Iraq’s Top Five Battles
Alexander III, known as “The Great,” beat king Darius11 in the battle of issues in 334 BC. By doing this Alexander ended the Persian Empire which was started by Cyrus II. Darius thought that by retreating to the plain of Gaugamela with his massive army he could win this war. But Alexander using his 7000 cavalrymen and more than 30,000 infantrymen outwitted Darius. Attacking from behind his army causes them confusion and ultimately death with Darius fleeing bringing on a full retreat.
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The Battle of Gaugamela: 331 BC
Alexander 111 known as “The Great” beat king Darius11 in the battle of issues in 334 BC. By doing this Alexander ended the Persian Empire which was started by Cyrus 11. Darius thought that by retreating to the plain of Gaugamela with his massive army he could win this war. But Alexander using his 7000 cavalrymen and more than 30,000 infantrymen outwitted Darius. Attacking from behind his army causes them confusion and ultimately death with Darius fleeing bringing on a full retreat.
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The Battle of Carrhare: 53 BC
Crassus death was caused by his eagerness to increase his popularity with his two partners Pompey and Julius Ceaser after becoming governor of Syria in 55 BC. Only 10,000 Gauls survived and in attempting to surrender Marcus Licinius Crassus was killed. From there the Romans went into the east. He had crossed Eurphratesh an open dessert in June straying away from the river to try to invade Parathian Mesopotamia. Theoretically the Romans had an advantage with seven legions which is about 44,000 men, but they had no dessert experience especially in the middle of day in June. The Parthians led by Commander General Suren won the battle with 10,000 mounted archers and 1000 extra camels used to re-supply his troops.
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Capture of Baghdad by Suleyman the Magnificent: 1534 AD
Suleyman the Magnificent gained control over the cities of Baghdad and most of Iraq, he took Iraq from the Persians gaining almost four centuries of Ottoman rule in Iraq in 1534 after being succeeded to the throne in 1520. The Ottomans with their first ruler in the early 1500’s Sultan Selim 1 or known as “The Grim” began to rise to power as an Islamic state. More power was gained with his winning of the war in 1514 in Chaldiran which moved the Ottomans into northern Iraq as the safavids had already won over Iraq in 1509.
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Siege of Kut-al-Amara: 1915 Siege
In 1914 during World War 1 the British started the Mesopotamian battle at Al Faw in order to protect its Iraqi Oil interests. Because of several easy winnings they started a battle on Baghdad. To their surprise they were undermanned with Anglo-Indian forces and their supplies few while being led by Sir Charles Townsend. In 1915 the British went to the fallen Ctesiphon near the Tigris River SE of Baghdad. But they were not alone theTurks had already set up almost 20,000 men along each side of the river, They overcame the British who went back to Kut-al-Amara only to have it over taken 143 days later forcing them to surrender with 10,000 men being captured. The armies’ biggest defeat was only 1 years later when they finally took Baghdad.
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Operation Iraq Freedom: 2003
After the Persian Gulf War which began as a result of the presidency of Saddam Hussein and included a botched invasion of Kuwait in 1990 the US had reason to believe that Iraq was in violation of cease-fire. This also meant that they were making weapons of mass destruction. In March 2003 US and British troops consisting of 300,000 military forces went to Iraq by way of Kuwait, because for 12 years Hussien had evaded the United nation’s arms inspectors. This entrance into Iraq was to find Hussien and to search out these chemical, nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction and destroy them. During this invasion and still today no WMD have been located. In early April 2003 Baghdad fell. On May 1, George W Bush ended the combat, but left forces there to help control the country. Finally Hussien was caught near Tikrit, his hometown and fighters still continued resistance. The death toll in Iraq, by March 2008 had reached more than 4300 American and coalition troops and approximately 90,000 of Iraq’s people.
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