ABSTRACT
Habbaniya (2-19 May 1941) In the spring of 1941, the brief but intense fighting at Habbaniya in central Iraq became the focus of a larger struggle to protect Britain’s Iraqi oil sources and strategic position throughout the Middle East. Severe British military defeats in North Africa and Greece (qq.v.) had emboldened some Iraqi nationalists. The crisis began on 1-3 April when a former prime minister, Rashid Ali alGailani, seized power in Baghdad with help from a disgruntled army faction. Perhaps only a figurehead for his anti-British military backers, Rashid Ali appeared to be pro-Axis, causing the alarmed British to take immediate countermeasures.
