3rd Division (Iraq)

The 3rd Division is a formation of the Iraqi Army. It had to keep the 99th Brigade of their 3rd Armoured Diwas active by 1941, disbanded along with the rest of the vision out of the conict so that they could watch the Iraqi
Iraqi Army in 2003, but reactivated by 2005.
division.[4]

The 3rd Armoured Division saw service later in the Yom

Kippur War, under the command of Brigadier General
Lafta, and was deployed alongside the Jordanian 40th Armoured Brigade. By that time, 'the division was the elite
unit of the army, and Iraqi ocers avidly competed to
be assigned to it.'[5] The Division suered heavy casualties during the war, losing more than 157 tanks, 278
dead and 898 wounded.[6] The 8th Mechanised Brigade
was completely destroyed on 13 October in an ambush
set by four Israeli armoured brigades at Tel Shaar, between Maschara and Nasej.[7] The division later fought
in the Iran-Iraq War, Persian Gulf War, operations in the
1990s, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Just before the Iraq
War it was part of the II Corps, on the Iranian border.
It comprised the 6th Armoured Brigade, 12th Armoured
Brigade, and 8th Mechanised Brigade.[8] It was disbanded
when the Iraqi Armed Forces were formally dissolved by
Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 2.

History

Before being disbanded in 2003, the previous 3rd Division had been one of the four original divisions of the Iraqi
Army, being active in 1941 during the Anglo-Iraqi War.
The divisions most notable activity in the war came on
22 May when the divisions 6th Infantry Brigade staged a
counterattack against British forces in Fallujah which was
repulsed.

In July 1958 elements of the division had overthrown

the Iraqi government in the 14 July Revolution, with
Abd al-Karim Qasim, commander of the 20th Infantry
Brigade (an armoured brigade according to Darwish and
Alexander) stationed near Ba'quba, the originator of the
coup. However the actual overthrow was led by a battalion commander, Abdul Salam Arif, in the 19th Infantry
After its reformation post-2003, the division was headBrigade.[2]
quartered at Al Kisik. Its units were part of the original three division New Iraqi Army. As of January 2005,
the division was commanded by Maj. Gen. Khursheed
Saleem Hassan.[9] The 3rd Division was transferred from
coalition control to the Iraqi Ground Forces Command
on 1 December 2006.[10]

In 2014, the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division was described as the 'The rst line of Mosuls defence' against
ISIS. Reuters said that 'On paper, the brigade had 2,500
men. The reality was closer to 500. The brigade was also
short of weapons and ammunition, according to one noncommissioned ocer. Infantry, armour and tanks had
been shifted to Anbar, where more than 6,000 soldiers
had been killed and another 12,000 had deserted. It left
Mosul with virtually no tanks and a shortage of artillery,'
Soldiers of the 3rd Division during a training exercise in 2011
according to Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi, com[11]
Some time in the 1950s or 1960s the division was con- mander of the Ninevah operational command.
verted into the 3rd Armoured Division, which was de- Janes Defence Weekly's 30 July account of the Iraqi
ployed to the 1967 Six Day War. Iraqi participation in Armys poor performance against ISIS during the
the Six Day War was limited, principally owing to the oensive in Northern Iraq during June 2014 said the dislow reaction of the 3rd Armoured Division, which had vision, by then comprising the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th
been stationed in eastern Jordan.[3] The 3rd Armoured Brigades, had almost totally dissolved or been destroyed
Division did not organise itself and reach the front line in ghting. The exception appeared to be the 4th Batbefore the Jordanians ceased operations. Later during the talion of the 10th Brigade, which had been defending a
events of Black September in Jordan, 1970, the division position outside Tall Afar in early July 2014.[12]
was still stationed in northeast Jordan. Though the Jordanians needed forces to repel the Syrian invasion, they
1

Subordinate units
Division Headquarters
9th Motorised Brigade
10th Motorised Brigade ('Desert Lions)
11th Motorised Brigade
12th Brigade (formed in April 2008)
3rd Motor Transport Regiment?

Notes

[1] Dunstan, Simon (2003). The Yom Kippur War 1973:

Golan Heights Pt.1. Elsm Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing Ltd.
p. 18. ISBN 1 84176 220 2.
[2] Pollack 2002, p. 156
[3] Pollack 2002, p. 167
[4] Pollack 2002, p. 343
[5] Pollack 2002 p. 167
[6] Dunstan, Simon (2003). The Yom Kippur War 1973:
Golan Heights Pt.1. Elsm Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing Ltd.
p. 83. ISBN 1 84176 220 2.
[7] Dunstan, Simon (2003). The Yom Kippur War 1973:
Golan Heights Pt.1. Elsm Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing Ltd.
p. 75. ISBN 1 84176 220 2.
[8] Cordesman 2002, p. 3
[9] IRAQ: Iraqi Armys 8th Brigade graduate multiple
classes. Noticias. 17 January 2005. Retrieved 24 March
2010.
[10] United States Department of Defense, Transcript of discussion with Commander Multinational Division North, 1
December 2006
[11] Reuters/Business Insider Australia, An Iraqi General Says
that Baghdad is Wrong about How Mosul Fell to ISIS,'
October 14, 2014.
[12] Mitchell Prothero, 'Baghdad breakdown', Janes Defence
Weekly, 30 July 2014, p.22

References
Cordesman, Anthony H. (2002). Iraqs Military
Capabilities in 2002: A Dynamic Net Assessment.
Washington, DC: The Center for Strategic and International Studies. ISBN 978-0-89206-416-8.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Darwish, Adel; Alexander, Gregory (1991). Unholy

Babylon: The Secret History of Saddams War. London: Victor Gollancz. ISBN 978-0-7881-5108-8.
Pollack, Kenneth M. (2002). Arabs at War: Military Eectiveness 194891. Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-80323733-9.

5 External links
3rd Armored Division 'Salahuddin'". Globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 27 April
2010. Retrieved 24 March 2010.

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