Iraq

Operation Phantom Phoenix was a major nation-wide offensive launched by the Multinational Force Iraq on January 8, 2008 in an attempt to build on... the success of the two previous corps-level operations, Operation Phantom Thunder and Operation Phantom Strike and further reduce violence and secure Iraq's population, particularly in the capital Baghdad. The offensive consisted of a number of joint Coalition and Iraqi Army operations throughout northern Iraq as well as in the southern Baghdad Belts. The northern operation was designated Operation Iron Harvest. Its objective was to hunt down the remaining 200 Al-Qaeda extremists remaining in the province of Diyala following the end of the previous offensive. The operation also included targeting insurgent elements in Salah ad-Din province and Nineveh province. The southern operation was designated Operation Marne Thunderbolt and targeted insurgent safe havens in the belts to the south-east of Baghdad, particularly the Arab Jabour region. Additionally, Phantom Phoenix's aims were the remaining car, truck and suicide bomb networks in Baghdad as well as al-Qaeda’s financial network.
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The Ninawa campaign was a series of offensives and counter-attacks between insurgent and Coalition forces for control of the Ninawa Governorate in... northern Iraq in early-to-mid-2008. Some fighting also occurred in the neighboring Kirkuk Governorate. The capital of Ninawa province, Mosul, forms the northern tip of the "Sunni Triangle" and lies on a sectarian fault line between Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Before the Iraq War, it was a Ba'ath party stronghold and a major source of officers for the Iraqi Army. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division was originally tasked with entering northern Iraq through Turkey, however the Turkish government blocked the attempt. Instead, 2,000 paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and 1000 U.S. Special Forces soldiers from the 10th Special Forces group opened a smaller front from Kurdistan, working with the Kurdish Peshmerga to secure Kirkuk and Mosul. As a result, the U.S. forces did not have a large military presence in Ninawa following the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime. In early April 2003, the 173rd Airborne launched Operation Option North to secure Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields. Meanwhile U.S.
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The Siege of Sadr City was a blockade of the Shi'a district of northeastern Baghdad carried out by U.S. and Iraqi government forces in an attempt to... destroy the main power base of the insurgent Mahdi Army in Baghdad. The siege began in April 2004 with an uprising against the Coalition Provisional Authority following the government banning of a newspaper published by Muqtada Al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement. The most intense periods of fighting in Sadr City occurred during the first uprising in April 2004, the second in August the same year, during the sectarian conflict that gripped Baghdad in late 2006, during the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, and during the spring fighting of 2008. On March 28, the US overseer of Iraq, Paul Bremer, ordered the 60-day closure of Al-Hawza, a newspaper published by Muqtada al-Sadr’s group, on the charges of inciting violence against the occupation. The next day thousands of Iraqis rallied outside the offices of Al-Hawza in support of the newspaper. On April 3, Bremer sent troops to al-Sadr’s home and arrested Mustafa Yaqoubi, a top lieutenant, sparking further protests.
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The Battle of Basra began on March 25, 2008, when the Iraqi Army launched an operation to drive the Mahdi Army militia out of the southern Iraqi... city of Basra. The operation was the first major operation to be planned and carried out by the Iraqi Army since the invasion of 2003. Coalition and Iraqi aircraft patrolled the skies above Basra providing intelligence and carrying out air strikes in support of Iraqi forces on the ground. Coalition forces provided embedded military transition teams in Iraqi Army units and US Special Forces also conducted joint operations with ISOF units. Iraqi forces faced heavy resistance from Mahdi Army militia inside the city and the offensive stalled, requiring American and British air and artillery support, eventually resulting in a stand-off. More than 1,000 casualties resulted in six days of heavy fighting. Following a ceasefire negotiated in Iran on March 31, Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew his fighters from the streets, but had gained a major political victory.
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OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 12 oil-producing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria,... Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings among the oil ministers of its Member Countries. It is considered to be one of the most effective organizations in the world. Indonesia withdrew in 2008 after it became a net importer of oil, but stated it would likely return if it became a net exporter again. According to its statutes, one of the principal goals is the determination of the best means for safeguarding the organization's interests, individually and collectively.
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The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries is a multi-governmental organization headquartered in Kuwait which coordinates energy... policies between oil–producing Arab nations, and whose main purpose is developmental. On 9 January 1968, three of the then–most conservative Arab oil states Kuwait, Libya, and Saudi Arabia agreed at a conference in Beirut, Lebanon to found the Organization of Arab Petroleum Engineering Countries, aiming to separate the production and sale of oil from politics in the wake of the halfhearted 1967 oil embargo in response to the Six Day War. Such use of the economic weapon of oil embargo in the struggle against Israel had been regularly proposed at Arab Petroleum Congresses, but it took the Six Day War for the embargo happen. However Saudi Arabia's oil production was up by 9% that year, and the main embargo lasted only ten days and was completely ended by the Khartoum Conference. OAPEC was originally intended to be a conservative Arab political organization which, by restricting membership to countries whose main export was oil, would exclude governments seen as radical such as Egypt and Algeria.
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes. The World Bank's... official goal is the reduction of poverty. By law, all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the latter incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference. The most powerful countries in attendance were the United States and United Kingdom, which dominated negotiations. Although both are based in Washington, D.C.
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The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but... representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down operations in 1947. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services". Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totaled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain $625 million and Canada $139 million. UNRRA cooperated closely with dozens of volunteer charitable organizations, who sent hundreds of their own agencies to work alongside UNRRA.
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The University of Basrah is situated in the city of Basra, Iraq. For historic reasons the final -h is retained on Basrah in the name of the... university. Founded in 1964 to meet the needs of southern Iraq, the University of Basrah was at first affiliated with the University of Baghdad, but in 1964 it became an independent body. Today the University consists of fourteen colleges located on three campuses around the city of Basra, with research facilities and student halls of residence . The University awards the degrees of BA, BSc, Higher Diploma, MA, MSc and PhD. The university is composed of 15 colleges: The University conducts research through the following research centres: There is also the Desalination Unit , the Natural History Museum, the Haemoglobinopathy Unit, the Internet Resources Centre, the Central Library, and a Publishing house.
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Salahaddin University is an educational institution in in Arbil , capital of Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. One of the oldest and largest... institutions of higher learning in Kurdistan Region, Salahaddin University was established in 1968 and was originally based in Sulaimaniya. It was transferred to Arbil in 1981. Initially, the university included seven colleges: Science, Agriculture, Engineering, Administration, Arts, Education, and Medicine. Later, in 1985, the College of Law and Politics was added to the University's programs while the College of Dentistry was added in 1995. The total number of colleges became 22 in 2004. It decreased to 18 in 2005 when the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy became part of the Hawler Medical University. The University is a member of the International Association of Universities and grants various academic degrees and certificates to qualified individuals, including Bachelor of Arts , Bachelor of Science , Master of Arts , Master of Science , and Doctorate of Philosophy .
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The American University of Iraq -Sulaimani also called AUI-S is a private, non-profit university offering a liberal arts education based on the... American model. First opened in October 2007, it is located in the city of Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The university offers five undergraduate majors and two MBA programs. All instruction at AUI-S is in English, and all language instructors are native English speakers. The institution is licensed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Kurdistan Regional Government of the Republic of Iraq. In June 2010, AUI-S received full, five-year accreditation by the American Academy for Liberal Education, which was at the time a U.S. Department of Education-approved agency. In 2001, the Board of Trustees of The American University of Iraq – Sulaimani set out to establish an institution dedicated to offering a truly comprehensive, American-style education in Iraq. They sought to create a university where talented students in Iraq and the region would come to learn, regardless of origin or affiliation.
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Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘ , nicknamed Ziryab , was a Black African or Persian or Kurdish polymath: a poet, musician, singer, chemist,... cosmetologist, fashion designer, trendsetter, strategist, astronomer, botanist and geographer. He was active at the Umayyad court of Córdoba in Islamic Iberia. He first achieved notoriety at the Abbasid court in Baghdad, Iraq, his birth place, as a performer and student of the great musician and composer, Ishaq al-Mawsili. Ziryab was a gifted pupil of Ishaq al-Mawsili . He left Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun and moved to Córdoba in southern Iberian Peninsula, where he was accepted as court musician in the court of Abd al-Rahman II of the Umayyad Dynasty . The occupation of Persia by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century had exposed the Arab invaders to the richness of the Persian way of life, including music.
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Linda George is an ethnic Assyrian singer who resides in the United States Of America. The vast majority of her songs are sung in her native Assyrian... language. George is widely known by the Assyrian community in countries in the USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Armenia, Russia, Georgia and her homeland Iraq. George's career started in the Assyrian community in Chicago discovered of Assyrian singer Sargon Gabriel. Sargon featured Linda on his track "Dalaleh". The track became a popular record in the Assyrian community and helped land George her own album. George's first album, Hal Eiman, was released in 1983 and was instantly a success. Linda soon became popular and recognizable with the help of songs such as the title track "Hal Eman", "La Khaswit M'Barokh", "Nishra D'Atour and "Marqidly". It was not until her third album Neqmeh Min Garbiat Atree that George had major success. The album, released in 1986, featured some of George's most popular songs. Songs such as "Asheeta", "Taleeboota", "Mokhibbie Kheesheleh" and "Ktowa Khashana".
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Nazem El Ghazali was one of the most popular singers in the history of Iraq and his songs are still heard by many in the Arab world. He was born in... the Haydar Khanah quarter in Baghdad, and studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Iraq. He started his career as an actor, and after a few years turned to singing. He worked at the Iraqi Radio in 1948, and was member of the Andalusian Muashahat Ensemble. In that period he worked with the great oudist Jamil Bashir, and together they produced some distinguished works, such as Fog el-Nakhal and Marrou 'Alayya el-Hilween. He was also a student of Muhammad al-Qubbanchi, , one of the most prominent maqam singers of the last century. Nazem was renowned for his popular songs and he has also recorded some maqams. According to many, his refined mellow voice was the finest in the field. He was married to prominent Iraqi Jewish singer Salima Murad. Nazem Al-Ghazali's band consisted of many prominent musicians known to the Arab world. The flute player, in addition to the khanoun player, were blind.
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Raed George is an Iraqi musician who began his musical career by composing some music tracks for the Iraqi National Radio Station in 1989. In 1997,... Raed George's music won the golden medal of International Cairo Radio and Television Festival for best Arabic audio track of the year. . Education: Music Certificate, Institute of Radio Training, Baghdad Iraq. Diploma, Fine Arts Institute, Baghdad-Iraq. Diploma, College of Economic and Administration, Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, Baghdad-Iraq.
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The State of Kuwait /kuːˈweɪt/ 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 and has a population of about 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. After Kuwait gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1961, the state's oil industry saw unprecedented economic growth.
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Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the... Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World, after Algeria. It is bordered by Jordan, and Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south.The Red Sea lies to its west, and the Persian Gulf lies to the northeast. Saudi Arabia has an area of approximately 2,149,690 km , and it has an estimated population of 27 million, of which 8.8 million are registered foreign expatriates and an estimated 1.5 million are illegal immigrants. Saudi nationals comprise an estimated 16 million people.
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Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya 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. Jordan was founded in 1921, 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 Jordan. In antiquity, the present day Jordan was in the heart of the earlier civilizations which prospered in the Fertile Crescent including the Babylonian and the Canaanites.
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Syria sirr-ee-ə; Arabic: سورية‎ Sūriyya or سوريا Sūryā;... Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: Sûrî, officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest. In English, the name Syria was formerly synonymous with the Levant, known in Arabic as Sham, while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. The population of Syria is 74% Sunni Muslim, with a 12% Alawi population, 10% Christian, and 3% Druze. Combined, some 90% of the Syrian population is Muslim, which largely includes Arabs and significant minorities of Kurds, and Circassians.
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