Iraqi Revolt

Iraqi Revolt of 1920
DateMay–October 1920
Location
Result

British military victory
Iraqi political victory[1]

Belligerents

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom

  • Assyrian levies

Iraqi rebels

Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Sir Arnold Wilson
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Clive Kirkpatrick Daly
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Gerard Leachman 
Muhsin Abu-Tabikh
Ja'far Abu al-Timman
Shaalan Abu al-Jun
Muhammad Hasan Abi al-Mahasin
Mirza Taqi al-Shirazi
Mirza Mahdi al-Shirazi
Mehdi Al-Khalissi
Mahmud Barzanji
Dhari ibn Mahmud
Habib al-Khaizaran
Omar al-Alwan
Other heads of iraqi tribesmen
Strength
120,000 [3][dubiousdiscuss]
(later reinforced with an additional 15,414 men)
63 aircraft[3]
131,000[4]
Casualties and losses
1,000 killed[5]
1,100–1,800 wounded[5]
11 aircraft destroyed[6] 600 Missing[5]
2,050[5]–10,000 killed[6][7]

The Iraqi Revolt of 1920, also known as the Iraqi War of Independence or Great Iraqi Revolution began in Baghdad in the summer of 1920 with mass demonstrations by Iraqis, including protests by embittered officers from the old Ottoman Army, against the British who published the new land ownership and the burial taxes at Najaf. The revolt gained momentum when it spread to the largely tribal Shia regions of the middle and lower Euphrates. Sheikh Mehdi Al-Khalissi was a prominent Shia leader of the revolt. Using heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the uprising was suppressed by the British.[8]

Sunni and Shia religious communities cooperated during the revolution as well as tribal communities, the urban masses, and many Iraqi officers in Syria.[9] The objectives of the revolution were independence from British rule and the creation of an Arab government.[9] The revolt achieved some initial success, but by the end of October 1920, the British had suppressed the revolt, although elements of it dragged on until 1922.

  1. ^ Kadhim, Abbas (2012). Reclaiming Iraq: The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State. University of Texas Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN 9780292739246.
  2. ^ The new Cambridge modern history. Volume xii. p.293.
  3. ^ a b Lieutenant Colonel David J. Dean: Air Power in Small Wars - the British air control experience Archived 7 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Air University Review (Air & Space Power Journal), July–August 1983. Retrieved 16.05.2012.
  4. ^ Ibrahim Al-Marashi, Sammy Salama: Iraq's Armed Forces: An Analytical History, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0415400783, page 15.
  5. ^ a b c d Tauber, Eliezer; Ṭaʼuber, Eliʻezer; Ṭa'uber, Eliʿezer (23 January 1995). The Formation of Modern Syria and Iraq. Frank Cass. ISBN 9780714645575 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference guardian was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ A Report on Mesopotamia by T.E. Lawrence The Sunday Times, 22 August 1920
  8. ^ Glubb Pasha and the Arab Legion: Britain, Jordan and the End of Empire in the Middle East, p7.
  9. ^ a b Atiyyah, Ghassan R. Iraq: 1908–1921, A Socio-Political Study. The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1973, 307