The military history of Iraq, due to a rich archaeological record, is one of the longest in written human history. The region of Iraq, which used to be Mesopotamia, has been referred to as the "cradle of civilization", and wars of conquest have been recorded in this region as far back as the third millennium BC. The area possesses strategic value, initially for the rich, fertile agricultural region in the Mesopotamian plain, and more recently for large petroleum deposits and access to the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The present territory of Iraq lacks significant strategic barriers, making it difficult to defend against foreign invasion. The border between Iraq and Iran, or in ancient times between Babylonia and Persia, has been regarded as the most fought over frontier in the world.
There were several revolts in this time:
Baghdad was sacked on February 10, 1258 by Hulagu Khan in the Battle of Baghdad (1258), with between 250,000 and 800,000 people killed during the Mongol invasion. It had been under siege for several weeks.
On 1 April 1941, Rashid Ali and four generals overthrew the pro-British Iraqi government. The British were concerned that the Axis powers might get involved in Iraq since the new government was pro-Axis. The British landed troops at Basra while Iraqi forces besieged RAF Habbaniya.
On 2 May, the British launched pre-emptive air strikes against Iraqi forces. On 7 May, the Iraqis abandoned the positions above RAF Habbaniya. By about 11 May, the Iraqi Air Force was neutralized. From about 13 May, the "Flyer Command Iraq" (Fliegerführer Irak) of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) started to arrive. The aircraft of Fliegerführer Irak started to fly sorties under Iraqi colours from Mosul against the British and Commonwealth forces. For a variety of reasons, Fliegerführer Irak was able to achieve little in the way of results. British ground forces from Habbaniya attacked Iraqi forces in Fallujah and, by 22 May, had withstood an Iraqi counter-attack. The British forces then attacked Baghdad, Rashid Ali and his government fled, and an armistice was signed on 31 May.
The pro-British Iraqi government was restored and the Kingdom of Iraq declared war on the Axis on 17 January 1943.
The Iraqi Army participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War against Israel.
The US began military aid to Iraq in 1954, and Iraq joined the pro western Baghdad Pact in 1955. Iraqi troops along with the Syrians occupied parts of Jordan during the 1956 Suez War.
A garrison in Mosul rebelled against Qassem, and Kurdish leader Barzani returned from exile in the Soviet Union to suppress them. Iraq claimed sovereignty over Kuwait after it gained independence from Britain in 1961, but it backed down after the British sent troops to Kuwait.
Iraq sent troops and planes to Jordan during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war (the Six-Day War).
Iraqi divisions fought in the 1973 October War against Israel.
Saddam Hussein came to power as President of Iraq in 1979.
Iraq invaded Iran on the 22nd of September, 1980, in the Iran–Iraq War and with some initial successes, eventually the war dragged on into a long stalemate, with between 1 and 2 million casualties. The war ended with a ceasefire on August 20, 1988.
On June 7, 1981 Israeli F-15s and F-16s bombed and destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor, 18 miles (29 km) south of Baghdad following the orders of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
On May 17, 1987 an Iraqi Mirage fighter fired two Exocet missiles at the American ship USS Stark (FFG-31), killing thirty-seven of the crew.
On August 2, 1990 Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. The United States led an international coalition which heavily bombed Iraq and freed Kuwait in 1991. After this war, sanctions were imposed on Iraq as well as a north and south no fly zones, and during the 1990s, Iraq was frequently bombed by American and British aircraft in small sorties.
In January 1993 the US launched a cruise missile attack against Iraq, because of it not dismantling police posts near the border with Kuwait. In June 1993 another US cruise missile attack was launched because of a suspected assassination plot against former US president George H. W. Bush. In 1996, Iraqi troops moved into northern Iraq to support the Kurdish Democratic Party against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The US responded with limited air attacks in the south. There were Iraqi attacks against allied aircraft in the no fly zones in January 2001, with American and British responding with bombing of targets in northern Iraq in February.
The United States led a "coalition of the willing" which invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003 in a war that took three weeks to get control of the country, yet the fighting lasted much longer. Baghdad was captured on April 9. Saddam Hussein was deposed, but remained in hiding until December 14, 2003, when he was captured by the US, tried by a US appointed court and killed as a result of a death sentence.
Iraq is currently rebuilding its military with the aid of countries from the Coalition of the Willing (see Military of Iraq). The effort to create a new national military is being complicated by focused insurgent attacks on recruitment centers and claims of insurgents' infiltration of the new forces. Saddam Hussein was executed on December 30, 2006 after a court appointed by the interim government found him guilty of ordering the deaths of the inhabitants of an Iraqi village almost 10 years earlier.
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