Mosul: Facts

11st	Top places in Iraq

the Battle of Shaizar in 1111, between King Baldwin I of Jerusalem's Crusader army and a Seljuk army led by Mawdud bin Altuntash of Mosul, ended in a tactical draw?

Facts on topics related to Mosul

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?

11th century Muslim Al-Andalusian poet Wallada bint al-Mustakfi dressed in public in the fashion of the harems of Baghdad, without a customary hijab?
Baghdad was under siege for more than a year during a civil war in the 9th century between Al-Amin and his brother Al-Ma'mun for the Abbasid Caliphate?
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 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?
Operation Marlborough was a mission to kill Iraqi terrorist insurgents wearing suicide vests who were intending to target cafes and restaurants in Baghdad?
in the Ottoman-Safavid War (1532–1555), the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent invaded Persia as far as Baghdad?
the Rus merchants travelling along the Volga trade route (pictured) brought goods from Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia as far as Baghdad?
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?
the website Wikileaks released a video in April 2010 in which photojournalist Namir Noor-Eldeen and eleven others were killed during an airstrike by American helicopters in Baghdad?

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

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?

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?

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?