• the Hood Event was an incident following the US invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish special forces operating in northern Iraq was captured and interrogated by the US military, later becoming the basis for the 2006 film Valley of the Wolves Iraq?

Facts on topics related to Iraqi Kurdistan

Iraq

• 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?
• 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?
• Major-General Tim Cross was one of the most senior British military officers involved in the reconstruction of Iraq after the 2003 invasion?
• Palestinian nationalist poet Ibrahim Touqan wrote the poem Mawtini, which has been the national anthem of Iraq since 2003?
• 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?

Kurdish people

• Vera Beaudin Saeedpour, an American Jew, opened the first U.S. museum dedicated to the Kurdish people?

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?

Gulf War

• state senator Mike Kopp is the only Gulf War veteran currently serving in the Colorado General Assembly?
• Chenowth Advanced Light Strike Vehicles were used by United States Navy SEALs in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as during the Gulf War?
• 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?
• after events of the Gulf War in February 1991, the highway which connects Kuwait City to Al Jahra became known as the Highway of Death (demolished vehicles on the highway pictured)?
• 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 Iraqi Army launched an offensive into Saudi Arabia on 29 January 1991, leading to the Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War (U.S. Marine artillery pictured)?

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?