Iraq Levies - History

History

The Iraq Levies traced their history to the Arab Scouts organized in 1915 by a Major J I Eadie, of the British Indian Army who served as a Special Service Officer in the Muntafiq Division in Mesopotamia. He recruited forty mounted Arabs from the tribes round Nasiriyeh, for duty under the Intelligence Department as bodyguard for political officers in southern and central Iraq. By 1918 The Arab Scouts increased to 5,467 Arabs, Kurds, Turkoman, Marsh Arab and Assyrian militia.

In 1919 the force changed names twice, first to the Militia and then in July to the Iraq Levies when Iraq became a British Mandate. On Aug. 12, 1919, the force became known as the "Arab and Kurdish Levies." Also in 1919 the Iraq Levies were split was split into a strike force of 3,075 men, based in Baquba, and district Police force of 1,786 men. On 1 August 1919, the Levy and Gendarmerie Orders were published in which the control of the Levies, and the duties of the Inspecting Officer of the Levies, who were limited to inspection and administration, were defined. This put the Levies were under the control of three different people: the Inspecting Officer, the Political Officer of the Area, and the Local Administrative Commandant. The budget was dealt with by the Inspecting Officer, except in the Northern Iraqi Provinces of Kirkuk, Sulaimani and Mosul Liwas, where Political Officers dealt with it.

Read more about this topic:  Iraq Levies

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.
    Terri Apter (20th century)

    Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.
    William Faulkner (1897–1962)

    There is a history in all men’s lives,
    Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
    The which observed, a man may prophesy,
    With a near aim, of the main chance of things
    As yet not come to life.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)