The 1st Corps was a

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

of the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), also referred to as the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was formerly known as the Royal Iraq ...

, established before the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. It was located in

Kurdistan Region Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous Federal regions of Iraq, federal region of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurds, Kurdish-majority governorates of Arabs, Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate ...

History

In 1977–78 British military attaches' reports from Baghdad said the 4th Infantry Division was part of the corps, with divisional headquarters at

Mosul Mosul ( ; , , ; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. It is the second largest city in Iraq overall after the capital Baghdad. Situated on the banks of Tigris, the city encloses the ruins of the ...

and brigades at Mosul (5th), Dohuk (18th),

Sinjar Sinjar (; , ) is a town in the Sinjar District of the Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. It is located about five kilometers south of the Sinjar Mountains. Its population in 2013 was estimated at 88,023, and is predominantly Yazidi. History ...

(21st), plus two unlocated reserve brigades, the 93rd and 99th. Other divisions of the corps reportedly included the 2nd Division at

Kirkuk Kirkuk (; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Iraqi Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Cit ...

with five brigades, including two reserve; the 7th Division at Sulaimaniyah with five brigades (all active); and the 8th Division at

Erbil Erbil (, ; , ), also called Hawler (, ), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC. At the h ...

with six brigades, including the 91st, 95th, and 98th Reserve Brigades. At the beginning of the

, Malovany shows corps headquarters at

; the 11th Infantry Division with elements north of the Ranwanduz – Rayat road; and the 7th Infantry Division advancing from its bases at Sulaimaniyah towards the border between Penjwin and Sayid Sadiq. Ahead of Operation Dawn-4, units of the 1st Corps spent two months in their trenches waiting for the Iranians to attack. The offensive came on 19 October 1983 as the Iranians and

Peshmerga The Peshmerga () are the internal security forces of Kurdistan Region. According to the Constitution of Iraq, regional governments are responsible for "the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as p ...

guerrillas of the

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK; ) is a political party active in Kurdistan Region and the Disputed territories of Northern Iraq, disputed territories in Iraq. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy a ...

took of territory. This included a number of Kurdish villages and exerted a significant amount of pressure on Penjwin.

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

responded with a counterattack, using the Iraqi Republican Guard and

poison gas Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal concentration) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious ...

. However, they failed to dislodge the Iranians, who were dug-in and reinforced by Kurdish fighters. The anti-Kurdish

Anfal campaign The Anfal campaign was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988 during the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted rural Kurds because its p ...

was mounted between February and September 1988. While the Anfal campaign may have been initially conceived by the Iraqi government as a purely military campaign to destroy an insurgent movement, Kurds were killed for being Kurds, and it became ethnicised. The 1st Corps, under Lieutenant General Sultan Hashem, at Kirkuk, handled most Anfal operations, alongside the 5th Corps. Units were transferred south out of the 1st Corps to build up Iraqi forces in the south after the

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months ...

in 1990. In 1991 the "Iraqi I Corps controlled two infantry divisions, several independent mechanized brigades, and an elite special assault brigade. These forces were stationed in or near Dohuk Province." The Iraqi 44th Infantry Division was headquartered in Zakho. During Operation Provide Comfort, " mid-May

991 Year 991 (Roman numerals, CMXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events * March 1: In Rouen, Pope John XV ratifies the first Peace and Truce of God, Truce of God, between Æthelred the Unready and Richard I o ...

the allied security zone spread from the Turkish border about three-quarters of the way across Iraq toward the Iranian border. The 3d Commando Brigade pushed west and nudged the Iraqi 36th Infantry Division out of Batufa. From there the brigade moved on to Sirsenk where it occupied a vital airstrip.." Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it had its headquarters in

, and was orientated to the north, facing the Kurds. In late 2002, consisting of the 5th Mechanized Division (15th and 20th Mechanised and 26th Armoured Brigades); 2nd Infantry Division, 8th Infantry Division and the 38th Infantry Division (130th, 847th, 848th Infantry Brigades). The corps was battered by the U.S. Task Force Viking (CJSOTF-North, built around the

10th Special Forces Group The 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) (10th SFG (A), or 10th Group) is an active duty United States Army Special Forces (SF) Group. 10th Group is designed to deploy and execute nine doctrinal missions: Unconventional warfare (United States), ...

) during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.See Robinson, Linda (2005). "Chapter 13: Viking Hammer (and the Ugly Baby)". ''Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces''. PublicAffairs. pp. 296 et seq. . Among other actions, U.S.-led forces seized

. The successful occupation of Kirkuk came as a result of approximately two weeks of fighting that included the Battle of the Green Line (the unofficial border of the Kurdish autonomous zone) and the subsequent Battle of Kani Domlan Ridge (the ridgeline running northwest to southeast of Kirkuk), the latter fought exclusively by 3rd Battalion, 10th SFG and Kurdish peshmerga against the 1st Corps. Remnants of the corps lasted until the dissolution of the Iraqi Army by Coalition Provisional Authority Order 2 in May 2003.

Note

References

*Anthony Cordesman, ''Iraq's Military Capabilities in 2002: A Dynamic Net Assessment,'' CSIS, Washington DC, 2002. * {{DEFAULTSORT:1st Corps (Iraq) Army units and formations of Iraq Corps Military units and formations disestablished in 2003 Iran–Iraq War Military units and formations of the Gulf War Iraqi invasion of Kuwait Military units and formations of Iraq in the Iraq War Disbanded military units and formations of Iraq in the Iraq War