Iraq Levies

The Iraq Levies (Commonly known as the Assyrian Levies) was a majority Assyrian force, and the first Iraqi military force established by the British in British controlled Iraq. The Iraq Levies originated in a local armed scout force raised during the First World War. After Iraq became a British Mandate, the force was composed mostly of Assyrians but also some Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen who lived in the north of the country, while the nascent Iraqi Army was recruited first from the Arabs who had joined the Iraqi Levies and later from the general Arab population (Beth-Kamala). Eventually the Levies enlisted mainly Assyrian soldiers with British officers. The unit initially defended the northern frontiers of the Province of Mosul when Turkey claimed the province and massed its army across the frontiers. After 1928 the prime role of the Levies was to guard the Royal Air Force bases located in Iraq.

The Levies distinguished themselves in May 1941 during the Anglo-Iraqi War where Assyrians defeated a large force of 15.000 Iraqi Nazis with British air support in multiple battles. The Assyrians also defeated other Nazi Arabs in campaigns in Syria and Lebanon and were also used in other theatres of the Second World War, including in the Balkans and Italy. The force thereafter grew and survived until it was disbanded when control of RAF Habbaniya and RAF Shaibah was handed to Iraq in 1957.