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Baghdad Belts
The Baghdad Belts are the residential, agricultural and industrial areas, as well as communications and transportation infrastructure that encircle the Iraqi capital and connect it to other areas in Iraq. In the Iraq War, they were used by insurgents as staging points for operations in the capital. Location The belts can be described as the provinces adjacent to the Iraqi capital and can be divided into four quadrants: northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest. Beginning in the north, the belts include the Saladin Governorate, clockwise to Baghdad Governorate, Diyala in the northeast, Babil and Wasit in the southeast, and around to Al Anbar Governorate in the west. Iraq War, 2003–2011 Strategic value Between 2004 and June 2007, Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Shi'ite militias used locations in the Baghdad Belts to supply their combat operations in the capital. According to General Odierno, a top US commander in Iraq, "Attacks occurring in Baghdad often originate in these outlying re ...
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Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and private physical structures such as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water supply, sewerage, sewers, electrical grids, and telecommunications (including Internet access, Internet connectivity and Broadband, broadband access). In general, infrastructure has been defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing Commodity, commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal quality of life, living conditions" and maintain the surrounding environment. Especially in light of the massive societal transformations needed to Climate change mitigation, mitigate and Climate change adaptation, adapt to climate change, contemporary infrastructure conversations frequently focus on sustainable development and gre ...
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Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ( ar, أَبُو مُصْعَبٍ ٱلزَّرْقَاوِيُّ, ', ''Father of Musab, from Zarqa''; ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh (, '), was a Jordanian jihadist who ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. He became known after going to Iraq and being responsible for a series of bombings, beheadings, and attacks during the Iraq War, reportedly "turning an Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), insurgency against US troops" in Iraq "into a Iraqi Civil War (2006–2008), Shia–Sunni civil war". He was sometimes known by his supporters as the "Sheikh of the slaughterers". He formed Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, and led it until his death in June 2006. Zarqawi took responsibility, on several audio and video recordings, for numerous acts of violence in Iraq including suicide bombings and hostage executions. Zarqawi opposed the presence of U.S. and Western military forces in the Islamic world, as well as the ...
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Private Militias In Iraq
The term militia in contemporary Iraq refers to armed groups that fight on behalf of or as part of the Iraqi government, the Mahdi Army and Badr Organization being two of the biggest. Many predate the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, but some have emerged since, such as the Facilities Protection Service. Since the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014), collapse of the Iraqi army in the North of Iraq against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the Ali al-Sistani#Fatwa for jihad against ISIS, fatwa by the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani calling for jihad or ''hashad shaabi'' ("popular mobilization")According to another source "Hashed al-Sha'abi" is the name for "the coalition of militias which are now doing most of the fighting against Isil outside Kurdish areas" (source: ) against ISIL, militias have become even more prominent in Iraq. Sustenance According to Eric Davis, professor of Middle East politics at Rutgers University, "They get some salary, they get a rifle, they get a u ...
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Northern Iraq Offensive (June 2014)
The Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014) began on 4 June 2014, when the Islamic State began a major offensive from its territory in Syria into Iraq against Iraqi and Kurdish forces, following earlier clashes that had begun in December 2013 involving guerillas. The Islamic State and its allies captured several cities and surrounding territory, beginning with an attack on Samarra on 4 June, followed by the seizure of Mosul on 10 June, and Tikrit on 11 June. As Iraqi government forces fled south on 13 June, Kurdistan Regional Government forces took control of the oil hub of Kirkuk, part of the disputed territories of Northern Iraq. The Islamic State called the battles of Mosul and Saladin Governorate "the Battle of the Lion of God al-Bilawi," ( ar, غزوة أسد الله البيلاوي) in honor of Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi. A former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, Ali Ghaidan, accused Former Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri al-Maliki of being the one who issued th ...
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Islamic State Of Iraq And The Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ''dawlah islāmiyyah'' ( ar, دولة إسلامية) it refers to a modern notion associated with political Islam (Islamism). Notable examples of historical Islamic states include the State of Medina, established by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the Arab Caliphate which continued under his successors and the Umayyads. The concept of the modern Islamic state has been articulated and promoted by ideologues such as Sayyid Rashid Rida, Mohammed Omar, Abul A'la Maududi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Israr Ahmed, Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna. Implementation of Islamic law plays an important role in modern theories of the Islamic state, as it did in classical Islamic political theories. However, most of the modern theories also m ...
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Operation Commando Eagle
Operation Commando Eagle was a 2007 military operation of the Iraq War. It began on 21 June 2007, when Iraqi and Coalition forces launched a combined ground and air assault operation against al-Qaeda and other extremist terrorists operating in the Mahmudiyah region of Babil province. The action was intended to curb terrorist activity southwest of Baghdad through a mix of helicopter assaults and Humvee-mounted movements. The operation The operation targeted a series of houses which local citizens indicated were being used by al-Qaeda cells to intimidate them and launch attacks against Iraqi and Coalition Forces. On 21 June, troops of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd BCT, 10th Mountain Division detained three men when their truck was found to contain documents requesting rockets as well as a spool of copper wire, commonly used to build improvised explosive devices. Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division found a large weapons cache, and ...
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Operation Marne Torch
Operation Marne Torch refers to two operations launched by U.S.-led Coalition forces in 2007 against al-Qaeda in Iraq in the Arab Jabour area of Babil province. This campaign is named after Operation Torch, the joint US/British invasion of French North Africa in 1942, presumably because of the two operations' similar thrust into the enemies' southern underbellies. The first operation, Marne Torch I, began on 16 June 2007 when Multinational Division Central launched offensive operations against Sunni and Shi'ia extremists, as well as insurgents with Iranian influence in the city and surrounding regions of Arab Jabour in Babil province. The objective was to clear terrorist sanctuaries southeast of Baghdad and reduce the flow of accelerants into the city by both combat and civil-military operations. 2000 coalition and 1000 Iraqi army soldiers disrupted insurgent operations by capturing, seizing, and clearing caches that support instability in the area. Marne Torch II was launch ...
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Operation Arrowhead Ripper
The Battle of Baqubah II (March–August 2007) took place during the Iraq War in the capital of the Iraqi province Diyala, to the north-east of Baghdad. It began in early March 2007, when U.S. and Iraqi forces commenced preliminary operations to "establish a presence in Diyala beyond their Forward Operating Base".Securing Diyala , Institute for the Study of War
In June 2007 as part of a larger country wide offensive, Operation Arrowhead Ripper was launched to gain control of Baqubah and its surrounding areas from the insurgents. Baqubah was largely pacified as a result of this operation although insurgent presence still remained in the capital and throughout the province. In August 2007,

Lake Tharthar
Lake Tharthar (also Therthar), and known in Iraq as Buhayrat ath-Tharthar ( ar, بحيرة الثرثار), is an artificial lake opened in 1956, situated 100 kilometers (62 mi) northwest of Baghdad between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. History In 1956, the southern part of the Tharthar depression was turned into an artificial reservoir to collect floodwaters of the Tigris River. The water flows via an artificial inlet canal, named Tharthar Canal. The canal diverts the excess water, by means of a regulator Samarra Barrage. It merges with the lake in its southeastern bank. The lake has an artificial outlet called Taksim Tharthar Canal, which drains to the Euphrates River directly. The canal, after 28 km (17.4 mi) from its outlet, bifurcates to another canal called "Dhira'a Dijla" (arm of tigris) that returns water back to the Tigris River. Lake Tharthar was the site of a raid in 2005 against an insurgent training base in the region. Description The Tharthar depres ...
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Iraq War Troop Surge Of 2007
The Iraq War troop surge of 2007, commonly known as the troop surge, or simply the surge, refers to the George W. Bush administration's 2007 increase in the number of U.S. military combat troops in Iraq in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Governorate."The Surge at Year One"
By Michael Duffy. ''''. Published January 31, 2008. Accessed
The surge was developed under the "The New Way Forward" and was announced in January 2007 by Bush during a television speech.< ...
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David Petraeus
David Howell Petraeus (; born November 7, 1952) is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 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 ...
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General Odierno
Raymond Thomas Odierno (8 September 1954 – 8 October 2021) was an American military officer who served as a four-star general of the United States Army and as the 38th chief of staff of the Army. Prior to his service as chief of staff, Odierno commanded United States Joint Forces Command from October 2010 until its disestablishment in August 2011. He served as Commanding General, United States Forces – Iraq and its predecessor, Multi-National Force – Iraq, from September 2008 through September 2010. Early life and education Raymond Thomas Odierno, of Italian descent, was born on 8 September 1954 in Dover, New Jersey, the son of Helen and Raymond J. Odierno. He grew up in Rockaway, New Jersey, and attended Morris Hills High School, graduating in 1972, followed by the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in June 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He later received a Master of Science degree in nuclear effects engineering from North Caro ...
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