Hello 4103,
Thank you for your question.
According to:
Baghdad is Key to Control of the Middle East
Iraq's Liberation in Perspective
By AHMAD FARUQUI
March 24, 2003
http://www.counterpunch.org/faruqui03252003.html
"...On March 11, 1917, Lieutenant-General Sir Stanley Maude and his
Anglo-Indian Army of the Tigris entered Baghdad. The campaign to
invest Baghdad took place against the backdrop of the First World War.
It seemed to have had no clear strategic objectives except the
fulfillment of the new prime minister' s desire to capture the fabled
city of the Arabian Nights. In retrospect, the invasion of Iraq gave
the government of Lloyd George the opening to invade Palestine, Syria
and Lebanon....
...More chaos was to follow in the months to come. Posts were
over-run, British officers killed and communication killed in the
Middle Euphrates region. Colonel Gerald Leachman, a leading British
officer, was shot in the back and killed on the orders of the tribal
sheikh who was hosting him during a gathering of the tribes. The news
of his killing led to further tribal uprisings along the Euphrates and
north and west of Baghdad..."
Regards,
-=clouseau=- |