29 FEBRUARY

BRITISH BLOW UP THE GREAT BAZAR OF KABUL – “AN INEXCUSABLE ACT OF VANDALISM” [ 10 October 1842 ] On this day in 1842 British troops under the command of Major-General Sir George Pollock, following the instructions of India’s Governor General, Lord Ellenborough, to leave “some lasting mark of the just retribution of an outraged…

GENERAL ON HIS TROOPS ‘BURNING EVERY VILLAGE WITHIN REACH’ [ 20 August 1920 ] On 20 August 1920, Major General George A.J. Leslie, commanding the 17th Indian Division in Iraq, wrote to his wife Edith in India, informing her that Brigadier General H.A. Walker’s column, comprising two British and six Indian battalions was ‘slowly working…

  UNGRATEFUL SHEIKH SHAKHBUT DEPOSED BY BRITISH LED COUP. 6 August 1966 – The British deposed Sheikh Shakhbut of Abu Dhabi in a military coup because he was failing to reward British military support by spending enough on British goods, although in the words of historians the serious problem his prudence presented has been more…

MI6 WARNS OF UDA TERROR BUT THE UK REFUSES TO PROSCRIBE THE ORGANISATION. On 12 February, 1981, David Wyatt of MI6 warned the Northern Ireland permanent secretary that “UDA/UFF (loyalist) gunmen, with the full blessing of Tyrie (head of the Ulster Defence Association), are going to continue murdering identified Republicans.” Please feel welcome to post…

SECRET AGREEMENT TO SUPPORT NORTH YEMEN TERROR ATTACKS. [ 7 September 1963 ] On this day in 1963 – At a secret meeting in Aden’s Crescent Hotel, between Colonel David Stirling, who had founded the SAS in 1942, Peter de la Billiere, a junior intelligence officer, Tony Boyle, a junior RAF officer and Ahmed al-Shami,…

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