ENEMY ON THE EUPHRATES: Battle for Iraq 1914-1921

A masterful account of how Britain's imperial objectives sowed the seeds of Iraq's tragic history. Between July 1920 and February 1921 in the territory known as Mesopotamia, now the modern state of Iraq, an Arab uprising came perilously close to inflicting a shattering defeat upon the British Empire. A huge peasant army led by Shi'i clerics, Baghdad notables, disaffected sheikhs and former Ottoman army officers surrounded and besieged British garrisons with sand-bagged entrenchments. British columns and armoured trains were ambushed and destroyed, and well-armed British gunboats were sunk or captured. The quest for oil was central to Britain's Middle East policy during the First World War and was one of the principal reasons for its continuing occupation of Iraq. However, with around 131,000 Arabs in arms at one stage of the conflict, the British were very nearly driven out. Only a massive infusion of Indian troops and the widespread use of aircraft prevented a total rout. Bringing in central players such as Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell vividly to life, Rutledge provides a definitive account. 477pp in illustrated paperback.