President George H.W. Bush, who told the nation in a broadcast from the Oval Office that Kuwait had been liberated and the Iraqi army had been defeated ... He said the cease fire was contingent on an end to Iraqi firing and Scud missile attacks, the release of allied military prisoners and Kuwaiti civilian hostages, and Iraq's compliance with U.N. resolutions ... Former military ruler Gen ... ....(size: 3.0Kb)
photo: US Army / Spc. Ryan Hallgarth
26 Feb 2013
The United States prioritized the buildup of the Iraqi Army, often at the expense of funding for crucial civilian programs in areas such as infrastructure support, governance and democracy, agricultural development, rule of law, and anti-corruption initiatives. Similarly, in Afghanistan, the United States and NATO have focused on creating a large and capable Afghan army....(size: 2.9Kb)
BBC News
26 Feb 2013
An Iraqi doctor has been accused of committing crimes against humanity as part of Saddam Hussein's regime, a medical tribunal has heard ... Charles Garside QC, for the General Medical Council (GMC), told the panel Dr Al-Byati was born in Iraq and was the son of a colonel in the Iraqi army who was also a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party....(size: 4.0Kb)
Huffington Post
24 Feb 2013
Smoke rises after shells fired by the Syrian army explode in the Syrian village of Bariqa, Monday, Nov ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 9.3Kb)
Huffington Post
24 Feb 2013
Smoke rises after shells fired by the Syrian army explode in the Syrian village of Bariqa, Monday, Nov ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 10.4Kb)
Huffington Post
24 Feb 2013
Smoke rises after shells fired by the Syrian army explode in the Syrian village of Bariqa, Monday, Nov ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 10.5Kb)
Huffington Post
24 Feb 2013
The facility also includes several smaller army outposts charged with protecting the police academy inside the compound ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 13.8Kb)
Huffington Post
24 Feb 2013
Smoke rises after shells fired by the Syrian army explode in the Syrian village of Bariqa, Monday, Nov ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 11.8Kb)
Philadelphia Daily News
24 Feb 2013
Petraeus and others were "staging an insurgency against the 'big Army' " and its reliance on massive firepower ... "The Army ... Kaplan skips over Petreaus' second tour in Iraq in 2004-05 (exemplifying an off-putting glibness found in some parts of The Insurgents), when he was responsible for training the Iraqi army....(size: 9.6Kb)
Stuff
23 Feb 2013
Masked gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms have shot dead seven members of a government-backed militia in an apparent attempt to provoke unrest against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ... forces ... Tuz Khurmato, where Friday's shootings took place, is located in the "disputed areas" - a thick band of territory over which both the Iraqi central government and the autonomous Kurdish region in the north claim jurisdiction. Ad Feedback ... ....(size: 2.4Kb)
Sun Sentinel
22 Feb 2013
KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Masked gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms shot dead seven members of a government-backed militia on Friday in a northern town, in an apparent attempt to provoke unrest against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ... over which both the Iraqi central government and the autonomous Kurdish region in the north claim jurisdiction....(size: 2.7Kb)
China Daily
22 Feb 2013
Huffington Post
20 Feb 2013
As a fighter explained, "Controlling the airport means wiping out the Syrian army in Aleppo ... Sunni al-Qaida fighters are believed to be moving between Iraq and Syria, and some al-Qaida fighters in Iraq's western Anbar province have regrouped under the name of the Free Iraqi Army, a nod to the rebels' Free Syrian Army, Iraqi officials say....(size: 10.2Kb)
 |
This article's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be additional information on the talk page. (February 2012) |
| Iraqi Army | |
|---|---|
| File:2012-01-06T141451Z 01 BAG26 RTRIDSP 3 IRAQ.jpg T-72 tanks of Iraqi Army's 9th Mechanized Division, in May 2006. |
|
| Active | 1921 - present |
| Country |  Iraq |
| Branch | Army |
| Size | 550 000 - 750 000 ( plans for 1 million active soldiers ). |
| Part of | Ministry of Defence |
| Headquarters | Baghdad |
| Anniversaries | January 6[1] |
| Engagements | Anglo-Iraqi War 1948 Arab–Israeli War Six Day War Yom Kippur War Iran-Iraq War Gulf War Iraq War |
| Commanders | |
| Commander of the Army[3] | Lieutenant General Ali Ghaidan Majid[2] |
The Iraqi Army is the ground component of the Iraqi military, active in various forms since being formed by the British during their mandate over the country after World War I.
Today, it is tasked with assuming responsibility for all Iraqi land-based military operations following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Iraqi Army was rebuilt along U.S. lines with enormous amounts of U.S. military assistance at every level. Because of the low-level ongoing Iraqi insurgency as of 2006, the Iraqi Army was designed to be an objective counter-insurgency force for a period of time until the insurgency is diminished to a level that the police can handle.[4] Thereafter, the Iraqi Army will undergo a modernisation plan which includes purchasing more heavy equipment.
Contents |
History[link]
The threat of war with newly forming Republic of Turkey, which claimed the Ottoman vilayet of Mosul as part of their country, led the British to form the Iraqi Army on 6 January 1921. The Mussa Al-Kadhum Brigade consisted of ex-Iraqi-Ottoman officers, whose barracks were located in Al Kazemiyah.[5] The United Kingdom provided support and training to the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Air Force through a small military mission based in Baghdad.[6]
Royal Iraqi Army[link]
Main articles: British Mandate of Iraq and Kingdom of Iraq
From 1533 to 1918, Iraq was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and fought as part of the Military of the Ottoman Empire. After 1917, the United Kingdom took control of the country. The first Iraqi military forces established by the British were the Iraq Levies, several battalions of troops tasked to guard the Royal Air Force (RAF) bases from which the British controlled Iraq.
In August 1921, the British established Hashemite King Faisal I as the client ruler of the British Mandate of Iraq. Faisal had been forced out as the King of Syria by the French. Likewise, British authorities selected Sunni Arab elites from the region for appointments to government and ministry offices in Iraq. The British and the Iraqis formalized the relationship between the two nations with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1922. With Faisal's ascension to the throne, the Iraqi Army became the Royal Iraqi Army (RIrA).
In 1922, the army totalled 3,618 men. This was well below the 6,000 men requested by the Iraqi monarchy and even less than the British set limit of 4,500. Unattractive salaries hindered early recruiting efforts. At this time, the United Kingdom maintained the right to levy local forces like the British-officered Iraq Levies which were under direct British control. With a strength of 4,984 men, the Iraq Levies outnumbered the army with its British set limit of 4,500 men.
In 1924, the RIrA grew to 5,772 men and, by the following year, had grown still more to reach 7,500 men. It was to stay at 7,500 men until 1933. The force now had six infantry battalions, three cavalry regiments, two mountain regiments, and one field battery.[7]
In 1932, the Kingdom of Iraq was granted official independence. This was in accordance with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1930, whereby the United Kingdom would end its official mandate on the condition that the Iraqi government would allow British advisers to take part in government affairs, allow British military bases to remain, and a requirement that Iraq assist the United Kingdom in wartime.[8]
Upon achieving independence in 1932, political tensions arose over the continued British presence in Iraq, with Iraq's government and politicians split between those considered pro-British and those who were considered anti-British. The pro-British faction was represented by politicians such as Nuri as-Said who did not oppose a continued British presence. The anti-British faction was represented by politicians such as Rashid Ali al-Gaylani who demanded that remaining British influence in the country be removed.[9] From 1936 to 1941, five coups by the RIrA occurred during each year led by the chief officers of the Army against the government to pressure the government to concede to Army demands.[9]
In early April 1941, during World War II, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and members of the anti-British "Golden Square" launched a coup d'état against the current government. Prime Minister Taha al-Hashimi resigned and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani took his place as Prime Minister. Rashid Ali also proclaimed himself chief of a "National Defence Government." Rashid Ali did not overthrow the monarchy, but installed a more compliant Regent. He also attempted to restrict the rights of the British which were granted them under the 1930 treaty.
On April 30 Iraqi Army units established itself on the high ground to the south of RAF Habbaniya. An Iraqi envoy was sent to demand that no movements, either ground or air, were to take place from the base. The British refused the demand and then themselves demanded that the Iraqi units leave the area at once. In addition, the British landed forces at Basra and the Iraqis demanded that these forces be removed.
At 0500 hours on 2 May 1941, the Anglo-Iraqi War broke out between the British and Rashid Ali's new government when the British at RAF Habbaniya launched air strikes against the Iraqis. By this time, the army had grown significantly. It had four infantry divisions[10] with some 60,000 men.[11] At full strength, each division had three brigades. The Iraqi 1st and 3rd Divisions were stationed in Baghdad. Also based within Baghdad was the Independent Mechanized Brigade comprising a light tank company, an armoured car company, two battalions of "mechanized" infantry transported in trucks, a "mechanized" machine-gun company, and a "mechanized" artillery brigade. The Iraqi 2nd Division was stationed in Kirkuk, and the 4th Division was in Al Diwaniyah, on the main rail line from Baghdad to Basra. As noted above, all these "mechanized" units were transported by trucks.
Hostilities between the British and the Iraqis lasted from 2 May to 30 May 1941. The German government despatched an aviation unit, Fliegerführer Irak, and Italy send limited assistance, but both were too late and far from adequate. In the end, the British were able to march on Baghdad and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani fled.
After the Anglo-Iraqi War ended, Nuri as-Said returned as Prime Minister and dominated the politics of Iraq until the overthrow of the monarchy and his assassination in 1958. Nuri as-Said pursued a largely pro-western policy during this period.[12] The army was not disbanded. Instead, it was maintained to hinder possible German offensive actions launched from southern Russia. British troops left in the late 1940s.
1948 Arab-Israeli War[link]
In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Iraqis deployed an expeditionary force which peaked at 15-18,000 men.[13] In 1948, the RIrA deployed 21,000 men in twelve brigades and the Royal Iraqi Air Force deployed 100 planes, mostly British. Initially the Iraqis committed around 3,000[14] men to the war effort including four infantry brigades, one armoured battalion and support personnel. These forces were to operate under Jordanian guidance[15] During the first truce the Iraqis increased their force to about 10,000.[16] Ultimately, the Iraqi expeditionary force numbered around 15,000 to 18,000 men.[17]
The first Iraqi forces to be deployed reached Jordan in April 1948 under the command of General Nur ad-Din Mahmud. On 15 May, Iraqi engineers built a pontoon bridge across the Jordan River and attacked the Israeli settlement of Gesher with little success. Following this defeat Iraqi forces moved into the Nablus-Jenin-Tulkarm strategic triangle, where they suffered heavy casualties in the Israeli attack on Jenin which began on 3 June, but they managed to hold on to their positions. Active Iraqi involvement in the war effectively ended at this point.[18]
In May 1955 the British finally withdrew from Iraq. The Iraqi authorities said during the withdrawal negotiations that a motorised infantry brigade was to be formed, based at the previous RAF Habbaniya, a location that had been occupied by the British Iraq Levies.[19]
Republic Declared[link]
Main article: Republic of Iraq
The Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup d'état by the Iraqi Army, known as the 14 July Revolution. King Faisal II of Iraq along with members of the royal family were murdered. The coup brought Abd al-Karim Qasim to power. He withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union.
When Qāsim distanced himself from Abd an-Nāsir, he faced growing opposition from pro-Egypt officers in the Iraqi army. `Arif, who wanted closer cooperation with Egypt, was stripped of his responsibilities and thrown in prison. When the garrison in Mosul rebelled against Qāsim's policies, he allowed the Kurdish leader Barzānī to return from exile in the Soviet Union to help suppress the pro-Nāsir rebels.
The creation of the new Fifth Division, consisting of mechanized infantry, was announced on 6 January 1959, Army Day.[20] Qāsim was also promoted to the rank of general.
In 1961 an Army buildup close to Kuwait, in conjunction with Iraqi claims over the small neighbouring state, led to a crisis, with British military forces (land, sea, and air) deployed to Kuwait for a period. In 1961, Kuwait gained independence from Britain and Iraq claimed sovereignty over Kuwait. As in the 1930s, Qasim based Iraq's claim on the assertion that Kuwait had been a district of the Ottoman province of Basra, unjustly severed by the British from the main body of Iraqi state when it had been created in the 1920s.[21] Britain reacted strongly to Iraq's claim and sent troops to Kuwait to deter Iraq. Qāsim was forced to back down and in October 1963, Iraq recognized the sovereignty of Kuwait.
Qāsim was assassinated in February 1963, when the Ba'ath Party took power under the leadership of General Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr (prime minister) and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif (president). Nine months later `Abd as-Salam Muhammad `Arif led a successful coup against the Ba'ath government. On 13 April 1966, President Abdul Salam Arif died in a helicopter crash and was succeeded by his brother, General Abdul Rahman Arif. Following the Six Day War of 1967, the Ba'ath Party felt strong enough to retake power (17 July 1968). Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became president and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
Six Day War[link]
During the Six Day War, the Iraqi 3rd Armoured Division was deployed in eastern Jordan.[22] However, the Israeli attack against the West Bank unfolded so quickly that the Iraqi force could not organise itself and reach the front before Jordan ceased fighting. Repeated Israeli airstrikes also held them up so that by the time they did reach the Jordan River the entire West Bank was in Israeli hands. During the course of the Jordanian Campaign ten Iraqis were killed and 30 Iraqis were wounded, especially as the main battle was in Jerusalem. Fighting also raged in other areas of the West Bank, where Iraqi commandos and Jordanian soldiers defended their positions.[23]
Barzānī and the Kurds who had begun a rebellion in 1961 were still causing problems in 1969. The secretary-general of the Ba`th party, Saddam Hussein, was given responsibility to find a solution. It was clear that it was impossible to defeat the Kurds by military means and in 1970 a political agreement was reached between the rebels and the Iraqi government.
Following the Arab defeat in 1967, Jordan became a hotbed of Palestinian resistance. During this time PLO elements attempted to create a Palestinian state within Jordan caused the Jordanians to launch their full military force against the PLO. As they were doing this Syria invaded Jordan and Iraq moved a brigade in Rihab, Jordan.[citation needed] Otherwise the only Iraqi activity was that they fired upon some Jordanian aircraft.
Iraq sent a 60,000 man expeditionary force to the Syrian front during the Yom Kippur War. It consisted of the 3rd and 6th Armoured Divisions, two infantry brigades, twelve artillery battalions, and a special forces brigade. The two armoured divisions were, Pollack says, 'unquestionably the best formations of the Iraqi Army.'(Pollack p. 167) Yet during their operations on the Golan Heights, their performance was awful in virtually every category of military effectiveness. Military intelligence, initiative, and small unit independent action was virtually absent.[24]
After the war, Iraq started a major military build-up. Active duty manpower doubled, and so did number of divisions, from six to twelve, of which four were now armoured and two mechanised infantry. (Pollack p. 182)
Iran-Iraq war[link]
See also: Order of battle during the Iran–Iraq War
Later, Saddam Hussein, looking to build fighting power against Iran soon after the outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War doubled the size of the Iraqi army from 1981, when it numbered 200,000 soldiers in 12 divisions and 3 independent brigades, to 1985, when it had 500,000 men in 23 divisions and nine brigades. The first new divisions were created in 1981 when the 11th and 12th Border Guard Divisions were converted into infantry formations and the 14th Infantry Division was formed. (Pollack 2002 p. 207) Yet the rise in number of divisions is misleading, because during the war Iraqi divisions abandoned a standard organisation with permanent ('organic') brigades assigned to each division. Instead division headquarters were assigned a mission or sector and then assigned brigades to carry out the task - up to eight to ten brigades on some occasions. (Pollack 2002 p. 208)
The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage - a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded - but brought neither reparations nor change in borders. The conflict is often compared to World War I,[25] in that the tactics used closely mirrored those of the 1914-1918 war, including large scale trench warfare, manned machine-gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no-mans land, human wave attacks and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds.[citation needed]
Invasion of Kuwait and Gulf War[link]
By the eve of the Invasion of Kuwait which led to the 1991 Gulf War, the Army was estimated to number 1,000,000 men.[26] Just before the Gulf War began, the force comprised grouped into 47 infantry divisions plus nine armoured and mechanised divisions, grouped in seven corps.[27] This gave a total of about 56 army divisions, and total land force divisions reached 68 when the twelve Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were included.[28] Although it was said at the time in Western media that Iraqi troops numbered approximately 545,000 (even 600,000) today most experts think that both the qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the Iraqi army at the time were exaggerated, as they included both temporary and auxiliary support elements. Many of the Iraqi troops were also young, under-resourced and poorly trained conscripts. Hussein did not trust the army; among counterbalancing security forces was the Iraqi Popular Army.
The widespread support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war meant Iraq had military equipment from almost every major dealer of the world's weapons market. This resulted in a lack of standardization in this large heterogeneous force, which additionally suffered from poor training and poor motivation. The majority of Iraqi armoured forces still used old Chinese Type 59s and Type 69s, Soviet-made T-55s from the 1950s and 1960s, and some T-72s from the 1970s in 1991. These machines were not equipped with up-to-date equipment, such as thermal sights or laser rangefinders, and their effectiveness in modern combat was very limited. The Iraqis failed to find an effective countermeasure to the thermal sights and the sabot rounds used by the M1 Abrams, Challenger 1 and the other Coalition tanks. This equipment enabled Coalition tanks to effectively engage and destroy Iraqi tanks from more than three times the distance that Iraqi tanks could engage.
The Iraqi tank crews used old, cheap steel penetrators against the advanced Chobham Armour of these US and British tanks, with disastrous results. The Iraqi forces also failed to utilize the advantage that could be gained from using urban warfare — fighting within Kuwait City — which could have inflicted significant casualties on the attacking forces. Urban combat reduces the range at which fighting occurs and can negate some of the technological advantage that well equipped forces enjoy. Iraqis also tried to use Soviet military doctrine, but the implementation failed due to the lack of skill of their commanders and the preventive air strikes of the USAF and RAF on communication centers and bunkers.
The exact number of Iraqi combat casualties is unknown, but known to be heavy. Immediate estimates said up to 100,000 Iraqis were killed. Some now estimate that Iraq sustained between 20,000 and 35,000 fatalities. However other figures still maintain fatalities as high as 200,000.[29] A report commissioned by the U.S. Air Force, estimated 10,000-12,000 Iraqi combat deaths in the air campaign and as many as 10,000 casualties in the ground war.[30] This analysis is based on Iraqi prisoner of war reports. It is known that between 20,000 and 200,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed. According to the Project on Defense Alternatives study,[31] 3,664 Iraqi civilians and between 20,000 and 26,000 military personnel were killed in the conflict. 75,000 Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the fighting.
Between the Gulf Wars[link]
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) estimated the Army's composition immediately after the 1991 War as 6 'armoured'/'mechanised' divisions, 23 infantry divisions, 8 Republican Guard divisions and four Republican Guard internal security divisions.[32] Jane's Defence Weekly for 18 July 1992 stated that 10,000 troops from 5 divisions were fighting against Shia Muslims in the southern marshlands.
The IISS gave the Iraqi Army's force structure as of 1 July 1997 as seven Corps headquarters, six armoured or mechanised divisions, 12 infantry divisions, 6 RGF divisions, four Special Republican Guard Brigades, 10 commando, and two Special Forces Brigades.[33] It was estimated to number 350,000 personnel, including 100,000 recently recalled reservists.[33]
Second Gulf War[link]
In the days leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the following Iraq War, the Army consisted of 375,000 troops, organized into 5 corps. In all, there were 11 infantry divisions, 3 mechanized divisions, and 3 armored divisions. The Republican Guard consisted of between 50,000 and 60,000 troops (although some sources indicate a strength of up to 80,000).
In January 2003, before the beginning of the Second Gulf War, the force was primarily located in eastern Iraq. The 5 corps were organised as follows:
- 1st Corps, near Kirkuk consisted of the 5th Mechanized Division, 2nd Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Division and the 38th Infantry Division.
- 2nd Corps, near Diyala, had the 3rd Armored Division, 15th Infantry Division, and 34th Infantry Division.
- 3rd Corps, near An Nasiriyah, had the 6th Armored Division, the 51st Mechanized Division, and the 11th Infantry Division.
- 4th Corps, near Amarah, included the 10th Armored Division, 14th Infantry Division and 18th Infantry Division.
- 5th Corps, near Mosul, had the 1st Mechanized Division, and the 4th, 7th, and 16th Infantry Divisions.
- Western Desert Force, consisting of an armored infantry division and other units in western Iraq.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Iraqi Army was defeated in a number of battles, including by Task Force Viking in the north, and the Battle of Nasiriyah and the Battle of Baghdad. The Iraqi Army was disbanded by Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2 issued by U.S. Administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer on May 23, 2003 after its decisive defeat during the Second Gulf War.[34] Bremer said that it was not feasible to reconstitute the armed forces. His justifications for the disbandment included postwar looting, which had destroyed all the bases; that the largely Shiite draftees of the army would not respond to a recall plea from their former commanders, who were primarily Sunnis, and that recalling the army would be a political disaster because to the vast majority of Iraqis it was a symbol of the old Baathist-led Sunni ascendancy..."[35]
Formations of the Army 1922-2003[link]
Corps[link]
- I Corps
- II Corps - reorganised as an armoured corps for the Persian Gulf War, comprising the 17th Armoured Division and the 51st Mechanised Division
- III Corps - In 2003, Nasiriyah was the headquarters of the Iraqi Army's 3rd Corps, composed of the 11th ID, 51st Mech ID, and 6th Armored Division — all at around 50 percent strength. The 51st operated south covering the oilfields, and the 6th was north near Al Amarah, which left three brigade-sized elements of the 11th ID to guard the An Nasiriyah area.[36]
- IV Corps
- V Corps
- VI Corps
- VII Corps
- Jihad Forces, Persian Gulf War
Infantry and mechanised divisions[link]
- 1st Division (Iraq), active from at least 1941. 1st Mechanised Division in Persian Gulf War and Iraq War. Reformed after 2003.
- 2nd Division (Iraq), active from at least 1941
- 3rd Division (Iraq), active from at least 1941
- 4th Division (Iraq), active from at least 1941
- 5th Division (Iraq), activated 1959. As 5th Mechanised Division, fought in Battle of Khafji.
- 7th Division (Iraq), served in Second Battle of Al Faw 1988
- 8th Division (Iraq)
- 11th Division (Iraq), Persian Gulf War
- 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th Divisions,
- 26th, 27th, 28th, 28th, 30th, 31st, 33rd, 34th, 36th, 37th, 38th Divisions
- 39th, 42nd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th, 53rd, 54th, 56th Divisions
- Eisenstadt reported 'about eight infantry divisions remain unaccounted for' as of March 1993.[27]
Armoured divisions up to 2003[link]
- 3rd Armoured Division, active by 1967, served in Yom Kippur War, Operation Ramadan, Iran-Iraq War
- 6th Armoured Division, served in Yom Kippur War, 1988 Blessed Ramadan Offensive
- 9th Armoured Division, served in Iran-Iraq War, disbanded after First Battle of Basrah/Operation Ramadan, July 1982 (Pollack p. 205). Reformed after 2003.
- 10th Armoured Division, served in Iran-Iraq War (Operation Ramadan), in Persian Gulf War with Jihad Forces (corps)
- 12th Armoured Division, served in Persian Gulf War with Jihad Forces (corps)
- 17th Armoured Division [3]
- 52nd Armoured Division
Brigades[link]
The 65th Special Forces Brigade, 66th Special Forces Brigade, 68th Special Forces Brigade, and 440th Marine Brigade were active during the Persian Gulf War. (Eisenstadt)
Reform of the army[link]
Based on Bush administration expectations that coalition forces would be welcomed as liberators after the overthrow of the Hussein regime,[37] prewar planners had only been expecting little if any resistance from the Iraqi people. Thus the new army was initially focused on external defence operations. The new Army was originally intended to comprise 27 battalions in three divisions numbering 40,000 soldiers in three years time. Vinnell Corporation was engaged to train the first nine battalions.
The Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, headed by Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, was the organization set up by the United States military with the responsibility of training and development of the new army. On August 2, 2003, the first battalion of New Iraqi Army recruits started a nine-week training course at a training base in Kirkush. They graduated on October 4, 2003.[38] Training of Iraqi forces was initially done by Vinnell Corporation contractors. On April 5, 2004, several Iraqi battalions refuse to fight as part of the force engaged in the First Battle of Fallujah.[citation needed] In June 2004, the CMATT was dissolved, and passed on its responsibilities to the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq (MNSTC-I) (initially headed by Lt. Gen. David Petraeus) with the new focus on providing security for the Iraqi people from the emerging threat posed by the Iraqi insurgency.[39]
While the regular army was being formed, U.S. commanders around the country needed additional troops more quickly, and thus the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (later[when?] to become the Iraqi National Guard) was formed. Coalition commanders formed these militia-type units separately in each area; only later were they gradually brought together as one force. There were several instances where they have refused to take military action against fellow Iraqis, such as in Fallujah, deserted, or allegedly aided the resistance. It is alleged that most guardsmen were drawn from the Shia majority in Southern Iraq or the Kurdish majority in northern Iraq, rather than from the Sunni area which they were ordered to attack. In September 2004, a senior member of the National Guard, General Talib al-Lahibi was arrested on suspicion of having links with insurgent groups.[40] In December 2004, it was announced that the Iraqi National Guard would be dissolved.[41] At this time its strength was officially over 40,000 men. Its units became part of the Army. The absorption of the ING by the regular army appears to have taken place on January 6, 2005, Iraqi Army Day.[42]
On August 14, 2004, the NATO Training Mission - Iraq was established to assist the Iraqi military, including the Army. On September 20 the provisional Fallujah Brigade dissolved after being sent in to secure the city. The Fallujah Brigade experiment of using former insurgents to secure a city was not repeated.
Army training was transferred from Vinnell Corporation to the United States armed forces supported by U.S. allies, and is now done by three Iraqi training battalions. Training has been impeded by domestic instability, infiltration by insurgents, and high desertion rates.[citation needed] From June 2004, the partnership between Coalition forces and Iraqi forces has increased due to the growing number of battalions in the Iraqi army, which then stood around 115. Out of this number, it was deemed that 80 of them were able to carry out operations in the field with Coalition support limited to logistics and strategic planning, whilst another 20-30 battalions still needed major Coalition support to carry out their operations. As of October 5, 2005 the Iraqi Army had 90 battalions trained well enough to be "deployed independently", i.e. without the help of others such as the United States.[43]
On May 3, 2006 a significant command-and-control development took place. The Iraqi Army command and control center opened in a ceremony at the Iraqi Ground Forces Command (IFGC) headquarters at Camp Victory.[44] The IGFC was established to exercise command and control of assigned Iraqi Army forces and, upon assuming Operational Control, to plan and direct operations to defeat the Iraqi insurgency. At the time, the IFGC was commanded by Lt. Gen. Abdul-Qadar. In 2006 the ten planned divisions began to be certified and assume battlespace responsibility: the 6th and 8th before June 26, 2006, the 9th on June 26, 2006, the 5th on July 3, 2006, the 4th on August 8, 2006, and the 2nd on December 21, 2006. After divisions were certified, they began to be transferred from U.S. operational control to Iraqi control of the IGFC. The 8th Division was transferred on September 7, 2006,[45] and the 3rd Division on December 1, 2006. Another unspecified division also was transferred to IGFC control.[46] Also transferred to the Iraqi chain of command were smaller logistics units: on November 1, 2006, the 5th Motor Transport Regiment (MTR) was the fifth of nine MTRs to be transferred to the Iraqi Army divisions. 2007 plans included, MNF-I said, great efforts to make the Iraqi Army able to sustain itself logistically.[47]
As of June 26, 2006, three Iraqi divisions, 18 brigades and 69 battalions were in control of battlespace (including two police commando battalions).[48]
2008[link]
![[icon]](http://web.archive.org./web/20130301100334/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. |
On March 25, 2008, the Iraqi Army launched its first solely planned and executed high-profile division-level operation, Operation Charge of the Knights in Basra. They received Multi-National Force - Iraq support only in air support, logistics and via embedded advisors. Also, a British infantry brigade, part of Multi-National Division South-East, and stationed in Basra, were ready in a tactical overwatch role. Their participation was limited to the provision of embedded training teams.
In April–June 2008, two brigades of the Iraqi Army 11th Division, supported by US forces, moved into the southern third of Sadr City. They were tasked to stop rocket and mortar attacks on US bases and the Green Zone. Following the Siege of Sadr City - a month of fighting - the Mahdi Army agrees to let Iraqi forces into the remaining portion of the city. On May 20, troops from the Iraqi Army 3rd Brigade of the 1st (Iraqi Reaction Force) Division and a brigade from the 9th Division move into the northern districts of Sadr City and begin clearing operations.
- May – Iraqi army forces launch Operation Lion's Roar (later renamed to Operation Mother of Two Springs) in Mosul and surrounding areas of Nineva province. Iraq became one of the top current purchasers of U.S. military equipment with their army trading its AK-47 assault rifles for the more accurate U.S. M-16 and M-4 rifles, among other equipment.[49]
In June 2008 the Army moved troops to the southern Maysan province. Following a four-day amnesty for insurgents to turn over weapons, the Iraqi Army moved into the provincial capital Amarah.
Structural capacities still lacking within the Army include the lack of any formalized apparatus for the collection of military intelligence. Currently it must rely on intelligence provided by the United States for the majority of its operations. Developing a professional intelligence corps to augment the effectiveness of the Iraqi Army remains an ongoing challenge. In addition, the Army presently must rely on US logistical support to conduct the majority of its operations.[50] It currently lacks critical support services such as transportation, medevac capabilities, and medical logistics. Until the Iraqi Army can develop these capabilities, it will continue to depend on US forces for support. A military justice system also remains to be developed.
Two further problems are infiltration and an insufficient U.S. advisory effort. The new Army aimed to exclude recruits that are former regime security and intelligence organizations members, personnel of the Special Republican Guard, top-level Ba'ath Party members, and Ba'ath Party security and militia organizations.[51] However the Army is widely known to have been infiltrated by a multitude of groups ranging from local militias to foreign insurgents. This has led to highly publicized deaths and compromised operations (perhaps the most prominent being the attack on a US military base near Mosul in December 2004. More than 20 people, including 13 American servicemen, were killed when a suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi military uniform detonated his vest inside a dining tent).[52]
Structure[link]
The Iraqi Army began the Anglo-Iraqi War with a force of four divisions. A fifth was formed in 1959. By the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, the force had grown to nine divisions. By 1990, with wartime expansion, the force had grown greatly to at least 56 divisions, making the Iraqi army the fourth largest army in the world and one of the strongest in the middle east. After the defeat in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, force size dropped to around 23 divisions, as well as Republican Guard formations. The new army formed after 2003 was initially planned to be three divisions strong, but was then raised to ten divisions, and the force is now expected to grow to 20 divisions.
The U.S. House Armed Services Committee commented in 2007 that "It is important to note that in the initial fielding plan, five army divisions would be tied to the regions from where they were recruited and the other five would be deployable throughout Iraq. This was partially due to the legacy of some army divisions being formed from the National Guard units and has caused some complications in terms of making these forces available for operations in all areas of Iraq, and the military becoming a truly national, non-sectarian force."[53]
According to the United States Department of Defense Measuring Safety and Security in Iraq report of August 2006, plans at that time called for the Iraqi Army to be built up to an approximately 300,000-person force. This was based around an Army with 10 infantry divisions and 6 mechanised infantry division consisting of 36 brigades and 113 battalions (91 infantry, 12 special forces, 24 mechanised infantry, 60 armored battalions, 1 security). Nine Motorized Transportation Regiments, 5 logistics battalions, 2 support battalions, 5 Regional Support Units (RSUs), and 91 Garrison Support Units (GSUs) are intended to provide logistics and support for each division, with Taji National Depot providing depot-level maintenance and resupply. Each battalion, brigade, and division headquarters will be supported by a Headquarters and Service Company (HSC) providing logistical and maintenance support to its parent organisation. The Army will also include 17 SIBs and a Special Operations Forces Brigade consisting of two special operational battalions.[4]
Current Status[link]
 |
This section includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2009) |
The Iraqi Army consists of nine regional joint commands. The Joint Operational Commands fall under the command of the National Operations Center. The Iraqi Ground Forces Command does not directly command the army's divisions.
As of July 2009, the Iraqi Army had 14 divisions (1st-12th, 14th, and 17th, the designation 13 not being used), containing 56 brigades or 185 combat battalions.[citation needed] The 6th Division and the 17th Division are still missing their fourth manoeuvre brigades. By April 2010, the combat battalion total had risen to 197 combat battalions.
Each division has four line brigades, an engineering regiment, and a support regiment. In 2009, a field artillery regiment was planned to be added to each division, with an artillery battalion added to each brigade. As of April 2010, the 9th Division was the only division with field artillery, with another division (possibly the 7th) also receiving its first artillery pieces.
Three of the 56 brigades are not Iraqi Ground Forces Command combatant brigades and are not assigned to a division. They are the Baghdad Brigade formed in the fall of 2008, the 1st Presidential Brigade formed in January 2008, and the new 2nd Presidential Brigade formed in the spring of 2009.[citation needed] These three independent “praetorian” security brigades are still building and only have six combat battalions between them.
Budget problems are continuing to hinder the manning of combat support and combat service support units. The lack of soldiers entering boot camp is forcing Iraqi leaders at all levels to face the dual challenge of manning and training enabler units out of existing manpower.
Divisions are forming engineer, logistics, mortar, and other units by identifying over-strength units, such as the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) battalions and other headquarters elements, and then transferring them as needed. Recently,[when?] the Ministry of Defence issued an order to all Iraqi Army divisions requiring analysis on the effect of dissolving the 4th Battalion in each brigade and using those soldiers to man enabler units throughout the army.
The new army continues preparation for the fielding of 120mm mortar batteries and 81mm mortar platoons. The start of unit mortar fielding was planned in July 2008.
The Iraqi Special Operations Forces are a Ministry of Defence (Iraq) funded component that reports directly to the Prime Minister of Iraq.[51]
Structure as of August 2009[link]
 |
This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (August 2009) |
As of August 2009, the soldiers of the Iraqi Army were organized as follows:[54]
- National Operations Center – Baghdad
- Baghdad Operational Command – Baghdad[55] – Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar
- Karkh Area Command (KAC) - Western Baghdad. Responsible for the Kadhimiyah, Karkh, Mansour, Bayaa, and Doura Security Districts.
- Rusafa Area Command (RAC) - Eastern Baghdad. Responsible for the Adhamiyah, Rusafa, Sadr City, New Baghdad, and Karadah Security Districts.
- 6th Motorised Division: – Western Baghdad
- 9th Armored Division – Taji – Division certified and assumes responsibility of the battle space of north Baghdad Governorate June 26, 2006.[56]
- 11th Infantry Division – East Baghdad (Probably planned to become mech div)
- 17th Commando Division – HQ Mahmadiyah The 17th Division commander has been reported as Staff Maj. Gen. Ali Jassam Mohammad.
- 23rd Commando Brigade
- 25th Commando Brigade - 'Baghdad Eagles' - former 4th Bde, 6th Div. Has received commando training by U.S. Special Forces and air assault training.
- 55th Commando Brigade
- Baghdad Operational Command – Baghdad[55] – Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar
- Iraqi Ground Forces Command (IGFC)[57]
- Ninewa Operational Command[58] - Mosul
- 2nd Division – Mosul
- 3rd Motorised Division – Al-Kasik
- 15th Division – (transfer from KRG/Forming)
- 16th Division – (transfer from KRG/Forming)
- Diyala Operational Command - Sulamaniyah, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahadin
- 4th Motorised Division – Tikrit – Division certified August 8, 2006.[59]
- 5th Infantry Division (Iron) – Diyala Governorate – Division certified July 3, 2006.[60]
- 12th Motorized Division – Tikrit – split off from 4 Div in mid-2008
- Basrah Operational Command – Basrah
- 8th Commando Division – HQ Diwaniyah
- 10th Division – An Nasiriyah
- 14th Division – Basrah[61] - division commander Maj. Gen. Abdul Aziz Noor Swady al Dalmy [4]
- Anbar Operational Command – Ramadi
- 1st Infantry Division – Fallujah
- 7th Infantry Division – Ramadi, West Al Anbar Province – transferred to Iraqi Ground Forces Command, November 1, 2007.[62]
- Ninewa Operational Command[58] - Mosul
Training[link]
There are three levels of troop capability in the new army: one, two, and three. Level three refers to troops that have just completed basic training, level two refers to troops that are able to work with soldiers, and level one refers to troops that can work by themselves.
Members of NATO Training Mission – Iraq (NTM-I) opened a Joint Staff College in ar Rustamiyah in Baghdad on September 27, 2005 with 300 trainers. Training at bases in Norway, Italy, Jordan, Germany, and Egypt has also taken place and 16 NATO countries have allocated forces to the training effort.[63]
The Multi-National Force Iraq has also conducted a variety of training programs for both enlisted men and officers including training as medics, engineers, quartermasters, and military police. Beyond the various courses and programs being held in-country, both American staff colleges and military academies have begun taking Iraqi applicants, with Iraqi cadets being enrolled at both the United States Military Academy and the US Air Force Academy.[64]
Recruits and enlisted men[link]
Iraqi Army recruits undergo a standard eight week [65] basic training course that includes basic soldiering skills, weapons marksmanship and individual tactics. Former soldiers are eligible for an abbreviated three week "Direct Recruit Replacement Training" course designed to replace regular basic training to be followed by more training once they have been assigned to a unit.
Soldiers later go on to enroll in more specific advanced courses targeted for their respective fields. This could involve going to the Military Intelligence School, the Signal School, the Bomb Disposal School, the Combat Arms Branch School, the Engineer School, and the Military Police School.
Officers[link]
The Iraqi Armed Service and Supply Institute located in Taji plays a significant role in training aspiring Iraqi non-commissioned officers and commissioned officers. The training is based on a Sandhurst model, chosen in part due to its shorter graduation time compared to West Point. Much of the Iraqi officer training programme is copied directly from the Sandhurst course.
CMATT's main recruiting stations are located in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. The most desired recruits are individuals who have prior military service or are skilled in specific professions such as first aid, heavy equipment operation, food service and truck driving. A recruitment target of approximately one thousand men is desired to eventually form a 757-man battalion. Soldier fallout usually occurs due to voluntary withdrawal or failure to meet training standards.
Due to the current demand for these battalions to become active as soon as possible, the first four battalions' officers, non-commissioned officers, and enlisted men are being trained simultaneously (in separate groups). Notable differences in training between CAATT and former training under Saddam's regime include schooling in human rights, the laws of land warfare, and tolerance in a multi-ethnic team.
Based on the philosophy used by the U.S. military to boost its own size in response to World War II — that an army can be built faster by focusing on the training on its leadership rather than enlisted men — CMATT has pursued a similar strategy of focusing recruitment and training on commissioned and non-commissioned officers for the remaining 23 Iraqi battalions. Upon successful completion of officer training, these groups of officers will form the battalion's leadership cadre, which will then be responsible for overseeing its own recruitment, training, and readiness of its enlisted men. It is hoped that having the Iraqi leadership train its own will overcome problems faced by CAATT's training process; namely recruitment, desertion, and unit loyalty.
Military Transition Teams[link]
All Iraqi Army battalions have embedded U.S. Military transition teams, according to the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq. The MiTTs advise their Iraqi battalions in the areas of intelligence, communications, fire support, logistics and infantry tactics. Larger scale operations are often done jointly with American battalions. This operational training aims to make the battalion self-sustainable tactically, operationally and logistically so that the battalion will be prepared to take over responsibility for battle space.
The level of the U.S. advisory effort is insufficient. The DOD (as of March '07) reported that 6000 advisors arranged in 480+ teams were embedded with Iraqi units.[66] However, in April, the Congressional Research Service reported that only around 4000 U.S. forces were embedded with Iraqi units at a rate of 10 per battalion.[65] Former U.S. Army analyst Andrew Krepinevich argued that the roughly twelve advisors per Iraqi battalion (approximately 500 troops) is less than half the sufficient amount needed to efficiently implement the combat advisory effort .[67] Krepinevich argues that officers try to avoid taking on advisory tasks due to the US Army's practice of prioritising the promotion of officers that have served with a U.S. unit over ones that have served with foreign forces.[68]
Equipment[link]
Virtually all of the equipment used by the former Iraqi Army was either destroyed by the U.S. and British Forces during the invasion, or was looted during the chaotic aftermath shortly after the fall of the Hussein regime. Four T-55 tanks however have been recovered from an old army base in al-Muqdadiyah and are now in service with the 1st Division.
On February 2, 2004 the U.S government announced that Nour USA was awarded a $327,485,798 contract to procure equipment for both the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi National Guard; however, this contract was canceled in March 2004 when an internal Army investigation (initiated due to complaints from losing bidders) revealed that Army procurement officers in Iraq were violating procedures with sloppy contract language and incomplete paperwork.
On May 25, 2004 the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) stated that they would award a contract worth $259,321,656 to ANHAM Joint Venture in exchange for procuring the necessary equipment (and providing its required training) for a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 35 battalions. The minimum bid would begin to be delivered immediately and further orders could be placed until the maximum of 35 battalion sets or September 2006 after the first order was fully delivered.
In May 2005, Hungary agreed to donate 77 T-72s to the Iraqi Army, with the refurbishment contract going to Defense Solutions to bring the tanks up to operational status for an estimated 4.5 million dollars US.[69] After a delay in the payment of funds from the Iraqi government,[70] the 9th Mechanised Division received the tanks at its headquarters in Taji over a three day period starting on November 8, 2005.[69]
On July 29, 2005, the United Arab Emirates gained approval to purchase 180 M113A1 APCs in good condition from Switzerland, with the intent to transfer them to Iraq as a gift. Domestic political opposition in Switzerland successfully froze the sale, fearing that the export would violate the country's longstanding tradition of neutrality as well as perhaps make Switzerland a target for terrorism.[71]
173 M113s, 44 Panhards, and 100 FV103 Spartans were donated by Jordan, Pakistan and UAE. 600 AMZ Dzik-3 (Ain Jaria) APCs were ordered in Poland (option for 1,200) for delivery by Jan 2007. 573 Otokar Akrep APCs for delivery by Jan 2007. 756 Cougar H APCs (option for 1,050) for delivery by November 2008. Greece donated 100 BMP-1 to the Iraqi Army.
713 M1114 and 400 M1151 HMMWVs purchased for IA with delivery complete by end July 2006.
Serbia has signed a US$230m deal with Iraq to sell weapons and military equipment, the defence ministry said in March 2008. It did not specify the weapons but Serbian military experts believe they include Serbian-made CZ-99 hand guns, Zastava M21 5.56 mm assault rifles, Zastava M84 machine guns, anti-tank weapons (M79 "Osa", Bumbar, and M90 "Strsljen"), ammunition and explosives and about 20 Lasta 95 basic trainer aircraft. Iraq's defence Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi visited Belgrade in September and November to discuss boosting military ties with Serbia.[72][73]
In August 2008, the United States has proposed military sales to Iraq, which will include the latest upgraded M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, attack helicopters, Stryker armored vehicles, modern radios, all to be valued at an estimated $2.16 billion.[74]
In December 2008 the United States approved a $6 billion arms deal with Iraq that included 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks and 400 Stryker combat vehicles for elite Iraqi army units.[75]
In February 2009 the US military announced it had struck deals with Iraq that will see Baghdad spend $5 billion on American-made weapons, equipment and training.[76]
Uniforms and personal weapons[link]
The average Iraqi soldier is equipped with an assortment of uniforms ranging from the Desert Camouflage Uniform, the 6 color "Chocolate Chip" DBDU and the woodland pattern BDU to the US MARPAT or Jordanian KA7. Nearly all have a PASGT ballistic helmet, generation I OTV ballistic vest and radios. Their light weapons consist of stocks of AKM and Type 56 assault rifles, and American M16A4 rifles and M4 carbines. Soviet PKM machineguns are still used by machine/support gunners and AT soldiers use RPG-7s.
However weapons registration is poor. A 2006 report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) notes that out of the 370,000 weapons turned over to the US since the fall of Saddam's regime, only 12,000 serial numbers have been recorded.[77] The lack of proper accounting for these weapons makes the acquisition of small arms by anti governmental forces such as insurgents or sectarian militias much easier.
See also[link]
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Army of Iraq |
Notes[link]
- ^ Al-Marashi, Ibrahim; Sammy Salama (2008). Iraq's Armed Forces: An Analytical History. London and New York: Routledge. p. 206. ISBN 0-415-40078-3. Al-Marashi and Salama note that the eighty-third anniversary of Iraqi Army Day was celebrated in 2004.
- ^ Iraqi Military Faces Hurdles in Its Quest to Take Charge - New York Times
- ^ MilTech World Defence Almanac 2008, Vol. XXXII, No.1, p.268, 269
- ^ a b Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq, August 2006
- ^ Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-91, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln/London, 2002, p.149
- ^ Lyman, p. 25
- ^ Al-Marashi, pp. 23-24
- ^ Ghareeb, Edmund A.; Dougherty, Beth K. Historical Dictionary of Iraq. Lanham, Maryland and Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Ltd., 2004. Pp. lvii.
- ^ a b Ghareeb; Dougherty. Pp lvii
- ^ Playfair, I.S.O.; and others (2006). The Mediterranean and Middle East, Volume II The Germans come to the help of their Ally (1941). History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series, Official Campaign History, Naval & Military Press. ISBN 1-84734-427-5, p.182
- ^ Lyman, Iraq 1941, p. 25
- ^ Ghareeb; Dougherty. Pp lviii
- ^ Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-91, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln/London, 2002, p.150, 156.
- ^ D. Kurzman, 'Genesis 1948', 1972, p. 382.
- ^ I. Pappe, "The ethnic cleansing of Palestine", 2006, p. 129.
- ^ D. Kurzman, "Genesis 1948", 1972, p. 556.
- ^ Pollack, 2002, p. 150.
- ^ Pollack, 2002, pp. 149–155.
- ^ Solomon (Sawa) Solomon, The Assyrian Levies, The Final Chapter, Nineveh Magazine 4Q,93,V16,No4.
- ^ The Times, 'New Division for Iraq Army,' 7 January 1959
- ^ Tripp, Charles. "A History of Iraq" Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002, p.165
- ^ Pollack, 2002, p.167
- ^ Follow me- The story of the Six Day War 2. Six Day War- Tom Segev
- ^ Pollack p.173-5, citing among others Tzvi Ofer, 'The Iraqi Army in the Yom Kippur War,' transl. 'Hatzav,' Tel Aviv: Ma'arachot, 1986, p.128-65. Pollack notes that the various accounts of Iraqi operations on the Golan Heights are highly contradictory. He relies on Ofer, 1986, which is an Israeli General Staff critique of the official Iraqi General Staff analysis of the battle.
- ^ Abrahamian, Ervand, A History of Modern Iran, Cambridge, 2008, p.171
- ^ Brassey's, IISS Military Balance 1989-90, p.101
- ^ a b Michael Eisenstadt, 'The Iraqi Armed Forces Two Years On, Jane's Intelligence Review, March 1993, p.124
- ^ Eisenstadt notes that four IRG security divisions were formed between the invasion of Kuwait and the outbreak of war. They remained in Iraq during the war. Eisenstadt p.124
- ^ Robert Fisk, The Great War For Civilisation; The Conquest of the Middle East (Fourth Estate, 2005), p.853.
- ^ Keaney, Thomas; Eliot A. Cohen (1993). Gulf War Air Power Survey. United States Dept. of the Air Force. ISBN 0-16-041950-6.
- ^ Wages of War - Appendix 2: Iraqi Combatant and Noncombatant Fatalities in the 1991 Gulf War
- ^ IISS Military Balance 1992-3
- ^ a b IISS Military Balance 1997-98
- ^ Iraqi Security and Military Force Developments: A Chronology, 2, 4, 6, 7 [1]
- ^ Bremer III, L. Paul (2007-09-06). "How I Didn't Dismantle Iraq's Army". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/opinion/06bremer.html?ex=1346817600&en=278710834dcd1971&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
- ^ Rohr, Karl. "Fighting Through the Fog of War". Marine Corps Gazette. http://www.mca-marines.org/GAZETTE/06rohr.asp. Retrieved 29 December 2008. [dead link]
- ^ Christopher Spearin, ‘A Justified Heaping of the Blame?,’ in Stoker (ed). Military Advising and Assistance, Routledge, 2008, p.229
- ^ http://www.cpa-iraq.org/pressreleases/20031007_Oct-04-NIAGrad.pdf
- ^ Kalev Sepp (2005-03-14). "Prepared Statement before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations regarding the training of Iraqi Security Forces" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2007-02-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20050519205100/http://reform.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Sepp+Testimony.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
- ^ BBC
- ^ BBC
- ^ Cordesman and Baetjer, 2006, p.147-148. On the ING, see Neil Barnett, 'Iraq's turbulent transition,' Jane's Defence Weekly, 8 September 2004, p.23
- ^ The Long War Journal, Training the Iraqi Army - Revisited, Again, 2005
- ^ "Iraqi command and control center opens doors amidst turnover of new territory". Multi-National Force - Iraq. 2006-05-04. Archived from the original on 2006-07-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20060708233659/http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Daily/May/060504.htm.
- ^ US hands over control of Iraq military|Iraq Updates
- ^ Iraqis to Command Four Northern Divisions by February, U.S. General Says, U.S. Department of defense, December 1, 2006
- ^ MTRs transferred in order of event: 8th, 4th, 6th, 5th and 1st (2 Nov). IA 5th MTR driving toward success - Daily article on www.mnf-iraq.com, 20 November 2006.
- ^ Pentagon Press Briefing June 23, 2006, with Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. George Casey
- ^ Iraqi forces load up on U.S. arms
- ^ O'Hanlon, Michael, Kenneth Pollack, The Brookings Institution, The Iraq Trip Report, p.6 Aug. 2007 [2]
- ^ a b "New Iraqi Army (NIA)"
- ^ USATODAY.com, General: Suicide bomber was wearing Iraqi uniform, 2004
- ^ House Armed Services Committee, "THE CONTINUING CHALLENGE OF BUILDING THE IRAQI SECURITY FORCES," http://armedservices.house.gov/pdfs/OI_ISFreport062707/OI_Report_FINAL.pdf, 27 June 2007, note 53, page 120.
- ^ Long War Journal, Microsoft Word - OOBpage13-TOE.rtf, 2009
- ^ Microsoft Word - OOBpage7-IGFC-B.rtf
- ^ http://www.mnf-iraq.com/Publications/TWII/060626.pdf This Week in Iraq - MNF-I Newsletter, June 26, 2006
- ^ Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle (OOB)
- ^ Long War Journal, Microsoft Word - OOBpage5-IGFC-M.rtf
- ^ Daily story on MNF-I Webpage, August 9, 2006
- ^ "The Advisor, MNSTC-I Newsletter, July 8, 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2006-11-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20061112011941/http://www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil/docs/advisor/currentissue.pdf.
- ^ Page 9: IGFC Basrah Sector - Long War Journal
- ^ "7th Iraqi Army Division now Controlled by Iraqi Government", MNF-I Press Release November 03 2007
- ^ Jeremy M. Sharp and Christopher M. Blanchard - Post-War Iraq:Foreign Contributions to Training, Peacekeeping, and Reconstruction - Congressional Research Service
- ^ DJ Elliott and CJ Radin - Iraqi Security Forces Order of Battle - Long War Journal
- ^ a b Iraq - Post-Saddam Governance and Security, CRS Report for Congress, p.41
- ^ U.S. Department of Defense, Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq (March 2007), p. 23, p. 25
- ^ Andrew F. Krepinevich, Send in the Advisers - Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
- ^ PRWeb.com, First Vietnamese-American to Serve as a Military Advisor to the New Iraqi Army, 2006
- ^ a b Defense Industry Daily, Iraq Receives T-72s & BMPs - With Another Armored Brigade Planned, 2005
- ^ Iraq's T-72s: Payment Received
- ^ Defense News (dead)
- ^ Serbia signs Iraq arms deal - IraqUpdates.com
- ^ Serbia seals multimillion arms deal with Iraq - International Herald Tribune
- ^ Foss, Christopher (2008-08-12). "Iraq orders Abrams tanks through US FMS programme". Jane's. http://www.janes.com/news/defence/land/idr/idr080812_1_n.shtml. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
- ^ http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htproc/articles/20081218.aspx
- ^ http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2009/February/middleeast_February246.xml
- ^ Reports to Congress - Special Inspector General For Iraq Reconstruction
References[link]
- Al-Marashi, Ibrahim; Salama, Sammy (2008). Iraq's armed forces: An analytical history. Oxon and New York: Routledge. pp. 254. ISBN 0-415-40078-3.
- Lyman, Robert (2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Campaign. Oxford, New York: Osprey Publishing. pp. 96. ISBN 10: 1-84176-991-6.
- Kenneth M. Pollack, Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness 1948-91, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2002, and Pollack's book reviewed in International Security, Vol. 28, No.2.
Further reading[link]
- Tzvi Ofer, 'The Iraqi Army in the Yom Kippur War,' transl. 'Hatzav,' Tel Aviv: Ma'arachot, 1986
- Michael Knights, “Free rein: domestic security forces take over in Iraq,” Jane's Intelligence Review (November 4, 2010), http://www.janes.com/news/security/jir/jir101104_1_n.shtml.
- Loose Ends: Iraq's Security Forces between U.S. Drawdown and Withdrawal (Baghdad/Washington/Brussels: International Crisis Group, October 26, 2010).
External links[link]
- www.365iniraq.com Articles and pictures from an Iraqi Army transition team
- Building Iraqi security forces : hearing before the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, March 14, 2005
- Rebuilding Iraq: Resource, Security, Governance, Essential Services, and Oversight Issues: United States General Accounting Office Report to Congressional Committees, June, 2004
- Cordesman, Anthony H. : Prepared Statement before the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations of the Committee on Government Reform, March 14, 2005
- Cordesman, Anthony H., Iraqi Security Forces, Praeger/CSIS, 2006 ISBN 0-275-98908-9
- Cordesman, Anthony H., Iraqi Force Development: A Current Status Report July 2005-February 2006, February 15, 2006
- America's old Humvees add new luster to Iraqi fleet - Christian Science Monitor, March 17, 2008
|
|||||||||||
| Armed Iraqi Groups in the Iraq War and the Civil war in Iraq | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Insurgents | Now-defunct Ba'athist rebels and insurgents | Military of Iraq and Police | Militias and others | ||
|
|
|
|
Shia militia
|
Sunni militias
Kurdish militias
Minority militias
|
http://wn.com/Iraqi_Army
Related pages:
http://fr.wn.com/Armée irakienne
http://pt.wn.com/Exército do Iraque
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Army
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
