Iraqi Armed Forces

The armed forces of Iraq have a long but generally politicized and unsuccessful history. They were initially formed in the early 1920s. Six military coup d'états were mounted by the army between 1936 and 1941. The armed forces first saw combat in the Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941. They fought against Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, in the 1967 Six-Day War, and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Two wars with the Kurds were fought from 1961 to 1970 and in 1974–1975. A much larger conflict was the Iran–Iraq War, initiated by the Iraqis in 1980, which continued until 1988. Thereafter Iraq began the invasion of Kuwait, which led to the Gulf War of 1991, which led in turn to confrontations over the Iraqi no-fly zones during the 1990s, and finally the Iraq War of 2003. The latest major conflict in which Armed Forces of the country participated was the 2013–2017 war against ISIS. Logistics and combat engineering have been traditional strong points. Iraqi soldiers have also usually fought hard in difficult situations.^[6]


The armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which toppled the Saddam Hussein regime, the Iraqi Armed Forces received substantial assistance from the United States Department of Defense. Since the implementation of the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement on January 1, 2009, the Iraqi Armed Forces and the forces of the Iraqi interior ministry are responsible for providing security and upholding law and order throughout most of Iraq.


The Iraqi Army was historically one of the more competent militaries in the Arab world. However, during Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and interference in military organization, the competence of the Army severely declined.^[7] The Army, in particular, is one of the most trusted national institutions of Iraq. Iraqi Armed Forces deficiencies have been identified in enabling functions, such as, e.g., logistics and military intelligence. In high-end conventional operations, Iraqi capabilities are currently limited by lack of artillery and air power.

Defense industry under Saddam Hussein

Under Saddam Hussein's presidency, Iraq had constructed state-of-the-art production facilities for the rocket propellant at Hillah, south of Baghdad, and assembled the missiles at Falluja, west of the Iraqi capital. At the time, Iraq was believed to be way ahead of its then rival Iran's arms producing industry. The Iraqis were producing a ground-to-ground missile with a 400-mile range known as the Husayn, a variant of the Soviet Scud rocket. They lobbed dozens of these terrifying missiles into Tehran in the late stages of their war with Iran during the so-called "War of the Cities." In addition, the Iraqis were believed to have the best stocks of rocket artillery in the Third World. They were producing a rocket with a 35-mile range modeled on the Brazilian Astros 2, a copy of the Soviet Frog 7, and their own 55-mile-range Liath rocket that was reportedly capable of carrying a chemical warhead. The Iraqis were also building a 30-mile-range surface-to-surface rocket known as the Ababil, which was designed to carry a sophisticated cluster-bomb warhead. Other Iraqi munitions projects included Lion of Babylon tank, infrared and television-guided bombs and laser-guided missiles. Baghdad was working on advanced naval mines and remote-piloted "drone" aircraft for battlefield surveillance. They had also developed indigenous radar planes similar to the U.S. airborne warning and control system (AWACS) surveillance aircraft. Iraq also had embarked upon an undertaking known as Project 395, a $400-million program to produce solid-fuel surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.^[22] Also under President Saddam Hussein, Project Babylon was launched to build a series of "superguns". Notable ballistic missiles of Iraq produced under Hussein included Al Hussein and Al-Samoud 2. Other notable weapons of Iraq produced under Saddam Hussein included the Tabuk Sniper Rifle, and the Al-Fao self-propelled artillery system. At sea the Iraqis built the LUGM-145 naval moored contact mine.


There was an Iraqi biological weapons program (not to be confused with Iraqi chemical weapons program) under Saddam Hussein until the end of 1991 Gulf War. By the time Iraqis were testing biological warheads (containing anthrax and botulinum toxin) in Iraq's deserts, the 1980 to 1988 Iran–Iraq war had come to an end.^[74] In December 1990 the Iraqis had filled 100 R-400 bombs with botulinum toxin, 50 with anthrax, and 16 with aflatoxin. In addition, 13 Al Hussein missile warheads were filled with botulinum toxin, 10 with anthrax, and 2 with aflatoxin. These weapons were deployed in January 1991 to four locations for use against the U.S. forces only as "weapons of last resort" in case they stormed the gates of Baghdad. Since this never happened in 1991, Saddam found their use unnecessary. Iraq destroyed its biological arsenal after the 1991 war.


The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Britain published in September 2002 a review of Iraq's military capability, and concluded that Iraq could assemble nuclear weapons within months if fissile material from foreign sources were obtained.^[75] Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, who created Saddam's nuclear centrifuge program that had successfully enriched uranium to weapons grade before the 1991 Gulf War, stated in an op-ed in The New York Times that although Iraqi scientists possessed the knowledge to restart the nuclear program, by 2002 the idea had become "a vague dream from another era."^[76] Iraqi scientists under Saddam Hussein included Nassir al-Hindawi, Rihab al-Taha and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash as weapons designers.

International military cooperation

From 2003 to 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense took the major role in assuring Iraq's exterior defense. The U.S. command responsible was initially Combined Joint Task Force 7, then Multi-National Force – Iraq, and is now United States Forces – Iraq. USF-I was established on January 1, 2010, and withdrew on December 31, 2011. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency facilitated buying of U.S. weapons. Residual assistance efforts were then managed by the Office of Security Cooperation, Iraq, headed by Lieutenant General Robert L. Caslen.^[77] OSC-Iraq was established on October 1, 2011.^[78] Lt Gen Bednarek succeeded Caslen.


While Iran has been accused of involvement in the Iraqi insurgency, the Iranian government also publicly offered help to build up the Iraqi armed forces. Then-Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi met with his Iranian colleague Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani in Tehran in 2005, and the Iranians pledged to give assistance.^[79]


In 2010, U.S. Army Major General Tony Cucolo mentioned Operation Bright Star as an example of a possible joint training exercise component of a future U.S.–Iraq military-to-military relationship.^[80]


In July 2015, during the war against ISIS and in response to a request by the Iraqi government, NATO agreed to provide defence and related security capacity-building support. In April 2016, NATO began conducting a number of “train-the-trainer’’ courses in Jordan for Iraqis (more than 350 Iraqi security and military personnel were trained). Then, following a request from the Iraqi Prime Minister, at the Warsaw Summit in July 2016 NATO Leaders agreed to provide NATO training and capacity-building activities to Iraqi security and military forces within Iraq. In January 2017, NATO deployed a modest but scalable Core Team to Baghdad of eight civilian and military personnel, setting up NATO’s permanent presence in Iraq. Jordan-based training transferred to Iraq in February 2017.^[81]


In 2018, At the NATO Summit in Brussels , following a request from the Iraqi government, Allied leaders issued direction to launch a new training mission in Iraq called NATO Mission Iraq (NMI). This new mission was established in Baghdad in October 2018.^[82]


NATO Mission Iraq is focused on mentoring and advising Iraqi national defence structures and military education institutions, through a series of activities conducted with full respect for Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is designed to help Iraqi security structures and institutions further develop and sustain their capacity. NATO works closely with the Iraqi Ministry of Defence to train members of the Iraqi Military under the direct control of the Government of Iraq.


The activities of NMI throughout Iraq includes: Ministry of Defence, Office of the National Security Advisor, Prime Minister’s National Operation Centre, Defence University for Military Studies, Computer Science School military Medical School, Iraqi Army Bomb Disposal School, Iraqi Armour School, School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, School of Military Engineering, School of Transportation and Supply, School of Administration and Logistics,


School of Military Communications, Military Intelligence and Security School and Non Commissioned Officers Academy.^[82]