• owners of the East 80th Street Houses on Manhattan's Upper East Side have ranged from Clarence Dillon and Vincent Astor to Iraq?
• retired Israel Defense Force Major General Eitan Ben Eliyahu flew as a fighter escort during Operation Opera in 1981, which resulted in the destruction of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor?
• the 2005 Operation Iron Hammer, aimed to clear Al-Qaeda in Iraq from the Hai Al Becker region in western Iraq, resulted in no reported casualties and no use of deadly force?
• the 2007 documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience was based on a collection of writings by U.S. soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq?
• in his book The War Within: A Secret White House History (2006-2008), author Bob Woodward alleged that a secret killing program was used by American forces in Iraq?
• in a May 1983 attack on communist partisans, forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan killed 150 communist cadres in northern Iraq?
• as a Jordanian tribal Shaikh, Barjas al-Hadid has been responsible for mediating blood feuds between tribe members in Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia?
• hospitals in Iraq reported 6,530 cases and 459 deaths as a result of the 1971 Iraq poison grain disaster?
• in 1975, Iraq threatened to bomb the Tabqa Dam when Syria reduced the water flow of the Euphrates to fill the lake behind the dam?
• in 2007, British forces serving in Basra, Iraq were accused of using killer badgers as a weapon?
• the cargo ship MV Virginian, now under contract to Military Sealift Command, was accidentally hit by an Exocet missile while unloading cargo in Iraq in 1986?
• the dust storms raised by the Shamal wind bring most travel in Iraq to a halt for several days?
• the footage filmed for the documentary film The Boys from Baghdad High had to be smuggled out of Iraq by journalists of many different news agencies?
• the foundation of the largest dam in Iraq is subject to so much erosion that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has warned about the risk of a collapse that would kill up to 500,000 people?
• the modern border between Iran and Iraq dates back to the Treaty of Zuhab, which concluded the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1623–1639?
• thousands of Flat Daddies, life-size photo cutouts of American soldiers deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, have been created to help families cope with their deployment?
• the Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station in Iraq helps siphon water under the Euphrates River and is the largest of its type in the Middle East?
• the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways add about 500 km of new track each year to their network with planned links to Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan?
• the Copper Bull sculpture found in Iraq in 1923 was over 4,500 years old?
• the Green Mada’in Association for Agricultural Development is an agricultural cooperative in Iraq that is building greenhouses and drip irrigation systems in the Mada’in Qada region?
• the HMS Cockchafer played host to the regent of Iraq Amir Abdul Illah who had been deposed and was fleeing an assassination plot in Baghdad?
• a major flood in the Tigris in 1936 caused the building site of the Kut Barrage in Iraq to be flooded entirely so that construction had to be temporarily halted?
• Professor Padraig O'Malley of the University of Massachusetts Boston helped bring 16 Iraqis to a conference in Finland, where they met with participants in the internal reconciliations in South Africa and Northern Ireland?
• private military companies operating in Iraq use the Mamba armoured personnel carrier because it appears "less aggressive"?
• United States Marine Sergeant Aubrey McDade (pictured) was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions in Iraq in 2004?
• U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has expanded the Human Terrain Team program to match anthropologists with every brigade in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?
• Palestinian nationalist poet Ibrahim Touqan wrote the poem Mawtini, which has been the national anthem of Iraq since 2003?
• Major-General Tim Cross was one of the most senior British military officers involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after the 2003 invasion?
• Iraqi poet Nazik Al-Malaika was the first person to write in free verse in Arabic?
• Iraqi refugee Wafaa Bilal was shot by more than 60,000 paintballs in a month-long performance art piece in Chicago?
• Iraqi lawyer Dheyaa al-Saadi was elected president of the Iraqi Bar Association in 2006, but his election was annulled because he was once a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party?
• Dair Mar Elia, dating from the 6th century, is the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq?
• Doggles (pictured), a type of sunglasses for dogs, have been sent out to working military dogs in Iraq?
• Saddam Beach in the Indian state of Kerala was given its name by local Muslim villagers after the Gulf War of 1991 in solidarity with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein?
• Sarkis Soghanalian, the "Cold War's largest arms merchant", was backed by the CIA and was the primary private arms dealer to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war?
• Sir Sassoon Eskell is regarded in Iraq as the Father of Parliament?
• Ya'qub Bilbul, an Iraqi Jew who wrote in Arabic, is considered a pioneer of the Iraqi novel and short story?
• Robert Koldewey led an archeological dig in modern day Iraq which he believed to be the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for 18 years?
• Operation Diamond, mounted by the Mossad in 1966, resulted in an Iraqi pilot landing a Soviet-built Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 in Israel?
• Indo-Iraqi relations improved considerably after Iraq supported India's 1998 nuclear tests and its stand on the Kashmir dispute?
• John F. Kelly's 2003 promotion to brigadier general while in Iraq was the first promotion of a U.S. Marine Corps colonel in a combat zone since Chesty Puller's 1951 Korean War promotion?
• Omar Hayssam, a Syrian-born Romanian financier, was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison after a court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnap of three Romanian journalists in Iraq in 2005?
• Colorado state representative Joe Rice (pictured) resigned from the Glendale city council in 2003 when called up to serve in the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he advised the Baghdad city council?

Facts on topics related to Iraq

Cyprus

• "Comme Ci, Comme Ça" was performed in French at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, despite being the Cypriot entry?
• Scorpions were transported to Cyprus in 1974 to protect the British Sovereign Base Areas during the Turkish Invasion?
• Section 171 of the Criminal Code of Cyprus, which prohibited homosexual acts between men, was repealed just eight days before a May 29, 1998 deadline set by the Council of Europe?
• among all European Union member states, Cyprus is the only presidential republic? (pictured: EU flag)
• despite being born in Harlow, England, Alex Stavrinou qualified to play for the Cyprus youth football team through his father's Cypriot heritage?
• during the Ottoman–Venetian War of 1570–1573, the 8,500-strong Venetian garrison of Famagusta in Cyprus held out for eleven months against an Ottoman army of 200,000 men?
• in 1902, 23-year-old British archaeozoologist Dorothea Bate discovered a new species of dwarf elephant in a cave on the island of Cyprus?
• the Cypriot women's basketball team was disqualified at the 2009 Jeux de la Francophonie for exceeding the permitted number of naturalized players?

Iran

• Iran and Cuba have been seeking to strengthen their relationship in recent years?
• Marzieh Meshkini's 2000 film The Day I Became a Woman depicts three stages in the lives of Iranian women, focusing on a nine-year-old girl, a married woman, and an elderly widow?
• Tanaz Eshaghian's film Be Like Others explores the experiences of transsexuals in Iran, a country that outlaws homosexuality but sanctions sex-reassignment surgery?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?
• IR-40, an Iranian heavy water reactor, could produce 10 kilograms (22 lb) to 12 kilograms (26 lb) of plutonium, enough to build two nuclear weapons, each year?
• Lake Urmia, Iran's largest lake, is too salty to support fish?
• Louis Merrilat played football with Dwight Eisenhower at West Point, trained Iran's Persian Guard, and served as a soldier of fortune in China and with the French Foreign Legion?
• Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is on death row in Iran for the crime of adultery, and was originally to be executed by stoning?
• riots broke out among Azeris in Iran after a newspaper published a cartoon about a cockroach?
• Jews of Iran is the first documentary film about Iran's Jewish minority?

2003 invasion of Iraq

• Australian jazz singer Grace Knight, ex-Eurogliders, organised a nude protest of 750 women against the 2003 invasion of Iraq?
• Major-General Tim Cross was one of the most senior British military officers involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after the 2003 invasion?
• Tony Blair said that it was a mistake to say on Fern Britton Meets... that he would have still wanted to join the 2003 Iraq invasion if there were no weapons of mass destruction?
• Douglas Brand, chief police adviser to the Iraqi Interior Ministry in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, was nicknamed "The Tower of London" due to his distinctive height?
• A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke is a humorous look at the tense Franco-British relations during the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq?
• The Price of Loyalty claims that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not a reaction to the attacks of September 11?
• Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski was a policy analyst at the Pentagon for four and a half years before retiring and becoming a vocal critic of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq?
• the Mitsubishi Type 73 Light Trucks were made bulletproof for the Japanese military deployed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq?

Azerbaijan

• Welshman Sir Gore Ouseley arranged for Azerbaijan to become part of the Russian Empire in 1814?
• Azerbaijanis live in Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Iraq and the United States, as well as Azerbaijan?
• Dushanbe riots in 1990 were sparked by the rumour that a couple of thousand Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan had been resettled to Dushanbe?
• Martyrs' Lane in Baku, Azerbaijan, is dedicated to those killed by the Red Army during Black January and later to those killed in Nagorno-Karabakh War?
• Qabala treasures, monetary treasure troves discovered in Azerbaijan, contain drachmas of Alexander the Great and denarii of four Roman Emperors?
• after being imprisoned for allegedly leading Islamic militants in Azerbaijan, Ahmad Salama Mabruk began leading a new militant group within prison?
• as Azerbaijan Commissar of Public Roads, Chingiz Ildyrym oversaw the construction of the first electrified railway in the Soviet Union?
• during one of the Caspian expeditions of the Rus, the city of Barda in Azerbaijan was saved from complete destruction only by an outbreak of dysentery among the Rus?
• during the G-8 Summit in Germany on June 7-8, Russian president Vladimir Putin offered to deploy elements of an American anti-misssile shield in Qabala Radiolocation Station in Azerbaijan instead of Poland and the Czech Republic?
• in the early 1990s, Surət Hüseynov successfully led a military coup d'état in Azerbaijan to become the Prime Minister?

Kuwait

• Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik learnt to play cricket in Kuwait?
• James Bond author Ian Fleming suggested that Dame Violet Dickson should write her autobiography while he was researching a book on Kuwait, and that her autobiographical book was eventually published but his never was?
• incidents of violent crime against foreign citizens are rare in Kuwait?
• in 1901, Emir of Kuwait Mubarak Al-Sabah asked the Russian Empire for protection, only two years after his country became a British protectorate?
• in Kuwait, the freedom of the press is restricted mostly by self-censorship rather than active government action?
• the Law Library of Congress created the Global legal information network in 1993 to provide free access to an online searchable full text database of international legal documents, judicial decisions, legislation, statutes and other laws, from many countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Peru, and Romania?

Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers report ranked the United States 28th, citing a lifetime risk of maternal death six times greater in the U.S. than in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
• Sam, an army dog who served with the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, posthumously received the Dickin Medal in 2003 for holding off armed rioters in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
• Selmo Cikotić was recently appointed Defence Minister for Bosnia and Herzegovina?
• Sulejman Talović, who went on a shooting rampage at a shopping mall in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a refugee from Bosnia and Herzegovina?
• the former United Nations commander in Bosnia, Colonel Bob Stewart, has been accepted as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the UK Conservative Party?
• there are fifteen distinct police agencies enforcing law in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Jordan

• Israeli politician and settlement activist Gershon Shafat spent ten months as a Jordanian prisoner of war?
• Jordan's Municipality of Salt derives its name from the Latin saltus meaning valley of trees as there is much greenery in the area?
• Jordanian politician Sa`id al-Mufti's wife continued living in the Al-Mufti House (pictured) after his death?
• Al-Maquar, which contains the royal residence of Jordan, was built on the camp-site for the armies of the Arab Revolt, who captured Amman in 1918?
• Baqa'a is the largest refugee camp for Palestinians in Jordan?
• Dibeen Forest Reserve, established in 2004, is the newest nature reserve in Jordan?
• Jabal Amman is one of the seven original hills that Amman, Jordan was built on during the Neolithic period?
• Qualifying Industrial Zones are special free-trade zones in Jordan and Egypt created to take advantage of the free trade agreements between the United States and Israel?
• Salt is an ancient agricultural town in west-central Jordan, famous for the quality of its grape harvest, and therefore speculated to be the root for the English word sultana?
• Winston's Hiccup refers to the huge zigzag in Jordan’s eastern border with Saudi Arabia, supposedly because Winston Churchill hiccuped as he drew the boundary of Transjordan after a generous and lengthy lunch?

Iraqi

• Iraqi world-class wrestler and weightlifter Kadhem Sharif attempted to use a sledgehammer to bring down the statue of Saddam Hussein at Baghdad's Firdos Square?

Saddam Hussein

• Iraqi lawyer Dheyaa al-Saadi was elected president of the Iraqi Bar Association in 2006, but his election was annulled because he was once a member of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party?
• Iraqi world-class wrestler and weightlifter Kadhem Sharif attempted to use a sledgehammer to bring down the statue of Saddam Hussein at Baghdad's Firdos Square?
• Mohammed al-Shahwani was a talented general in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, and is now the head of Iraq's new intelligence service?
• Saddam Beach in the Indian state of Kerala was given its name by local Muslim villagers after the Gulf War of 1991 in solidarity with former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein?
• an episode of the documentary series Hostage detailed Saddam Hussein's placing of two Irish civilians as "human shields" at sites of strategic importance during the Gulf War?
• the Mesopotamian Marshes (pictured) were deliberately drained to 10% of their original size before beginning a recovery after the fall of Saddam Hussein?
• the former Iraqi Air Force commander, politician and ambassador Hardan al-Tikriti was assassinated on Saddam Hussein's orders in 1971?