X-Nico

16 unusual facts about Iraq


2004 Baghdad refusal of orders

Returning to Tallil Air Base, the same company was ordered to take their cargo to Taji, north of Baghdad.

Breaston

Geoff Hoon MP, (1953- ) who was Secretary of State for Defence from 1999 to 2005, during the invasion of Iraq.

Camp Taji

Although the PX facility is large, it remains poorly stocked in comparison to Baghdad and Balad due to supply issues.

Dale Stoffel

After alerting the Pentagon of corruption and payment irregularities involving U.S. personnel in the Coalition Provisional Authority and with the Iraqi government, he was killed in an ambush in Taji, Iraq.

Foreign relations of Jordan

The kingdom does have notable intelligence capabilities vis-à-vis Iraq, and it reportedly helped the United States track down and kill Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Ibn Muqla

Another attempt in 936 to launch a campaign against the rebellious governor of Wasit, Muhammad ibn Ra'iq, failed to even get started.

International counter-terrorism operations of Russia

The Delhi summit on security took place on February 14, 2007 with the foreign ministers of China, India, and Russia meeting in Hyderabad House, Delhi, India to discuss terrorism, drug trafficking, reform of the United Nations, and the security situations in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

John Maples, Baron Maples

The Arab bank was based in London, and fell prey to the subsequent Arms to Iraq scandals and collapsed, bankrupting its depositors.

Khamra Teeka

It also contains the track "Barwar", a song which tells the story of the bombing of Barwar, a northern Iraq region that was laid to waste during the Gulf War.

Khazar University Department of Eastern Languages and Religions Studies

The Department is distinguished among other departments of the University with young and dynamic, domestic and foreign academic staff members with Ph.D. degree and scientific research experience obtained abroad (from Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Japan, USA and EU countries).

Muhammad bin Dawud al-Zahiri

Ibn Dawud was known to have been involved in public debates with the Mu'tazila, an ancient Muslim sect, in a court of the caliph Al-Muwaffaq in Wasit.

Oscar Hilman

By improving the living conditions of Filipinos in the military base in Balad, Iraq, he was, in effect, also serving his native land.

Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr.

On June 22, 2004, McCaffrey was on a patrol with Iraqi Security Forces and the Platoon's LT. when the two U.S. soldiers were killed, initially thought to be Iraqi insurgents in an ambush near Balad, Iraq.

The Comet Dog

The project began in response to his longtime girlfriend's (Julianna) deployment to Balad, Iraq - Joint Base Balad, in July 2009, as a United States Air Force airman.

United States Navy Customs

From there, each company then heads to its base of operations, either at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, the Kuwait Naval Base, Camp Patriot, Ali Al Salem, and Camp Beuhring, Camp Virginia or they stay at ALSA for further training before deploying to Balad, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Za'im

to refer to Abd al-Karim Qasim, President of Iraq from 1958 to 1963, popularly known as al-za'im


14th Battalion, Maratha Light Infantry

In the last weeks of the war in Europe, during February 1945, the 14th Battalion proceeded overseas for service in Iraq (Mesopotamian campaign).

152d Airlift Wing

Later, the RF-4Cs were repeated diverted from other photographic missions to go and look for Scud launchers hiding in western Iraq.

20 Battery Royal Artillery

The now renamed 20 Battery RA has been deployed on Operation Telic (Iraq) being the first United Kingdom unit to deploy using the Counter RAM system and after the move of the regiment to St George's Barracks, North Luffenham, deployed to the Falkland Islands.

2007 Balad aircraft crash

The Turkish Foreign Ministry stated they have been shipped to Antonov's Kiev headquarters, but Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım claims they are still in Iraq, with the rest of the debris.

Abdul Rahman Yasin

With Yasin reportedly being held as a prisoner in Hussein's Iraq, Lesley Stahl of CBS interviewed him there for a segment on 60 Minutes on May 23, 2002 (see below).

Aiham Alsammarae

He has been an active member of the Iraqi National List (headed by Iyad Allawi) and has fought hard for political reconciliation among Iraq's political parties as well as against the policy of de-Ba'athification, since his resignation as Minister of Electricity.

Almon, Mateh Binyamin

The 1988 HBO movie Steal the Sky, starring Mariel Hemingway and Ben Cross, was partially filmed in Anatot, which was used as a location substitute for Iraq.

American Herro

The documentary covers Herro's early childhood as a Kurdish-Muslim refugee from Iraq as she fled with her family from Iraqi Kurdistan while under Saddam Hussein's regime to Minot, North Dakota, as well as her academic success and successful career as a diplomat stationed in Bosnia, Turkey, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Anders Lago

On 10 April 2008, Lago participated in a hearing before the Helsinki Commission, the independent U.S. government agency led by members of U.S. Congress, where he claimed that his small city of about 80,000 was now home to nearly 6,000 Iraqis; "more refugees than the United States and Canada together".

Anti-communist mass killings

In 1963, a coup in Iraq overthrew Abd al-Karim Qasim, who five years earlier had deposed the Western-allied Hashemite Iraqi monarchy.

Arvand Free Zone

The Arvand Freezone is a 155 square kilometer industrial and security zone that surrounds Khorramshahr, Abadan, and Minoo Island along the Arvand waterway (known as Shatt al-Arab in Iraq) in Khuzestan Province, Iran.

Battle of Mehran

However, Iraq's attack was quickly smashed by Iranian AH-1 Cobra helicopters with TOW missiles destroying an unspecified amount of Iraqi tanks and vehicles.

Bremer wall

The name is believed to have originated from L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority, who was the Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war Iraq following the Iraq War of 2003 in the early years of the Iraq War.

CIA transnational activities in counterproliferation

It was also noted that Iraq had modified commercial crop sprayers for BW delivery at the Salman Pak facility that were assessed to be suitable for the dissemination of BW agents from helicopters or slow moving fixed wing aircraft.

Dileep Nair

In 2000, he wanted to determine vulnerability of the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq.

Eric P. Schwartz

At the Council on Foreign Relations, he directed the Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq, working closely with co-chairs Thomas R. Pickering and James R. Schlesinger.

Faumuina Tiatia Liuga

From 1997 to 1998 he worked as Chief Administrator for the UN Oil-for-Food Programme in Iraq.

Hamdanid dynasty

His son Abdallah (904-929) was in turn appointed governor of Mosul in northern Iraq (906) and even governed Baghdad (914).

Hikmet Fidan

According to a Milliyet daily report, Tarık Fidan said his father was against political interference coming from Abdullah Öcalan or the PKK groups in the north of Iraq, adding: “It's obvious who committed the murder. When one puts the pieces together, it points in one direction.” He said his father supported democratic efforts instead of armed confrontation, adding, “My father was a threat to them. He was dividing the organization. I was a witness to many threats made against him.”

Hilli

Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (c. 1205-1277), an influential Shi'i Mujtahid born in the city of al-Hilla, Iraq

Holocene glacial retreat

Excavations in Iraq, for example, have shown evidence of a flood at Shuruppak around 2900-2750 BCE which extended nearly as far as the city of Kish (whose king, Etana, supposedly founded the first Sumerian dynasty after the Deluge).

Jesse Macbeth

Macbeth's form DD-214, "Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty" record shows he entered U.S. Army service May 1, 2003 and separated from the Army June 13, 2003, without completing basic training, and with no authorization for decorations, medals, badges, citations or campaign ribbons with no service whatsoever in Iraq.

Kargil district

At least until recently, some Kargilis, especially those of the Agha families descendants of Syed preachers who were in a direct line descent from the Prophet Muhammad, were sent to Iraq for their education.

Kurdistan conflict

Iraqi–Kurdish conflict - a separatist struggle of Barzan tribe and later KDP and PUK in north Iraq from 1919 until 2003

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

It is located near Landstuhl, Germany, and serves as the nearest treatment center for wounded soldiers coming from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lepidogma wiltshirei

It was described by Amsel in 1949, and is known from Iraq (including the type location Baghdad).

Loai al-Saqa

During his trial, al-Saqa was questioned by prosecutor Huseyin Canan about the beheading of British engineer Kenneth Bigley in Iraq.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani

In July 2006 Mashhadani told Al-Sharqiyah television the killings and kidnappings were the fault of "Jews, Israelis and Zionists...using Iraqi money and oil to frustrate the Islamic movement in Iraq".

Marc Becker

Becker was mentioned in the rightwing tome The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America because he, and Historians Against the War opposed the United States' war in Iraq.

Mesopotamia, Oxford

The name Mesopotamia in Greek means "between the rivers" and originally referred to the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq.

Michael Berg

He is most well known as the father of Nick Berg, one of the first American civilians to be abducted and beheaded by individuals claiming to be insurgents in Iraq.

Mohammed Munim al-Izmerly

In an October 6, 2005 report by Charles A. Duelfer, a CIA adviser who led the arms-hunting Iraq Survey Group, Izmerly is alleged to have been a key figure in training other Iraqi chemists trying to make poison gas for military use in the 1970s, the leader of the effort to produce mustard gas, and in the 1980s was chief of the chemical section of the Iraq Intelligence Service.

Multinational Division Central-South

According to mission statement the primary task of the MND CS was to oversee the transfer of the military and security in the areas under its control to the provisional Iraqi authorities.

Nahravan

Nahrawan Canal, an ancient Persian irrigation system in modern-day Iraq

Najah Ali

After the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, Ali met with Maurice Watkins, a former professional world title challenger who had been assigned by the American government to train Iraq's Olympic boxing team.

National Intelligence Medal for Valor

The medal was first awarded on 14 November 2008, to Marine Corps Lance Corporal James E. Swain, who died 15 November 2004, of wounds received while serving as a Marine Corps intelligence analyst during the Battle of Fallujah in Iraq.

Nochiya Region

The sub-district of Nochiya is a mountainess area with possibly the most spectacular natural beauty in all of southern Turkey, it lies very close to the Iraq-Iran borders and at the time contained some 40 Assyrian and Kurdish villages.

Republic of Kuwait

On August 28 Kuwaiti territory was transformed into the Kuwait Governorate, Iraq's 19th province, and thus formally annexed.

Ryan A. Conklin

In 2008, after returning from his first tour in Iraq, Conklin was cast on the 21st season of the MTV reality series, The Real World in 2008.

Saddam Hussein's alleged shredder

The first mention of the plastic shredder came at a March 12, 2003 meeting, when James Mahon addressed the British House of Commons after returning from research in northern Iraq.

Salih Sadir

The talented player from the southern city of Najaf, is one of Iraq's most gifted individuals, who excelled playing for the Olympic team in the qualifying rounds – his performances compensated for the absence of Nashat Akram in Iraq's midfield.

Spider hole

On December 13, 2003, during the Iraq War, American forces in Operation Red Dawn captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein hiding in what was characterized as a "spider hole" in a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit.

Sqwincher

During the Iraq War, Pat Reardon of beverage distributor Hagemeyer North America began a fundraising campaign to buy Quik Stiks to give to soldiers in Iraq where the temperature is frequently hot.

The Other Iraq

Douglas Layton, - Originator or THE OTHER IRAQ concept and public relations campaign and the Country Director of Kurdistan Development Corporation during the campaign

The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq

The Prince of the Marshes: And other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq (2006) is a non-fiction book by British author Rory Stewart.

Timeline of the Iraq War troop surge of 2007

November 30, 2007: U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), an outspoken congressional critic of the Iraq war, said he saw signs of significant military progress during a brief trip to the Middle East.

Torture Central

Torture Central: E-mails From Abu Ghraib is the title of the memoir of Michael Keller, a soldier stationed in Abu Ghraib, Iraq during 2005/2006.

United States Senate election in New Hampshire, 2008

Political analyst Chuck Todd said that Sununu was one of the most endangered incumbents, due largely to his continuing support of the President's Iraq policy.

Zurbatiyah

Combat Outpost Shocker- U.S. Coalition base located in Zurbatiyah, Iraq.