9 JANUARY
FOUR ARAB VILLAGES BURNED TO THE GROUND
[ 9 January 1916 ]
On 9 January 1916, the British army in Mesopotamia launched a punitive expedition from Nasariyah against Arab villages along the Tigris River where they believed some of the inhabitants had either colluded with or participated in an attack two days earlier on a military column which had been retreating from an alliance of regular Turkish and rebel Arab forces. The British mercilessly burned at least four and possibly as many as six villages to the ground, rendering all the inhabitants, including many women and children, penniless and homeless.1
BRITISH GENERAL ADVISES AGAINST PROSECUTION OF KENYAN MILITIA.
[ 9 January 1955 ]
On 9 January 1955, General Erskine, commanding British forces in Kenya, advised the War Office not to prosecute any Home Guard loyalist forces for murder, torture and other war crimes.
FOOTNOTES
- According to the Daily Record, four arab villages were burned – ‘Arabs Attempt to Outflank British Troops – Four of their villages burned,’ The Daily Record, 12 February 1916, p. 5, but according to ‘Mesopotamia,’ the Sunderland Echo, 12 February 1916, p 3., it was six villages – ‘a punitive force has burned six of the Arabs’ villages.’
Please feel welcome to post comments below. If you have any questions please email alisdare@gmail.com
© 2019 Alisdare Hickson All rights reserved