The 8th Division is a division of the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the coup ...

. Before being reformed after 2004 it was part of the previous Iraqi Army. Just before the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...

it was located at

Erbil Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000. Hu ...

as part of the 1st Corps.Malovany, Wars of Modern Babylon, 2017, 83-84. The 8th Division is composed of former

Iraqi National Guard The Iraqi National Guard (NG; ar, الحرس الوطني, al-Ḥaras al-Waṭanī) was an armed force originally established by the United States Coalition Provisional Authority. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, CPA Administrator Paul Bremer ...

units, some of which were formed as early as 2004, but the division headquarters did not assume control of its area of operations until January 2006. On 7 September 2006, Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...

signed a document taking control of Iraq's small naval and air forces and the 8th Iraqi Army Division, based in the south. The 8th Division's commander, Brig. Gen. Othman al-Farhoud, told the Associated Press his forces still needed support from the U.S.-led Coalition for things such as medical assistance, storage facilities and air support, stating:

"In my opinion, it will take time before his division was completely self-sufficient."

As of March 2007, the division commander was still Othman Ali Farhood, but he had been promoted to Major General. The division took part in

Operation Lion's Leap Operation Lion's Leap was a joint US-Iraqi operation against the Mahdi Army in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad. The division-level operation was launched on 17 November 2007 by Iraqi Army and police forces, with a US brigade in support. ...

in November 2007. In 2010 the division comprises: (DJ Elliot, Montrose Toast, Information Cut Off, 28 February 2010) *Division Headquarters,

Diwaniyah Al Diwaniyah ( ar, ٱلدِّيوَانِيَّة ''ad-Dīwānīyah''), also spelt Diwaniya, is the capital city of Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate. In 2002 the population was estimated at 440,927. Overview The area around Al Diwaniyah, which i ...

*30th Commando (Motorised) Brigade, HQ

Wasit Wasit ( ar, وَاسِط, Wāsiṭ, syr, ‎ܘܐܣܛ) is an ancient city in Wasit Governorate, south east of Kut in eastern Iraq. History The city was built by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in c. 702 CE on the west bank of the Tigris across from the hist ...

*31st Commando (Motorised) Brigade, HQ

*32nd Commando (Motorised) Brigade, HQ

Kut Kūt ( ar, ٱلْكُوت, al-Kūt), officially Al-Kut, also spelled Kutulamare or Kut al-Imara, is a city in eastern Iraq, on the left bank of the Tigris River, about south east of Baghdad. the estimated population is about 389,400 people. It ...

*33rd Commando (Motorised) Brigade, HQ Hussainiyah (Karbala) *8th Field Engineer Regiment, Diwaniyah *8th Transport and Provisioning Regiment,

Numaniyah An-Nu'mānīyah ( ar, النعمانية, an-Nuʿmānīyah) is a city on the Tigris river in Iraq, located roughly southeast of Baghdad in the Wasit Province. It is the site of one of four national training centers for the Iraqi Army. It is a ...

/Diwaniyah

Notes

Bibliography

* *.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20100401100920/http://www.understandingwar.org/files/reports/Backgrounder06.pdf {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Divisions of Iraq Military units and formations established in 2004