A timeline of the Arabs World News | Politics | History | Editor (Copyright © 2012 Piero Scaruffi) |
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BC: The first kaaba shrine is founded in Mecca 853BC: First reference to Arabs in an Assyrian inscription 106 AD: Rome destroys the Nabatean kingdom of Petra (Jordan) 271 AD: Rome destroys the kingdom of Palmyra (Syria) 275 AD: the Lakhmids of Hira (on the Euphrates) are vassals of the Sassanids 300: "qasida" poems 350: the Aramaic-speaking Nabataeans (Jordan) develop the Arabic script 450: Qusayy, husband of the daughter of the king of Mecca, unifies the Quraysh tribe and founds a city around the shrine of Mecca 460: Persian king Firuz persecutes Jews, who emigrate to Arabia 500: southern Arabia is ruled by a Jewish kingdom 500: northern Arabia is ruled by the Kinda 500: the Arabs of Najran (southern Arabia) convert to Christianity 504: Mundhir III becomes king of the Lakhmids of Hira 512: First recorded inscription in Arabic 522: the Jewish Himyarite king of Yemen persecutes the Christians, which ask the Ethiopians for help 523: the Himyarites defeat the Ethiopians and massacre the Christians of Najran 525: the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas of Yemen dies and Yemen becomes an Ethiopian (Christian) colony 528: Harith ibn 'Amr (Arethas) king of Kinda dies 547: Abyssinian general Abreha proclaims himself king of southern Arabia 554: Mundhir III is defeated by the Byzantine phylarch Ghassanid Harith IV ibn Jabala 570: Christian Ethiopia tries to capture Mecca but is defeated by the Arabs 575: The Sassanians expel the Ethiopians and Yemen becomes a Sassanid province under Chrosroes II 595: At the age of 25 Muhammad (Mohammed) marries his wealthy employer, the 40-year-old Khadija 602: the Lakhmid dynasty of Hira ends 608: the Kaaba is erected in Mecca, a granite cube to enclose a black meteorite stone, a shrine to numerous Arabian tribal gods 610: Muhammad (Mohammed) of the Quraysh family preaches a new religion, Islam, in Mecca, a city which is at the time a model of religious tolerance (all gods are allowed) 615: Muslims travel to Ethiopia 622: Mohammed and his followers ("Muslims") migrate ("heijra") to Yathrib, which is renamed Medina 624: Mohammed (in his fifties) marries Aisha, a six-year old child, one of his many wives 628: Mohammed defeats a Jewish tribe at the battle of Khaybar and orders the beheading of all 700 men, and changes the direction of the prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca 628: Yemen converts to Islam 628: Mohammed, head of the state of Medina, signs a treaty with the Quraish state of Mecca 629: Mohammed wins the battle of Khaybar and beheads all the Jews 630: Mohammed's army conquers Mecca and establish the first religious dictatorship in the world, banning all other gods 632: The Muslim army conquers the Arabian peninsula 632: Mohammed delivers his last sermon on Mount Arafat 632: Mohammed dies having created a kingdom in the central Arabian peninsula 632: The Shiites, or Partisans of Ali, claim that Ali should succeed Mohammed based on blood relation, but the council of the elderly (Sunnites) choses instead Abu Bakr 632: Abu Bakr, one of Mohammed's followers and the first Muslim caliph ("prophet's successor"), quells upheavals throughout Arabia and declares war on the Roman (Byzantine) and Persian (Sassanid) empires 633: Abu Bakr conquers southern Mesopotamia 634: Abu Bakr defeats Byzantium in Palestine 634: Abu Bakr is succeeded by Umar ibn Abn Khattab 636: The Arabs defeat the Byzantine army at Yarmuk and the patriarch of Jerusalem surrenders 637: The Arabs win the battle of Qadisiya, capture Seleucia-Ctesiphon and the Sassanid empire ends 638: the Arabs conquer Jerusalem, welcomed by Christian patriarch Sophronius, and expel the Jews 639: the Arabs conquer Syria (mainly Nestorian) from Byzantium 642: the Arabs conquer Egypt (mainly monophysite) from Byzantium, and found the first mosque in Africa, Amr Ebn El Aas Mosque (the site of future Cairo) 642: Oldest extant manuscript in Arabic (with disambiguation dots) 644: Umar is murdered by a Persian slave and is succeeded by Uthman ibn Affan, a Quraysh 647: the Arabs expand in nothern Africa 649: the Arabs attack Byzantium on the sea and conquer Cyprus 650: the Arabs conquer the whole of Persia 650: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 655: the text of the Quran/Koran is finalized 656: Uthman is murdered and is succeeded by Ali (cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed), the first "imam" of Shiah (and only one to become also caliph), who moves the capital from Medina to Kufa 661: Ali is murdered and is succeeded as caliph by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan, first of the Umayyads and first caliph not to be an early follower of Mohammed, and by Hasan as imam 661: Muawiya moves the capital to Damascus (in Syria rather than Arabia) and creates an army of paid mercenaries 662: Ziyad ibn Abihi is appointed governor of Iraq (Basra) and the former Sassanid provinces 664: the Arabs conquer Afghanistan 669: Hasan dies and Hussein becomes imam 670: the Arabs led by Uqba ibn Nafi fight the Berbers in northern Africa 670: the Arabs found Qayrawan in Tunisia 674: the Arabs attack Byzantium 679: the Arabs are defeated from Byzantium 680: Muawiya dies and the Shiite pretendent to the Caliphate, Husayn/Hussein, Ali's son and Mohammed's grandson, is assassinated by sunnite troops of Muawiya's son Yazid in Karbala 683: Yazid dies and is succeeded by Uthman's nephew Marwan 685: Marwan dies and is succeeded by his son Abd Malik who introduces administrative reforms (Arabic language as the official language, coins with Islamic verses) 691: Caliph Abd al-Malik builds the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem 692: Al-Malik's general Hajjaj ibn Yusuf captures Mecca and ends the anti-caliphate of Abdallah ibn Zubayr (shiite) 694: Al-Malik appoints Hajjaj ibn Yusuf governor of Iraq 710: Hajjaj ibn Yusuf dispatches Muhammad bin Qasim to conquer northwestern India and Qutayba ibn Muslim to conquer Transoxiana 695: the Arabs build the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (with the first inscription from the Koran) 696: Arabic becomes the official language of the Islamic world 697: the Arabs force the Persians to abandon the Pahlavi alphabet in favor of the Arabic script 698: The Arabs, led by general Musa bin Nusayr, recapture Carthage and found Tunis 700: Hasan Basri preaches virtue, mortification, prayer, purity of heart to attain knowledge of God 705: Al-Malik's son Walid I becomes caliph 708: Arabs led by Musa ibn-Nusayr conquer Tangiers (Morocco) and subdue the Berbers 709: Qutayba ibn Muslim invades Central Asia (Merv, Sogdiana) TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 709: the Al Aqsa mosque is built in Jerusalem 710: a mosque is built in Damascus 711: Tariq ibn Ziyad's Berber army (with help from the Jews) conquers southern Spain from the Visigoths of king Roderic (who is fighting a Basque rebellion in the north) and Cordoba becomes the residence of the Arab governor 712: a Berber army under Tariq ibn Ziyad conquers southern Spain from the Visigoths and Cordoba becomes the residence of the Arab governor 712: Qutayba ibn Muslim conquers Samarkand (Sogdiana) and Khwarizm 712: the first mosque is built in Bukhara, which will become the second holiest city in Islam after Mecca 712: the Arabs, led by Kutayba ben Muslim, conquer Transoxania and convert the Turks to Islam 712: The ascetic Abd Rustam founds a theocratic kingdom in central Algeria with capital in Tihert/ Tahert 713: Husayn's son Ali Zaynu dies and is succeeded by his son Muhammad al-Bakr as the fifth imam who formalizes Shiite ideology 714: The Muslims complete the conquest of Iberia and rename it al-Andalus 715: calip Sulayman besieges Byzantium 715: a mosque is built in Aleppo 715: Qutayba is killed by his own soldiers and Muslim expansion in Central Asia comes to an end 716: Largest extension of the Umayyad empire 717: The Arabs lay siege to Byzantium 718: Byzantium repels the Arab invasion 720: the Arabs capture Narbonne 720: the Zayids do not recognize the imam Baqir and cause a split within the shiites 725: the Arabs capture Carcassonne 728: caliph Hisham attacks the Franks at Tours and Poitiers 732: the Muslim invasion of Europe is stopped by the Franks at the battle of Tours 737: the Arabs capture Provence 740: the Shias of Yemen split from the main Shia tradition claiming that Zayd was the rightful fifth imam instead of Muhammad al Baqir 744: Salih ibn Tarif proclaims himself a prophet, writes a religious book in Berber language, and founds a Berber kingdom in central Morocco for the Barghwata people 750: Abu 'l-'Abbas Saffah, whose army is led by the Persian general Abu Muslim Khorasani, defeats the Umayyad army at the river Zab (near Mosul) and replaces the Umayyad dynasty with the Abbasid dynasty, which claims descent from Mohammed's uncle al-Abbas 751: the Arabs defeat the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River, which de facto closes the Silk Road 751: the Arabs acquire the knowledge of paper from the Chinese (first paper mill in the Islamic world founded in Samarkand) 752: the Franks under Pippin expel the Arabs from Provence 754: Al-Suffa dies and is succeeded by his brother al-Mansur, who bans both alcohol and music 756: The last surviving member of the Umayyad dynasty flees to Spain, Hisham's grandson, establishing himself as Cabd al-Rahman I of Spain, which becomes a separate emirate 750: the Ibadis believe that that the most worthy person should be imam and found an imamate in Oman 759: the Muslim army is expelled from France 760: the Islails do not recognize the seventh imam Musa Kazim and cause another split within the shiites 762: the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur moves the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, built near the old Sassanid capital, Ctesiphon, including the library Khizanat Al-Hikma/ House of Wisdom 775: Al-Mansur dies and is succeeded by al-Mahdi 777: Ibadis form an imamate in western Algeria with capital in Tahart 778: Charlemagne attacks the Muslims and invades northeastern Spain but is defeated 785: the Great Mosque at Cordoba 786: Harun Rashid becomes the fifth Abbasid caliph, a protector of scientists and scholars, and appoints Yahya ibn Barmak (of a Buddhist family from Afghanistan) as his vizier 786: Idris, a descendants of Ali and Fatima, founds the Idrisid dynasty in Morocco with capital in Volubilis 790: Idris, a descendant of Ali, conquers Morocco and founds the Idrisid dynasty 793: Sibawayh formalizes the Arabic language 793: caliph Haroun-el-Raschid establishes paper factory in Baghdad 794: Haroun-el-Raschid hires Chinese workers to build a water-powered papermill in Baghdad 796: The Ibadi imams seize control of Oman 800: Arab merchants travel to China 800: Shafi preaches that God's will is manifested both by the Koran and by the "sunna" (the practice of Mohammed embodied in "hadiths") 800: The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid appoints Ibrahim I ibn al-Aghlab as governor of Ifriqiya (Tunisia and western Libya) and Kairouan/ Al Qairawan becomes the leading African center for Sunni Islam 801: Charlemagne's son Louis captures Barcelona from the Arabs, creating the Spanish March along the Pyrenees (Aragonia and Catalonia) 806: Yahya ibn Barmak dies and his son Jafar becomes the new vizier of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, promoting translations of Greek classics 808: Idris II founds Fez in Morocco 809: Harun Rashid dies, after expanding the caliphate from Gibraltar to the Indu river, and his children fight a civil war for the succession 813: Al-Mamun defeats his brother in a civil war and becomes caliph, further improves the House of Wisdom and supports Mutazilism to appease the Shiites 819: the Samanids in Khurasan (Transoxania) become virtually independent 822: Abd al Rahman II becomes the Arab emir of Spain and begins construction of the Alcazar of Sevilla 822: The musician Ziryab moves from the Abbasid court of Baghdad to Cordoba in Spain 825: caliph Al-Mamun sponsors translations of Greek classics into Arabic, and founds the first madrasa (a "house of wisdom" in Baghdad) 825: the Arab mathematician Al Khwarizmi of Baghdad writes a book on "Hindu numerals" that spreads the use of "Arabic" numerals 827: an Arab tribe, the Saracens, invade Sicily 827: Al-Mamun decrees that the Quran was created by Allah and that those who deny it can be tortured 830: Ahmad ibn Hanbal: strict obedience to the Koran and the Hadith 833: Al-Mamun dies and is succeeded by Harun al-Rashid's son al-Mutasim, who enrolls a regiment of Turkish slaves and moves the capital to Samarra 840: the sufist Muhasibi preaches the path to truth 840: Islamic philosophy is founded by Kindi 840: Sibovayh, a Persian scholar, codifies the Arabic grammar and writes the first Arabic dictionary 842: al-Wathiq succeeds his father al-Mutasim 846: the Uighurs state collapses and the Karakhanid state is founded in Transoxania 847: al-Wathiq dies and is succeeded by his half-brother al-Mutawakkil 842: al-Wathiq succeeds his father al-Mutasim 849: caliph al-Mutawakkil deposes the patriarch of the Eastern Christian Church and persecutes Christians 850: Eulogious leads a Christian revolt against the Umyyads in Spain 878: the Muslims conquer all of Sicily 930: the philosopher Farabi reconciles the philosopher's logic and religion as a symbolic system to express truth to non-philosophers 850: Hunayn ibn Ishaq translates Greek classics 850: the Persian mathematician Khwarazmi founds Algebra and invents the Arabix numerals 861: Turkish soldiers assassinate the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil 867: the Saffarids (Shiite) in eastern Persia become virtually independent with capital in Zaranj (Afghanistan) 868: Ahmad ibn Tulun proclaims Egypt independent and founds the Tulunid dynasty 870: Bukhari collects and classifies the "hadiths" 873: the Samanids (sunni), with capital in Bukhara, rule over Transoxania 874: the twelfth imam disappears 877: Ahmad ibn Tulun, govemor of Egypt, invades Syria 878: the Arabs capture Sicily and make Palermo their capital 879: the Safarid ruler Yaqub Leys revolts against the Arabs and unifies most of Persia 880: the Abbasid dynasty is replaced in Egypt by a Turkic dynasty 890: the Abbasids suppress the imamate of Oman 899: the Samanids defeat the Saffarids and expand their empire to Persia but adopt the Persian language 900: the sufist Junayd preaches the ecstasy of enlightment 909: the Ibadi imamate of Tahart (Algeria) dissolves 910: Ubaydullah al-Mahdi, a descendant of Ali and Fatima (Mohammed's daughter) and an imam, allied with the Kitama/Kutama Berbers, conquers Tunisia, establishes his capital in Mahdiya, and founds the Fatimid dynasty (Shiite) 912: Abd Rahman III, a patron of poetry, becomes the Umayyad ruler of Spain, 922: the sufist Hallaj is executed in Baghdad for heresy ("I am the truth") 929: The Umayyad ruler of Spain, Abd Rahman III, assumes the title of caliph, declaring Spain independent 942: the Samanids expands in Central Asia (Bukhara, Samarkand, Herat) and move their capital to Bukhara, which becomes one of the cultural centers of the Muslim world 945: the Buyids (shiite) descend from the Caspian Sea, and invade Persia 949: Adud Dawla of the Buyid dynasty adopts the Persian imperial title shah 950: Pahlavi, the language of Persia, is reformed according to the Arabic script 955: the Karakhanid state converts to Islam 961: Al-Hakam II al Mustansir becomes caliph of Spain and fosters scientific and philosophical studies 968: Byzantium conquers northern Syria 969: Al-Muizz's Fatimids (Shiites) conquer Egypt while it is devastated by a famine 972: a fire kills 17 thousand people in Baghdad 972: The Fatimid move to Egypt and leave Tunisia and northern Algeria to governor Buluggin ibn Ziri of the Zirid dynasty 973: The Fatimids move their capital to the newly-founded city of Cairo (Qahira) 976: Hisham II al Muayyad becomes caliph of Spain and orders the destruction of books of astronomy and logic because heretic 977: The Buyid shah Adud Dawla conquers Baghdad and seizes effective control of the caliphate from the Abbasids 977: Sebaktigin, king of the Ghaznavid kingdom, invades northern India and Central Asia 978: The Fatimids conquer Damascus 978: Al-Mansur/ Almanzor becomes the de facto ruler of the Umayyad caliphate of Cordoba 985: the Turkic-speaking Seljuks (led by Seljuk) invade Transoxania (Ilkhan) and convert to sunnite Islam 996: Al-Aziz dies and his 11-year-old son Abu Ali Mansur (aka Al-Hakim) becomes caliph of Fatimid Egypt 998: Mahmud rules over the Ghaznavids 999: the Ghaznavids of Afghanistan defeat the Samanids of Persia in Khurasan and the Qarakhanids seize Bukhara 1000: Timbuktu is founded in Africa by Muslim traders 1002: Al-Mansur dies and the Cordoba caliphate begins to decline 1004: Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim bans alcohol and Christian worship 1005: Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim orders a public posting of curses against the first three Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman) and against Muhammad's wife Aisha 1009: Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim orders the destruction of the Christian basilica of the Sepulchre 1012: The Buyid shah Baha al-Dwala dies 1014: The Berber governor Hammad ibn Buluggin declares independence from the Zirids and founds a kingdom in northern Algeria 1014: Fatimid ruler Al-Hakim bans adult women from leaving their home 1016: Pisa and Genoa defeat the Arabs in the Tyrrhenian Sea 1017: Hamza ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad founds the Unitarian (also called Druze) sect 1018: Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim protects the Druze sects and executes the heretic Ad-Darazi 1018: The Abbasid caliph al-Qadir establishes the Sunni dogma and condemns both Shiism and Mutazilism as heretics 1020: the philosopher Ibn Sina Avicenna writes the Canon of Medicine 1021: Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim disappears in the desert 1029: The Abbasid caliph al-Qadir decrees that the Quran was not created by Allah 1030: Mahmud Ghazni dies and the Ghaznavid empire declines 1031: The Umayyad caliphate of Spain collapses and Muslim Spain splits into the Taifa kingdoms (including Sevilla, Toledo, Saragossa, Granada but also city-states ruled by Arab, Berber and even Slavic soldiers) 1038/font>: Tughril Beg creates a confederation of Turkic tribes in Central Asia and founds the Seljuq dynasty 1038: the Seljuks, led by Toghrul Beg/ Tugrul Bey, defeat the Ghaznavids at Dandanaqan (near Merv) 1038: the Seljuks, led by Toghrul Beg/ Tugrul Bey, defeat the Ghaznavids at Dandanaqan (near Merv) 1042: the Seljuks conquer Khorezm 1048/font>: The Zirid dynasty in north Africa becomes independent 1049/font>: The Maliki school of law forces the Zirids to accept Sunni Islam and recognize the Abbasid caliph 1053: Sunni Maliki preacher Abdallah Yasin of the Sanhaja Berbers in the western Sahara leads the al-Murabitun or Almoravid movement 1055: the Seljuks (sunni), led by Toghrul Beg, defeat the Buyids (shiite), invade Mesopotamia and install themselves in Baghdad under the suzerainty of the Abbasids 1057: A famine devastates Baghdad 1062: the Almoravids, a militant Berber party of strict Muslims, conquer Morocco 1064: the Seljuk king Alp Arslan moves the capital to Ray (Tehran) 1064: the Seljuks invade Armenia 1066: Muslims massacre Jews in Spain 1070: The Almoravids found their new capital at Marrakesh 1071: the Seljuqs led by sultan Alp Arslan defeat the Byzantine army at the battle of Malazgird, capture Jerusalem and establishing a sultanate in central Anatolia with capital in Iznik (Nicaea) 1072: the Seliuqs move the capital from Ray (Tehran) to Isfahan but Alp Arslan dies, succeeded by his son Maliksah 1073: the Seliuqs defeat the Qarakhanids, taking Bukhara and Samarkand 1073: Fatimid caliph Mustansir de facto cedes power to his vizier, Armenian general Badr al-Jamali 1076: The Almoravids defeat the kingdom of Ghana and force it to convert to Islam 1076: The Fatimids lose Damascus 1076: the Seliuqs invade Syria and Palestine 1079: the Seliuqs take Damascus 1077: Baghdad is devastated by five months of religious infighting 1085: Alfonso VI of Castilla defeats the Arabs at Toledo 1085: the Seliuqs take Antioch and Aleppo 1086: Byzantium loses northern Syria 1086: The Almoravids of Morocco begin the conquest of southern Spain 1087: Pisa and Genoa destroy the Islamic city of Mahdia in North Africa 1088: Religious sects fight in Baghdad again 1090: Hasan ibn al-Sabbah acquires the mountain fortress of Alamut, assumes the title of Sheikh al-Jabal and founds the Empire of the Ismaili Assassins 1091: the Normans conquer Sicily 1092: Mohammed I ibn Malikshah dies, replaced by his son Sancar, and the Seliuq empire breaks up into independent kingdoms in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Anatolia (Rum) 1094: At the death of Fatimid caliph Mustansir his vizier, Badr al-Jamali's son Al-Afdal installs Mustansir's younger son Ahmad al-Mustali (still a child) as new caliph instead of the older son Nizar, while the Nizari Ismahilis start a new branch of Shiite Islam 1096: the Pope launches the first Crusade to conquer Jerusalem TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1097: the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon capture Jerusalem 1097: the Seliuqs move their capital to Konya 1100: Ghazali and "kalam" (rational theology) 1118: Arabs import gunpowder from China (a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal) and arms and artillery are invented 1120: Muslim scholar Ibn Tumart of the Masmuda Berber tribe, a followerd of al-Ashari who claims to be the mahdi, launches the al-Muwahhidun/Almohad movement in Algeria ruled by a Council of Ten that rebels against Almoravid rule 1130: Tumart dies and Abd al-Mumin appoints himself Almohad caliph replacing the Council of Ten into a family-based monarchy, conquers most of Morocco and parts of Algeria and Tunisia 1141: the Karakitai defeat the Seljuqs at the battle of Qatwan, thus destroying Seljuq power in Central Asia 1144: the Muslims captures Edessa and destroy the oldest Crusader state 1146: Nur al-Din becomes Seljuq governor of Aleppo at the death of his father Zengi 1147: The Almohads, led by Abdul-Mu'min, conquer Morocco from the Almoravids and cause the collapse of the Almoravid dynasty 1148: Normans from Sicily destroy the Zirid kingdom in north Africa 1149: the Almohads conquer Sevilla and Cordoba in Spain 1152: The Almohads conquer Algeria from the Almoravids and destroy the Hammadid kingdom 1153: the Khwarazmis (Turkish mercenaries) conquer Persia from the Seljuqs 1154: Seljuq governor Nur al-Din of Aleppo conquers Damascus 1157: Seljuq's sultan Sancar dies 1158: the Almohads conquer Tunisia from the Almoravids 1169: Seljuq governor Nur al-Din of Aleppo sends his Kurdish general Shirkuh and Shirku's nephew Saladin Ayubbid to invade Egypt 1169: Saladin is made grand vizier of the Fatimid empire even though he is a Sunni 1170: Seljuq governor Nur al-Din of Aleppo conquers Mosul, thus reuniting Syria and Mesopotamia 1171: Saladin Ayubbid, a Kurdish general, ends the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and founds the Ayubbid dynasty, which is Sunni instead of Shiite 1172: the Almohads conquer Andalucia from the Almoravids, completing the reunification of Muslim Spain, and move the capital to Sevilla 1174: Saladin takes Damascus from the Syrian ruler 1175: Ibn Rushd Averroes proclaims the two truths (religion for the uneducated masses and philosophy for the educated elite) 1187: Saladin retakes Palestine and Jerusalem from the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin 1192: Saladin signs the Treaty of Ramla with King Richard I of England tha grants the Christians a small kingdom outside Jerusalem 1193: Saladin dies and his brother Malik Adil becomes sultan of Egypt and Syria 1195: Alfonso VIII of Castilla is defeated by the Almohads at Alarcos 1196: the Marinid dynasty takes over Morocco 1200: the sufist Ibn Arabi preaches pantheism (only god exists) 1212: The Christian kings of Spain defeat the Almohads at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa 1228: the Hafsid dynasty takes over Tunisia 1229: The Almohads in Morocco renounce Tumart's ideology and adopt the Sunni Maliki school of law 1236: Castilla takes Cordoba from the Almohads 1238: Aragona takes Valencia from the Almohads 1238: Egypt's ruler Al-Kamil dies and the Ayubbid kingdom splits 1240: Al-Kamil's younger son Al-Salih Ayyub seizes power in Egypt and Syria and forms a militia of Mamluks (Turkic slaves from Central Asia) 1244: Berber tribes led by the Marinids end the Almohad dynasty in Morocco 1248: Ferdinand III of Castilla conquers Sevilla, capital of the Almohads, and the Almohads are left with the state of Granada 1249: the Mamluks of Egypt defeat the French in Egypt and capture the king of France 1250: The Mamluks of Egypt (Turkish "military slaves") overthrow the sultan and install a woman, Shajar al-Durr, widow of former sultan Al-Salih, as the new sultan, thus terminating the Ayyubid dynasty and starting the Mamluk dynasty, and she is forced to marry Izz al-Din Aybak/Aybeg and abdicate to him after just 80 days, while the Syrians under Al-Nasir reject her authority and declare their independence and obtain Jerusalem 1250: The Alhambra is built in Granada 1250: Portugal conquers all the land west of the Guadiana river from the Almohads 1254: 1256: Hulagu's Mongol army destroy the Assassins' castles 1257: Shajar-al-Durr of Egypt is killed by the palace concubines after she murders Izz al-Din Aybak 1258: Hulegu's Mongols destroy the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad (killing 800 thousand people including the last Abbasid caliph), conquer Persia, Mesopotamia and Syria and establish an Ilkhanate with capital in Baghdad 1259: the Mamluk commander Muzaffar Sayf-al-Din Kutuz/Qutuz seizes power in Egypt after Shajar is murdered 1260: Kutuz's Mamluks led by general al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars defeat the Christian army of the Mongols at the battle of Ain Jalut and annex Syria 1260: Kutuz is assassinated and succeeded by his general al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars as leader of Mamluk Egypt that turns Egypt-Syria into the most powerful Islamic state 1262: Berke's Mongols ("Golden Horde") ally with Baybars' Egypt against Hulegu's Mongols 1265: Hulegu dies and is succeeded by his son Abaka, who kills Berke in battle and moves the capital to Tabriz thus accelerating the decline of Baghdad 1269: collapse of the Almohad dynasty in Algeria and rise of the Marinids in Morocco 1271: Baybars' Mamluks defeat England's prince Edward and his allies, Abaka's Mongols of the Ilkhanate, and conquers Krak des Chevaliers 1277: Mamluk caliph Baybars dies 1279: Qalaun/Qalawun/Kalavun seizes power in Mamluk Egypt 1281: Qalaun/Qalawun/Kalavun's Mamluks defeat the Mongol army of the Ilkhanate at the second battle of Homs 1290: Qalaun dies and is succeeded by his son Al-Ashraf Khalil 1291: The last Christian stronghold in Palestine (Acre) falls to the Mamluks led by Qalaun's son Al-Ashraf Khalil 1300: Ibn Taymiyya criticizes sufism 1300: Cypriots, Templars, Hospitallers and the Ilkhanate attack the Mamluks in Syria 1303: The Mamluks defeat the crusader Cypriots, Templars and Hospitallers after the Ilkhanate troops have retreated 1350: Ibn Battuta travels from Tangier to China 1400: Timur/Tamerlane lays siege to Damascus 1415: Portugal seizes Ceuta from Morocco 1428: The Wattasids become regents for the Marinids in Morocco 1465: end of the Marinid dynasty in Morocco, replaced by the Wattasids 1465: Arabs riot and massacre more than 1 thousand Jews in Fes, Morocco 1471: Portugal seizes Tangiers from Morocco 1472: The Wattasids seize power in Morocco 1488: Moroccans invade the African kingdom of Mali 1485: The Ottomans and Mamluk go to war 1491: The Ottomans and Mamluk make peace with no winner and no loser 1492: the Christian kingdoms reconquer all of Spain from the Muslims 1492: Cordoba's library has 400,000 books 1502: Hizir Reis builds a pirate empire out of Tunis 1511: the Marinid dynasty collapses in Morocco and is succeeded by the Sadid synasty 1514: the first book in Arabic (a book of Christian prayers) is published in Italy 1516: the Ottomans of Selim I defeat the Mamluks and annex Syria and Palestine 1517: the Ottomans of Selim I conquer Egypt and western Arabia, thereby ending the Mamluk empire 1529: The Ottomans conquer Algiers 1534: the Ottomans capture Baghdad from the Safavids, helped by a popular insurrection of the Sunnis, but the Safavids survive in eastern Iran, Azerbajan and the southern Caucasus 1538: The Ottomans conquer Aden and southern Iraq, reaching Persian Gulf 1547: The Ottomans conquer Sana (Yemen) and southern Iraq 1549: Muhammad al-Shaikh conquers Wattasid Morocco and establishes the Saadi dynasty, claiming descent from the prophet Mohammed 1555: the Ottoman empire conquers Mesopotamia from the Safavid empire with the Peace of Amasya 1574: The Hafsid dynasty collapses in Tunisia and is replaced by the Ottomans 1576: The Ottomans capture Fez in Morocco 1578: Morocco's sultan al-Mansur modernizes the army 1580: A peace treaty between the Ottomans and Spain allows Morocco to remain independent as a buffer state 1591: Morocco under Ahmad al-Mansur captures the Kingdom of Songhai (Timbuktu) at the battle of Tondibi 1591: The janissaries of Tunisia install one of their own as Ottoman governor TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1602: Bahrein is annexed to Iran 1623: the Safavids capture Baghdad from the Ottomans 1628: the Sadid dynasty collapses in Morocco and is succeeded by the Alawis 1638: the Ottomans recapture Baghdad from the Safavids 1659: The chief janissary becomes the Ottoman ruler of Algeria 1672: The Alawi sultan Mawlay Ismail of Morocco reforms government 1705: Husayn Ali seizes power in Tunisia, an Ottoman vassal, and establishes a new dynasty 1711: Ahmad Qaramanli seizes power in Tripolitania and founds a new dynasty under Ottoman suzerainty 1749: Ibadi Muslims establish the kingdom of Oman, run by the Al Bu Said dynasty 1750: Abd Wahab preaches in Arabia a return to Ibn Hanbal (strict obedience to the Koran and the Hadith) 1752: The Sunni family Al Sabah seizes power in Kuwait, a principality of the Ottoman empire 1760: Abd Wahab allies with Muhammad Ibn Saud of Diriyya and founds the Saudi state in Arabia 1783: The Sunni family Al Khalifah seizes Bahrein from Iran and conquers Qatar 1783: Oman acquires Gwadar from Kalat 1785: Ali Burzi Pasha of Libya massacres hundreds of Jews 1787: The Ottomans restore central government control over Egypt 1788: Bashir II, a Maronite, is elected governor of Ottoman Lebanon 1789: The new Moroccan ruler Yazid massacres Jews in Tetouan Jul 1798: Napoleon attempts to conquer Egypt from the Ottomans (Battle of the Pyramids, breaking the traditional alliance between France and the Ottoman Empire 1801: The Ottomans and the British defeat Napoleon's troops in Egypt, while Russia annexes Georgia 1801: Thomas Jefferson orders the bombing of the barbary states of Algiers, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli after Yusuf Karamanli, the ruler of Tripoli, demands ransom from the USA 1802: When Mehmet I arrives in Egypt as an Ottoman official, power is divided among the Ottomans, the Mamluks and the Albanian troops 1802: Wahabis from Arabia massacre the Shiite population of Karbala in Ottoman Iraq 1803: Mehmet I sides with the Mamluks and deposes the Ottoman governor of Egypt 1804: Muslim Wahabis of the Saudi state capture Mecca and Medina from the Ottomans 1805: Mehemet Ali, an Albanian Turk, is recognized by the Ottomans as governor of Egypt, and proceeds to reform the economy around sugar and cotton 1805: Jews are massacred in Algeria 1811: Mehemet Ali massacres the Mamluks of Egypt 1812: Mehemet Ali appoints a supreme leader of all Sufi orders, reporting to the state 1818: Mehmet's son Ibrahim conquers Arabia from the Saudis on behalf of the Ottoman emperor 1820: Britain forces a protectorate on seven pearl-fishing emirates ("Trucial States") of the Arabian peninsula, notably Abu Dhabi and Dubai 1820: Maronites lead a peasant revolt against their feudal lords in Lebanon 1821: Egypt begins growing cotton 1822: Egyptian ruler Mehemet Ali conquers Sudan on behalf of the Ottoman empire 1823: Egyptian ruler Mehemet Ali conquers Crete 1824: Riyadh is made capital of the Saudi kingdom 1824: Egyptian governor Mehmet I is made governor of Crete by the Ottomans 1825: Lebanon's governor Bashir II, a Maronite, defeats his Druze enemies 1828: Massacre of Jews in Baghdad 1830: France occupies Ottoman Algiers 1832: Abd al-Qadir declares a state in western Algeria 1833: Egyptian ruler Mehemet Ali conquers Syria from the Ottoman Empire 1833: Egypt inaugurates its Polytechnic school 1835: The Ottomans remove the Qaramanli dynasty from power in Tripolitania 1837: Muhammad Ali al-Sanusi founds the Sanusi Sufi order in Ottoman Cyneraica that de facto rules over the region (eastern Libya) 1839: the port of Aden in Arabia is occupied by the British 1840: Britain and Austria force Egypt to surrender Syria to the Ottomans and central Arabia to the Saudis, and remove Bashir II from power in Lebanon, but acknowledge Mehmet's dynasty 1844: France defeats Abd al-Qadir and Morocco 1846: The Bey of Tunis abolishes slavery 1847: France invades all of Algeria 1847: There are 109,000 Europeans in Algeria, of which 47,000 are French 1848: Mehmet I dies and his inept grandson Abbas becomes the new ruler of Egypt 1852: Babists try to assassinate the shah and are massacred throughout Iran, they move to Ottoman Palestine and found the Baha'i faith 1854: A British firm builds the first railway in Egypt, which is also the first railway in the Ottoman Empire as well as Africa and the Middle East 1854: Abbas is assassinated and French-educated Mehmet's son Said becomes governor of Egypt 1856: Oman loses Zanzibar 1860: Muslims in Lebanon and Syria riot against the wealthier Christians 1860: Spain invades Morocco 1860: The Alliance Israelite Universelle is founded in Paris by Adolphe Cremieux to protect Jews in the Islamic world 1861: Tunisia proclaims the first constitution of the Arab world, granting civil rights and rights to foreigners and Jews to own land 1861: The Ottomans grant a special status to Lebanon which is to have a Christian governor, a Sunni prime minister and a Shia head of parliament 1861: Muhammad Bey, governor of Tunisia, grants a liberal constitution 1863: Said dies and Ibrahim's oldest living son Ismail becomes governor of Egypt, launching westernizing reforms that penalize the religious class and create a new landowning elite 1863: Egypt opens the Egyptian Museum 1864: More than 300 Jews are massacred between 1864 and 1880 in Marrakesh, Morocco 1868: Muhammad Thani leads a revolt in Qatar against the Khalifah of Bahrein 1869: Ferdinand de Lesseps, funded by the Egyptian government, builds the Suez Canal 1869: 18 Jews are killed in Tunis 1869: Egypt opens the Cairo Opera House 1870: Tribal leader al-Muqrani leads an Algerian uprising against France 1871: The Shiite Iranian intellectual Jamal al-Din al-Afghani moves to Egypt and preaches Pan-Islamic nationalism 1873: Egypt opens the first school for girls 1873: Morocco's sultan Hasan launches reforms opposed by the religious and political establishment 1873: Tunisia's governor Khayr al-Din launches European-style reforms 1875: The British government purchases shares in the Suez Canal, borrowing money from the Rothschilds 1876: Egypt is officially bankrupt and its debt is managed by Britain and France 1879: The Ottomans depose Egypt's governor Ismail and replace him with his son Tawfiq while Ahmed Orabi/Arabi founds the Egyptian Nationalist party and leads a revolt against the Ottomans and European interference in Egypt 1880: 100 thousand Europeans live in Egypt, mainly in Cairo and Alexandria 1880: The pearl-fishing kingdom of Bahrein becomes a British protectorate 1881: France occupies Ottoman Tunisia 1881: Muhammad Ahmad proclaims himself the Mahdi and rebels against Egypt Jun 1882: Egyptians riot in Alexandria to protest European interference in Egypt and Britain bombs Alexandria 1882: Egypt's population is 7 million and Cairo's population is 374 thousand Sep 1882: British troops invade Egypt to restore order, exile Orabi/Arabi and initiate political, military, economic and judicial reforms Sep 1883: Britain appoints Evelyn Baring at consul general, so that the ruler of Egypt is theoretically a subject of the Ottomans but de facto a subject of the British 1884: British economic reforms lead to a boom of cotton in Egypt 1885: Sudan defeats British troops sent to regain Sudan for Egypt and Muhammad Ahmad establishes an Islamic theocratic state over Sudan 1888: the Convention of Istanbul declares the Suez Canal neutral and guarantees passage during war or peace 1888: Jamal al-Din's exiled pupil Muhammad Abduh is allowed to return to Egypt and preach a nonviolent form of Egyptian nationalism 1889: work begins on the Baghdad railway, meant to link Berlin to the Gulf via Istanbul 1889: Egypt (still under British occupation) balances the budget 1896: Mustafa Kamil returns to Egypt from France and preaches Egyptian nationalism 1896: France grants Algeria a parliament, but it is dominated by Europeans 1899: Qasim Amin publishes "The Liberation of Women" in Egypt 1899: Kuwait becomes a British protectorate 1900: Christians constitute 26% and Muslims constitute 12% of the world's population 1900: Britain supplies almost 50% of Egypt's imports and buys almost 80% of Egypt's exports 1901: Foreigners own 25% of the large estates in Egypt 1902: Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud, at the head of a bedouin army, conquers Riyad and begins to unite south of Arabia (both through military action and marriage with 20 women) under the puritanical Wahabi Islamic order 1902: British Egypt inaugurates the lower Aswan dam 1904: Yahya ibn Muhammad becomes the new Zaydi imam in North Yemen under Ottoman occupation 1906: In retaliation for British police brutality in Dinshaway, Muhammad Abduh, Ali Yusuf and Mustafa Kamil found Egyptian nationalist parties 1907: France invades southern Morocco 1908: The Ottomans inaugurate a railway to Medina 1908: Britain installs an unpopular prime minister in Egypt 1908: Cairo University is founded as a private university 1909: British companies begin extracting oil in Iran 1909: Jewish immigrants establish the kibbutz of Deganiah 1911: The first bomb ever dropped from an airplane is dropped by Italy over Libya in the war against the Ottoman Empire, during which half the population of Libya is either killed or exiled by 1918 1911: British forces occupy southern Iran to protect the oil fields 1911: Young Arab nationalists found "Al Fatah" in Paris 1912: The Turkish Petroleum Company (later Iraq Petroleum Company) is formed by Germany, Holland and Britain to exploit the Ottoman oil fields of Mosul 1912: France and Spain establish a protectorate over Morocco 1913: British Egypt is allowed to elect a parliament with the nationalist Saad Zaghlul leading the anti-British party See the timeline for World War I 1914: Egypt becomes a British protectorate 1914: there are 85 thousand Jews in Ottoman Palestine 1915: Britain recognizes the kingdom of the Saudis in south Arabia 1915: A famine kills 500,000 people in Ottoman Syria between 1915 and 1918 1916: Husain (Hussein), sharif of Mecca (north Arabia) and founder of the modern Hashimite dynasty, sponsored by the British, leads a revolt against the Ottoman Empire, while Britain and France secretely agree to divide the Arab lands of the Ottoman empire 1916: Qatar signs a treaty with Britain becoming a de facto protectorate 1916: Britain and France agree to partition the Middle East 1916: Sharif Husayn in Saudi Arabia leads a revolt against the Ottoman Empire Aug 1916: The Ottomans hang Arab patriots in Beirut's Burj Square 1917: 93% of the population of larger Palestine is Arab 1917: Egypt's population is 11.3 million Nov 1917: the "Balfour Declaration" by the British government promises a Jewish homeland in Palestine 1917: the "Balfour Declaration" by the British government promises a Jewish homeland in Palestine 1917: The population of British Egypt is 12 million, having increased by 4 million since 1882 1917: Exodus of Jews from Egypt to British Palestine 1917: Egypt has 13 million people Dec 1917: British troops conquer Jerusalem, the first Christian soldiers to do so since the Crusades TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1918: Saad Zaghloul founds the Wafd party in Egypt aiming for independence from Britain 1918: Yemen becomes independent from the Ottomans under Yahya, the imam of the Zaydis 1918: Faisal, son of Sharif Husain of Mecca, conquers Damascus from the Ottomans 1918: The Hebrew University opens in Jerusalem 1918: Britain takes control of Iraq and Palestine from the Ottomans 1918: There are 620 thousand Muslims, 70 thousand Christians and 60 thousand Jews in Palestine Oct 1918: The Shiite imam Yahya gains independence from the Ottomans in tribal North Yemen with capital in Sana 1918: David Ben-Gurion returns to Palestine after being exiled by the Ottoman Empire (Palestine) 1919: an American delegation reports on the fast rise of "zionism" through dispossession of the "non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine" (Palestine) 1919: Feisal Hussein, King of Iraq and Syria (then the only recognized Arab leader in the world), agrees to the creation of a Jewish nation in Palestine and executes a treaty with Jewish leader Chaim Weizmann (Palestine) 1919: France claims Syria and Lebanon Mar 1919: Saad Zaghloul of the Wafd party is arrested by the British in Egypt, causing riots that kill 1,500 Egyptians in two months 1920: France defeats Faisal's troops at Maysalun And general Gouraud's French mandate rule is installed over Syria 1920: Syrian-born ex-Ottoman official Sati al-Husri preaches Arab nationalism Apr 1920: At the San Remo conference Palestine and Iraq are assigned to Britain's protectorate and both Palestinians and Iraqis riot against British rule for months Dec 1920: An Arab Congress is held in Haifa, Palestine, chaired by Musa Kazim al-Husaini, the former mayor of Jerusalem Apr 1921: the British install Abdullah, fourth son of Sharif Hussein of the Hashemite dynasty of Mecca, as king of Transjordan, half of Palestine 1921: Britain creates the Supreme Muslim Council of Palestine, headed by Hajj Amin al-Husaini Aug 1921: the British install Faisal, third son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, brother of Abdullah of Transjordan, as king of the newly created state fo Iraq that is 80% Arab (more Shiite than Sunni, with Sunnis dominating government and army), 15% Kurdish (Sunni) and 5% Assyrian (Christian) 1921: Britain appoints Mohammed Amin al-Husseini head of the Supreme Muslim Council of Palestineand Husseini begins a violent anti-Semitic campaign and a murder campaign of Arab moderates (Palestine) 1921: emir Faisal ibn Hussain, brother of King Abdallah of Jordan, is proclaimed King of Iraq, but still under British protectorate (Iraq) Feb 1922: Egypt declares its independence from Britain under Fuad I and a secular constitution is proclaimed to create a parliamentary monarchy, the Wafd party wins a majority of votes but Britain maintains political control 1922: Syria and Lebanon become French protectorates 1922: The tomb of Tutankhamen is discovered in Egypt 1922: Britain receives a mandate from the League of Nations to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine, which starts large-scale Jewish immigration from Europe 1922: Britain and the Saudi family sign a treaty recognizing the border of the Saudi domain in Arabia 1922: Britain receives a mandate from the League of Nations to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestinewhich starts large-scale Jewish immigration from Europe (Palestine) 1923: Abd al-Drim declares an independent state in Spanish-control Morocco April 1923: a secular constitution is proclaimed in Egypt (previously a British colony) to create a parliamentary monarchy (Egypt) 1924: The British governor of Sudan, Lee Stack, is assassinated in Cairo, Egypt 1924: Sharif Husain, the Hashemite ruler of Mecca, proclaims himself caliph, angering Aziz ibn Saud 1925: Riots in Lebanon and Syria against French rule 1925: 35 thousand Jews immigrate to Palestine in 1925 alone 1925: Pearl fishing revenues peak in the Arab emirates, Kuwait and Bahrein 1925: The first parliament is elected in British Iraq, including four Christians and four Jews Mar 1926: France massacres rebels in Damascus 1926: Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud conquers north Arabia from the Hashemites and proclaims himself king of Hejaz and Nejd 1926: France and Spain defeat Abd al-Drim in Morocco 1926: Turkey cedes Mosul to Iraq Mar 1926: Lebanon proclaims a republic under Christian president Charles Dabbas but France still controls the country 1927: huge oil fields are discovered near Karkuk and oil rights are granted to a British oil company (Iraq) 1927: oil fields are discovered near Kirkuk in Iraq and king Faisal grants oil rights to the British 1927: The "Brotherhood" ("Ikhwan") stages a rebellion against king Saud in Arabia 1928: Hassan Al-Banna creates "Al-Ikhwan Al-Moslemoon" (Muslim Brotherhood) in Egypt, a quasi-monastic movement that advocates for the entire Arab world a fundamentalist Islamic society like the one created by the Wahabites in Arabia and therefore advocates rebellion against the westernized Egyptian government 1928: A new constitution makes Transjordan a constitutional monarchy 1928: Shakhbut al Nahyan becomes sultan of Abu Dhabi 1928: Hassan Al-Banna creates in Egypt "Al-Ikhwan Al-Moslemoon" (Muslim Brotherhood), a quasi-monastic movement that advocates for the entire Arab world a fundamentalist Islamic society like the one created by the Wahabites in Saudi Arabia and therefore advocates rebellion against the westernized King Faruk government (motto: "Quran is our lawjihad is our waydying in the way of Allah is our highest hope") Aug 1929: hundreds of people die in clashes between Arabs and Jews in Palestine, notably 67 Jews are massacred in Hebron 1930: King Saud of Hejaz (Arabia) defeats the "Brotherhood" ("Ikhwan") 1930: Britain and Iraq sign a treaty making Iraq independent but recognizing British influence in Iraq 1930: Iran's oil production is 46 million barrels, whereas Iraq's is only 900 thousand 1931: After 20 years of fighting Italy conquers Cyrenaica and therefore the whole of Libya 1931: There are 775 thousand Arabs, 90 thousand Christians and 175 thousand Jews in Palestine 1931: Abraham Tehomi founds the terrorist organization Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) to liberate Palestine from British occupation and Arabs residents (Palestine) 1932: Iraq becomes independent under the rule of King Faisal (Iraq) 1932: Saudi Arabia becomes independent under the rule of King Abdul al-Aziz (Saudi Arabia) 1932: Iraq becomes independent under the rule of King Faisal and joins the League of Nations 1932: Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud changes name to his kingdom from Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd to Saudi Arabia 1932: Iraq enacts antisemitic laws 1932: The Bahrein Petroleum Company (Bapco), formed by Standard Oil Company (Socal) and the Texas Company (both from the USA), discovers oil in Bahrein 1932: Said ibm Taimur becomes sultan of coastal Oman 1932: Tunisian intellectual Habib Bourguiba publicly demands independence from France 1933: King Faisal of Iraq dies and his son, King Ghazi I, ascends to the throne 1933: Thousands of Assyrian Christians are massacred at Simele in Iraq by the army and by Kurdish militias 1933: Thousands of German Jewish artisans and entrepreneurs emigrate to Palestine after Hitler seizes power in Germany 1933: There are 800 thousand Arabs and 200 thousand Jews in Palestine 1934: Italy unites Tripolitania and Cyrenaica into one colony, Libya 1935: The Wafd party organizes strikes and demonstrations against Britain in Egypt 1935: Bakr Sidqi leads a Shiite rebellion in Iraq 1935: A pipeline from Iraq to Palestine is inaugurated 1936: Fuad dies and the throne of Egypt is inherited by his son Farouk, who signs a treaty with Britain granting real independence to Egypt in exchange for a military alliance 1936: General strike against French rule in Syria 1936: The Shiite general Bakr Sidqi stages a coup in Iraq and installs the coup's mastermind, Hikmat Sulaiman, as prime minister, the first of many military coups Apr 1936: Palestinians go on strike against British rule (first "intifada") Oct 1936: Iraq and Saudi Arabia talks the Palestinians into ending the strike against British rule, thus making the Palestinian issue a general Arab issue 1936: Farouk becomes king of Egypt, succeeding his father Fuad, and installs a government friendly to the West 1936: Pierre Gemayel founds the Phalange party in Lebanon 1937: Egypt is admitted to the League of Nations 1937: Cairo's population is 1,312,000 and replaces Istanbul as the largest city in the Middle East and North Africa 1937: Bakr Sidqi is assassinated in Iraq 1937: Egypt has 15.7 million people 1938: Oil is discovered in Kuwait by the Kuwait Oil Company, formed by British Petroleum and the Gulf Oil Company of the USA 1938: The Wafd party in Egypt loses elections 1938: Socal (Standard Oil Company of California) discovers huge oil reserves at Dharhan in Saudi Arabia Apr 1938: Tunisians demonstrate for independence from France 1938: The Iraq Petroleum Company controls all of Iraq's oil production Oct 1938: Palestinian rebels occupy old Jerusalem 1939: all Arab countries supply only 5% of the world's oil 1939: Ariel Sharon joins an underground Jewish terrorist organization in British Palestine 1939: Palestinian mufti Hajj Amin al-Husaini moves to Baghdad and campaigns for a free Palestine 1939: Iraq's king Ghazi dies in a car accident while he is preparing an invasion of Kuwait and is succeeded by his four-year old son, Faisal II 1939: There are 950 thousand Arabs, 460 thousand Jews and 120 thousand Christians in Palestine, with 150 thousand Jews living in Tel Aviv, the only purely Jewish city in the world, while the London conference attended by Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jewish groups fails to find a solution 1940: The Middle East produces only 5% of the world's oil Nov 1940: Haganah terrorists bomb the boat "Patria" full of Jewish immigrants at the port of Haifa in Palestine, killing more than 200 people Apr 1941: The nationalist Rashid Ali al-Kailani stages a coup in Iraq and allies with Nazi Germany, but Britain destroys the Iraqi air force and installs Nuri al-Said as prime minister 1941: the Ba' ath Party is founded in Damascus by Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar with the mission to unify the whole Arab world in one Arab country Feb 1942: Britain forces king Farouk of Egypt to appoint Wasfd's leader Mustafa al-Nahas as prime minister 1942: Life expectancy in Egypt is 31 for men and 36 for women 1943: Shukri al-Kuwatli leads Syria to independence from the French 1943: The Istiqlal Party is created in Morocco to press for independence from France and Morocco Jan 1943: Iraq declares war on Germany Feb 1942: A Soviet submarine accidentally sinks the ramshackle ship Strumakilling 768 Jews that are escaping from Romania towards British Palestine (Black Sea) 1943: Syria (2.5 million people) and Lebanon declare independence from France under respectively Shukri al-Kuwatli and Bishara al-Khuri, but Lebanon has to divide its government among Maronite Christians (presidency), Sunni Muslims (prime minister), speaker of parliament (Shiite Muslim) and chief of army (also Maronites) Feb 1945: Syria and Lebanon declare war on Germany 1945: several thousand Algerians are killed by France during pro-independence riots in Constantine 1945: An oil company (later renamed Arabian American Oil Company or Aramco) builds an underwater oil pipeline to Bahrain 1945: The League of Arab States is formed by the independent Arab countries (Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen) May 1945: Syrians riots against continued French occupation and France bombs Damascus May 1945: Algerians massacre 103 Europeans and the French kill 1,300 in retaliation Jul 1946: Jewish terrorists led by Menachem Begin bomb and destroy the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the British military and civilian headquarters of Palestine, killing 91 people 1946: Mustafa Barzani founds the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iraq (Iran) 1946: Jewish terrorists, led by Menachem Begin, bomb and destroy the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the British military and civilian headquarters 1946: Transjordan becomes independent under king Abdullah 1946: The British troops stationed in Egypt withdraw in the Canal Zone but fedayeen begin a campaign of attacks against them 1946: French troops finally leave Syria and Lebanon 1947: 800 thousand Arabs live in Palestine 1947: the United Nations orders a partition of Palestine in a Jewish state (Israel), an Arab state and an international zone around Jerusalem 1947: Syria grants women the right to vote Nov 1947: Jews set to create the state of Israel while Arabs condemn the United Nations decision and refuse to create an Arab state that does not include the whole of Palestine Dec 1947: scores of Arabs are killed by Hagana in the Palestinian village of Baldat al-Shaikh in retaliation for 41 killed in Haifa riots Nov 1947: the United Nations orders a partition of Palestine in a Jewish state (Israel)an Arab state and an international zone around Jerusalem (Palestine) 1948: on the same day that Israel declares its independence, five Arab countries attack Israel from all sides (Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq), and Transjordan annexes the West Bank changing name into Jordan and more than doubling its population overnight 1948: The Yemeni imam Yahya is assassinated and is succeeded by his son Ahmad 1948: Almost 1000 books per year are published in Egypt 1948: North Yemen's imam Yahya is assassinated and replaced by his son Ahmad Hamid al-Din April 1948: Irgun terrorists led by Menachem Begin attack the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem killing more than 100 people and a few days later Arab retaliate by killing 70 Jews of the Hebrew University April 1948: Israeli troops occupy Arab towns (Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffaetc) May 1948: On the same day that Israel declares its independencethe United States recognizes Israel while five Arab countries attack Israel from all sides (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq) 1948: Palestinian exodus and David Ben-Gurion's ethnic cleansing cause a decrease in the population of Arabs within the borders of Israel and the creation of refugee camps outside its borders May 1948: Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa call a general strike against the partition Jul 1948: several massacres of Arabs carried out by Haganah (underground Jewish militia) in Palestine (Lydda, Ramle, Doueimah) 1949: An exodus of Palestinians and prime minister David Ben-Gurion's ethnic cleansing cause a decrease in the population of Arabs within the borders of Israel to 170 thousand and the creation of Palestinian refugee camps outside the borders of Israel 1949: The Qatar Petroleum Company, a subsidiary of the Iraq Petroleum Company, start producing oil in Qatar 1949: A military coup terminates the parliamentary system in Syria Jan 1949: Members of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinate Egyptian prime minister Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi Feb 1949: Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brother, hood is assassinated in Cairo, Egypt Jul 1949: The first Arab- Israeli war ends with Israel winning west Jerusalem and small pieces of landoccupying 78% of Palestineand with 750,000 Palestinians displaced out of a pre-war population of 1.3 million 1949: About 100,000 Palestinians (mostly Sunni Muslims) relocate from Palestine to Lebanon, altering its demographics 1949: Husni Zaim seizes overthrows the corrupt president, appoints himself prime minister and bans political parties in Syria, but he is soon arrested and executed by general Sami al-Hinnawi, who is in turn ousted by colonel Adib Shishakli 1949: Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani becomes sheik of Kuwait 1950: the Israeli government airlifts approximately 110 thousand Jews from Iraq to Israel 1950: An oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia's oil field of Dhahran to Lebanon is completed 1950: Aramco and Saudi Arabia reach an agreement to split oil profits, an agreement that becomes the standard in the region Jan 1950: The Wafd wins democratic elections in Egypt May 1950: The Israeli government airlifts approximately 110,000 Jews from Iraq to Israel (operations Ezra and Nehemiah, completed in august 1951) 1950: Sayyid Qutb returns to Egypt after studying in the USA 1950: There are 38 thousand British soldiers in Egypt to protect the Suez Canal, through which transits 60% of the Middle Eastern oil consumed in Western Europe 1951: Following persecutions, the population of Jews in Iraq declines from 150 thousand (1948) to 6 thousand (1951) 1951: Saudi Arabia and the USA sign a military treaty Dec 1951: Libya becomes independent under king Idris of the Sanusi Sufi order with the capital alternating between Tripoli and Benghazi to reflect the rivalry between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica/Barqa and with a population of less than one million 1951: Kuwait and the oil companies sign an equal profit-sharing agreement 1951: Members of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinate King Abdullah in Jerusalem and his son Talal becomes the new king of Jordan Jul 1952: a military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser removes King Faruk and founds the Republic of Egypt 1952: Egypt has 20 million people 1952: Bahrein and the oil companies sign an equal profit-sharing agreement Jan 1952: Anti-British riots in Egypt cause a British retaliation that kills 50 policemen ("Black Saturday") Jul 1952: a military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser removes King Faruk and founds the republic of Egypt 1952: A coup removes the corrupt Lebanese president Hishara al-Khuri and installs Camille Shamun, beginning an economic boom that relies on oil pipelines, oil refineries and banking in one of the freest societies of the Middle East 1953: France expels the sultan of Morocco who refuses to accept French rule 1953: Shiites (the majority) riot against the (Sunni) ruling Khalifah family of Bahrein 1953: King Talal of Jordan abdicates in favor of his 18-year old son Hussein 1953: Israel kills 53 civilians in the Jordanian village of Qibya in retaliation for the assassination of three Israelis 1953: Abdul al-Aziz dies and is succeeded by the eldest of his 35 sons, Saud, as king of Saudi Arabia, a country that still has no constitution, no parliament and no parties and whose government is mainly run by the Saudi family and by the Wahabite family 1953: Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami ("Party of Islamic Liberation") is founded by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani in Palestine to create an Islamic state all over the world and its members spread around the world 1953: Sayyid Outb joins Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood 1953: Europeans control 10% of the crop land of Morocco 1953: The radio program "The Voice of the Arabs" begins in Egypt 1953: Egypt enacts reforms for land redistribution Feb 1953: The Soviet Union breaks off relations with Israel 1953: Kuwait institutes the Kuwait Investment Board (later Kuwait Investment Authority), the oldest sovereign wealth fund in the world Nov 1954: Algerian exiles in Egypt create the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) and start the civil war led by Ben Bella Oct 1954: Following an attempt on his life, Nasser arrests the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including their philosopher Sayyid Qutb 1954: Egypt encourages Palestinian raids into Israel from Gaza 1954: An economic recovery begins in Jordan that will increase GDP per capita 8% a year until 1966 1955: Palestinian fedayeen begin operating from across the border bringing terror into Israel 1955: Shishakli is ousted and Shukri al-Kuwatli is reappointed president of Syria 1955: Israel launches a retaliatory raid against Egypt 1955: Israel attacks Syria to punish it for raids into Israel 1955: Oil accounts for 2/3rds of traffic in the Suez Canal 1955: Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran and Britain sign the Baghdad Pact that de facto asserts British influence in the Middle Eastagainst the Soviet Union Oct 1955: Morocco's sultan Mohammed is allowed to return to Morocco 1955: Oman's sultan Said ibm Taimur conquers the interior of Oman with help from the British Feb 1955: Israel attacks the Egyptian military headquarters in Gaza killing 38 soldiers April 1955: Nasser's Egypt joins the policy of "non-alignment" at the Bandung Conference 1955: Palestinian fedayeen ("those who sacrifice themselves") begin operating from across the border bringing terror into Israel August 1955: The FLN of Algeria adopts a policy of genocide against the French and French paratroopers kill 1,273 insurgents in retaliation for the "Philippeville incident" 1956: Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal, thereby becoming the father of Arab nationalism and moving the Arab world into the Soviet sphere 1956: The population of Egypt is 22 million 1956: Saudi Arabia produces one million barrels of oil per day Oct 1956: In retaliation for guerrilla attacks sponsored by Egypt, Israel attacks Egypt (second war) and invades the Sinai and the Gaza strip, while France and Britain seize the Suez canal 1956: France withdraws from Morocco, and King Mohammed assumes power 1956: The first concrete building is built in Dubai 1956: France withdraws from Tunisia, and Habib Bourguiba becomes its first president Dec 1956: Britain leaves the Suez Canal 1956: Israel sets up a secret nuclear program headed by Shimon Peres with help from France Nov 1956: Israeli soldiers kill 275 Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis and 111 in Rafah Oct 1956: Israeli troops led by Ariel Sharon attack Qalqilya, killing almost 100 Palestinians (18 Israeli soldiers are also killed) Jul 1956: president Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalizes the Suez canal to pay for the construction of the high Aswan Dam, thereby becoming the first Arab leader to confront the West and the father of Arab nationalism 1956: Egypt grants women the right to vote and be elected to parliament 1957: Jordanian king Hussein expels the Pan-Arab nationalist colonel Ali Abu Nuwar, asks the USA for help and outlaws pro-Soviet politicians Jan 1957: France allows torture in Algeria and French general Jacques Massu wins the "battle of Algiers" using nazi-style methods against the Algerian rebels 1957: in the first two years of war the FLN kills 1,035 Europeans and 6,352 Arabs in Algeria March 1957: Israel withdraws from the Sinai and the Gaza strip 1957: Habib Bourguiba deposes the last sultan of Husayn's dynasty in Tunisia and declares a republic May 1958: The French population of Algeria stages demonstrations and causes the fall of the French government 1958: Oman cedes Gwadar to Pakistan Jul 1958: Inspired by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iraqi officers led by brigadier Abdul-Karim Qassem/Qasim overthrow the Hashimite monarchy (king Faisal II and his uncle are impaled and dismembered) and proclaim a republic Jul 1958: The USA sends 19,000 soldiers to protect the regime of Lebanon's Christian president Camille Chamoun 1958: 800,000 Jews have immigrated to Israel since independence pushing the population to two million 1958: Rashid al Maktum becomes emir of Dubai 1958: Pro-Egyptian Muslims start an insurrection in Lebanon, the USA lands marines to help the Shamun government and a compromise is reached to appoint general Fuad Shihab as president 1958: 2500 families own 50% of all farm land in Iraq 1958: King Saud of Saudi Arabia virtually retires and government is handed to his brother Faisal, who begins a campaign to fight corruption and waste Feb 1958: Egypt and Syria unite under president Nasser 1958: 75% of Jordan's revenues come from British and USA aid 1959: A USA company discovers oil in Libya 1959: Yassir Arafat founds Al Fahtathe Palestinian liberation movement (Palestine) 1960: Oil developing countries (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela) found the OPEC 1960: Kuwait produces two million barrels of oil for day, twice as much as Iraq 1960: Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani retires to Switzerland and abdicates in favor of his son Ahmad but his cousin Khalifah runs the government 1960: More than 2000 books are published in Egypt 1961: Nasser of Egypt launches a program of "Arab socialism" completing the nationalization of all banks and insurance companies Sep 1961: a Kurdish rebellion under the leadership of Mustafa al-Barzani is brutally repressed in Iraq Jan 1961: former French officers led by general Raoul Salan form the Organisation de l'Armee Secrete (OAS) to fight Arabs in Algeriakilling 12,000 Arab civilians in one year (Algeria) 1961: Tunisian and French forces fight after France refuses to close military bases in Tunisia Jun 1961: Kuwait under emir Abdullah Sabah becomes independent under the protection of Britain and Saudi Arabia against the claims of Iraq 1961: Morocco's King Mohammed dies and is succeeded by Hassan II Sep 1961: A military coup in Syria ends the union with Egypt 1962: A Kurdish rebellion in Iraq under the leadership of Mustafa al-Barzani is brutally repressed Sep 1962: North Yemen's imam Ahmad dies and is succeeded by his son Muhammad al-Badr but Abdullah al-Sallal seizes power in a coup, and the two start a civil war, with Badr helped by Saudi Arabia and Sallal helped by Egypt 1962: Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery Apr 1962: The British protectorates around Aden form the Federation of South Arabia 1962: After the deaths of about 100,000 French and about 1,000,000 AlgeriansAlgeria is declared independent (Algeria) 1962: Israel's nuclear program directed by Shimon Peres produces the first weapon-grade plutonium (Israel) 1962: Algeria is declared independent after the deaths of about 100 thousand French and about one million Algerians and the exiled leader Ben Bella becomes its first president 1962: Kuwait creates the Fund for Arab Economic Development 1962: Mohammed bin Laden builds the road that unites north and south South Arabia Mar 1963: In a military coup the Baath Party, mostly run by Alawate Shiites, seizes power in Syria, outlaws all other parties and embarks in a Soviet-style program of nationalization 1963: Saudi Arabia formally abolishes slavery 1963: Abdelaziz Bouteflika is appointed foreign minister of Algeria 1963: India inaugurates the Bhakra Dam 1963: Libya grants women the right to vote but all parties are banned 1963: Aden joins the Federatin of Southern Arabia or South Yemen 1963: Israeli prime minister Ben Gurion resigns Feb 1963: in a military coup the Ba'ath Party seizes power in Iraq Feb 1963: In a military coup the Baath Party seizes power in Iraq, executes Qasim and appoints Abdul Arif as president 1963: Israeli prime minister Ben Gurion resigns (Israel) 1963: Morocco and Algeria fight the "sand war" 1964: the Palestine Liberation Organization is created in Cairo with the mission to destroy the state of Israel and liberate Palestine 1964: King Saud of Saudi Arabia leaves the country and Faisal is crowned new king June 1964: Arab countries create the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Cairo with the mission to destroy the state of Israel and liberate Palestine (Palestine) 1964: Faisal bin Abdul Aziz becomes the third King of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) 1964: Charles Hilu, a Shihab associate, succeeds Shamun as Lebanese president 1965: Houari Boumedienne seizes power in Algeria 1965: Sephardic Jews from the Middle East outnumber Ashkenazi Jes from Europe in Israel for the first time since independence 1965: members of the Muslim Brotherhood try to assassinate Nasser of Egypt 1965: Kuwait's emir Abdullah Sabah dies and is succeeded by his brother Sabah al-Sabah 1965: Libya accounts for 10% of the world's oil exports 1965: Syria nationalizes most of the national industry and foreign oil companies 1965: The majority of people living in Kuwait are workers from other countries (Palestinians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, etc) Jan 1965: Fatah, operating from neighboring Arab countries, launches guerrilla attacks against Israel 1966: Israel produces its first nuclear bomb Nov 1966: Israeli troops raid the Jordanian village of Samukilling 14 Jordanian soldiers Aug 1966: the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, is hanged in Egypt 1966: Israel kills several people at al-Samu in Jordan in retaliation for continued Palestinian raids 1966: Shakhbut al Nahyan is overthrown by his youngest brother Zayed/Zaid, who begins economic reforms 1966: Iraq launches an offensive against Kurdish rebels 1966: Egypt has 30 million people 1966: Saudi Arabia produces 2.5 million barrels of oil a day May 1967: King Hussein of Jordan and Nasser of Egypt sign a mutual defense pact against Israel Nov 1967: the British withdraw from Aden and marxists take over the Federation of South Arabia that becomes South Yemen with capital in Aden and Qahtan al-Shabi as president 1967: The Abu Dhabi Investment Board is established to invest oil money Jun 1967: After Egypt expels UN peacekeepers from the Sinai and closes the Red Sea to Israeli ships, and Arab countries ammass troops at the Israeli border, Israel attacks and in six days wins a third war against the Arabs, and occupies the lands of the Palestinians (Gaza Strip and West Bank) as well as the Sinai peninsula and the Suez Canal 1967: Egypt withdraws from North Yemen and the republican Sallal is overthrown, while Saudi Arabia withdraws its support for the royalists of Badr, ending the civil war 1967: Oman and the oil companies sign an equal profit-sharing agreement 1967: The Suez Canal is closed, causing severe economic damage to South Yemen June 1967: Arab countries ammass troops at the Israeli border and Israel launches a pre-emptive strike (third war) against its neighborsand in seven days re-conquers the Sinaithe Gaza strip and even the Suez canal in Egyptinvades the Golan Heights in Syriathe West Bank and East Jerusalem in Jordan. The whole of Jerusalem is now under Israeli control. Thousands of Palestinians are displaced and absorbed into Jordan. 18,000 Arab soldiers are killed250 Egyptian planes and 50 Syrian planes are destroyed. (Palestine) 1967: Egypt expels UN peacekeepers from the Sinai and closes the Red Sea to Israeli ships Dec 1967: George Habash founds the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)a terrorist organization inspired by marxism-leninism (Palestine) April 1967: In retaliation for Syrian attacks, Israel downs six Syrian warplanes June 1967: Israel attacks a USA warship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 sailors 1968: the British withdraw from the Gulf and the United Arab Emirates are created Jul 1968: The pro-Soviet faction of the Ba'ath Party seizes power in Iraq and appoints general Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr president and Saddam Hussein in charge of internal security, removing Shiites (the majority of Iraq's population) from any position of power 1968: Palestinians use Lebanon as a base to launch attacks against Israel Oct 1968: Ahmad Jibril splits from George Habash's PFLP and founds the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) with base in Syria June 1968: USA politician Bob Kennedy is assassinated by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan in retaliation for the USA's support of Israel March 1968: Fatah guerrillas win the battle of Karameh against superior Israeli forces (30 Israeli soldiers are killed) Jul 1968: the PFLP hijacks an Israeli airplane to trade hostages for Palestinian prisoners Jul 1968: the pro-Soviet faction of the Ba'ath Party seizes power and appoints Ahmed Hasan al-Bakr president and Saddam Hussein is appointed in charge of internal security Sep 1969: colonel Muhammar Qaddafi of a poor seminomadic tribe becomes dictator of Libya in a successful coup and chooses Tripoli as the sole capital of Libya 1969: colonel Muhammar Qaddafi becomes dictator of Libya after a successful coup (Libya) 1969: female Palestinian fighter Leila Khaled hijacks a TWA airplane (Palestine) March 1969: Golda Meir is elected prime minister of Israel (Israel) Feb 1969: Yassir Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (Fatah takes over the PLO) (Palestine) 1969: Yassir Arafat becomes leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization 1969: Communists overthrow South Yemen's president Shabi and install Salim Rubay Ali 1969: Dubai begins exporting oil 1969: The Islamic Conference is founded 1970: Egyptian president Nasser dies and is succeeded by his deputy Anwar Sadat 1970: Oman's sultan Said ibm Taimur is overthrown by his son Qabus with Iranian help 1970: Sulaiman Franjieh, a Shamun associate, is elected president of Lebanon 1970: Oman formally abolishes slavery 1970: 25% of all students in Egyptian universities are women 1970: Hafez Assad, the Alawite leader of the military wing of the Ba'ath Party, overthrows the president of Syria 1970: Palestinian terrorists bomb airplanes and other facilities in Europe Feb 1970: A bomb by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine kills all 47 people aboard a SwissAir flight (Switzerland) Sep 1970: After a series of assassination attemptsKing Hussein of Jordanfearing for his own country's stabilityorders a massive expulsion of Palestinians that results in ten days of civil war with 200 Syrian tanks invading Jordan and 5,000 deaths ("black september") (Jordan) Sep 1970: Arafat is appointed supreme commander of the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA)the military arm of the PLO (Palestine) Nov 1970: Hafez Assadshiite leader of the military wing of the Baath Partyoverthrows the president of Syria (Syria) 1970: Israel carries out air raids along the Nile killing hundreds of Egyptian civilians hoping to incite anti-Nasser uprisinginstead triggering a massive rearmament of Egypt by the Soviet Union (Egypt) Jul 1970: Israel downs five Soviet warplanes that are testing its radar defenses (Israel) Sep 1970: Nasser dies and is buried in one of the largest funerals everwhile his deputy Anwar Sadat becomes the new president of Egypt (Egypt) Sep 1970: PFLP terrorists hijack a TWA jeta Swissair jet and a Pan Am jet and blow them up in Zarka (Jordan) Sep 1970: the chairman of the Palestine Liberation OrganizationYassir Arafat settles in Beirut Lebanon (Palestine) Sep 1970: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine carries out simultaneous hijackings to Jordan (Dawson's Field) of TWASwissair and BOAC planes for a total of over 300 hostages ("Skyjack Sunday")which are swapped with Leila Khaledthe leader of the PFLP cell captured in Britain (Jordan) 1970: King Hussein of Jordan orders a massive expulsion of Palestinians ("black september"), many of which move into Lebanon, further destabilizing the country and the Palestinian leader Arafat settles in Beirut, Lebanon 1971: the Gulf States (Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrein in august) become independent and the USA takes over the British military base in Bahrein 1971: Saddam Hussein inaugurates the Iraqi program to build a nuclear weapon (Iraq) Jul 1971: The Jordanian army attacks the Palestinian camps again and Fatah's Salah Khalaf founds Black September (Jordan) Nov 1971: The Jordanian prime minister Wasfi Tal is killed by Palestinian Black September terrorists while in Cairo (Jordan) Jul 1971: seven Gulf emirates federate as the United Arab Emirates under president Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi 1971: Egypt inaugurates the high Aswan Dam wanted by Nasser 1972: Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company 1972: Khalifah overthrows Ahmad in Qatar 1972: The price of oil is $3 per barrel, double the price of 1970, as the world consumes five times more oil than in 1948 1972: Dozens of anti-communist dissidents are killed in South Yemen while South and North Yemen fight a border war 1972: Egypt expels all Soviet military advisers, and the Soviet Union transfers its Mediterranean fleet base from Egypt to Syria TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1972: Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics 1972: Iraq and the Soviet Union sign a friendship treaty May 1972: A joint attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Japanese Red Army at Lod airport (Israel) kills 26 people (Israel) 1972: Black September attacks Jordanian embassies and airline offices in Europe (Europe) may 1972: Black September hijacks a Belgian airplane and lands it in Israel demanding the release of prisonersbut Israel storms the plane (Europe) May 1972: Black September terrorists hijack a Belgian airliner in Tel Aviv and Israeli commandos storm the plane (Israel) Jul 1972: Egypt expels the Soviet military advisers (Egypt) may 1972: Japanese terrorists attack the Tel Aviv airport killing 26 people (Israel) Sep 1972: Palestinian terrorists of the Black September faction kill 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympicsa drama that is televised live worldwide (Germany) 1972: The CIA hires Bashir Gemayelthe son of the Lebanese politician Pierre Gemayel who is working in Washington (USA) 1972: the oil industry is nationalized (Iraq) Oct 1973: Egypt and Syria attack Israel (fourth war), but Israel wins again Dec 1973: Golda Meir is replaced as prime minister of Israel by Yitzhak Rabin of the Labor Party, the first prime minister to be born in Israel 1973: Syria adopts a socialist constitution 1973: For the first time oil producers set the price of oil without negotiating with oil companies 1973: the OPEC (mainly Arab) countries impose an oil embargo on the western world in retaliation for the Israeli victory 1973: El-Ouali leads a group of Sahrawi (Western Saharan) students to form the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro", or Polisario, fighting for independence from Spain August 1973: Black September terrorists attacks the Israeli airline counter at the Athens airport (Greece) Oct 1973: Egypt and Syria attack Israel (fourth war)but Israel invades again the Sinai (Palestine) 1973: El-Ouali leads a group of Sahrawi students to form the "Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro"or Polisariofighting for independence from Spain (Western Sahara) Oct 1973: OPEC countries impose an oil embargo on the western world that causes an economic crises (Saudi Arabia) Dec 1973: Palestinian terrorists attack a Pan Am flight in Rome and kill 30 passengers (Italy) Dec 1973: The conservative Yitzhak Rabin is elected prime minister of Israel (Israel) 1973: Venezuelan-born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez ("Carlos the Jackal")who studied in Russia and was trained by Haddadperforms spectacular terrorist actions on behalf of Palestinian terrorist groups (London) Dec 1973: The price of oil reaches $11.65 per barrel, almost four times what it was a year earlier 1973: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin establishes the Islamic Association in Palestine 1974: French premier Chirac visits Iraq to negotiate the sale of nuclear technology 1974: Syria inaugurates the Euphrates Dam 1974: Arafat gives an emotional speech at the United Nations begging for Palestinian statehood (New York) 1974: French premier Chirac visits Iraq to negotiate the sale of nuclear technology (Iraq) 1974: Sabri al-Banna splits from the PLO and founds Abu Nidal (Palestine) June 1974: the Palestinian National Council (PNC) in Rabat decides to abandon international terrorism (Morocco) Nov 1974: the United Nations recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to sovereignity and invites Arafat's PLO as an "observer"thereby recognizing Arafat as the leader of the Palestinians (Palestine) 1974: A military coup in North Yemen installs the pro-Saudi colonel Ibrahim al-Hamdi 1974: Iraq launches another attack against Kurdish rebels, who are armed by Iran, Israel and the USA 1975: After the pact between Iran and Iraq that ends Iranian support for Kurdish rebels in Iraq, Iraqi troops massacre thousands of Kurdish civilians and rebels after collecting them in "dar al-fana" ("houses of annihilation") 1975: Foreign workers from other Muslim countries constitute about 43% of Saudi Arabia's population June 1975: "Carlos" kills two police officers in Paris (France) April 1975: Christian and Muslim sects engage in a civil war in Lebanon that will last 16 years (Lebanon) 1975: French prime minister Chirac sells a nuclear reactor and jet fighters to Iraq (Iraq) 1975: Khalid bin Abdul Aziz King Khalid becomes the fourth King of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) Dec 1975: Oil minister of the OPEC countries are kidnapped during a meeting by terrorists led by "Carlos" (Ilich Ramirez Sanchez) (Austria) 1975: Spain withdraws and Morocco invades Western Sahara with the "green march" (Western Sahara) 1975: when Iranthe United States and Israel withdraw support to the Kurdish revolt led by Mustafa BarzaniIraqi troops massacre thousands of Kurdish civilians and rebels after collecting them in "dar al-fana" ("houses of annihilation") (Iraq) 1975: The Suez Canal reopens 1975: Spain withdraws from Western Sahara, Morocco invades Western Sahara and the Polisario proclaims the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and begins an independence war against Morocco Mar 1975: King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated and succeeded by his brother Khalid Apr 1975: When a busload of Palestinians is massacred by a Christian militia, civil war erupts in Lebanon pitting Christians (Shamun, Frenjieh and the Phalange Party of Pierre Jumayyil) against Muslims 1976: Houari Boumedienne declares Algeria a socialist state 1976: Israel's inflation reaches 40% 1976: Israeli police kill six Israeli citizens of Palestinian descent who are demonstrating against seizure of Palestinian land ("Palestinian Land Day") (Israel) Jan 1976: A bomb blows up a Lebanese flight over Saudi Arabiakilling all 82 passengers (Saudi Arabia) 1976: Algeria is declared a socialist state (Algeria) Jul 1976: Israeli commandos storm an Air France plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in Entebbe killing all the Palestinians and scores of Ugandan soldiers that were protecting them and freeing 102 hostages (Palestine) 1976: Jalal Talabani founds the Kurdish Patriotic Union in northern Iraq to fight for Kurdish independence (Iraq) April 1976: Syria invades Lebanon to avoid an almost certain Palestinian victory (Lebanon) Feb 1976: the Polisario proclaims the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and begins an independence struggle against Morocco (Western Sahara) 1976: Wadi' Haddad split from George Habash's PFLP and founds the "15 May Faction"that quickly becomes the leading terrorist organization (Palestine) 1976: Egypt's population is 39 million 1976: Kuwait has the highest per-capita income of the world 1976: Syria sends troops into Lebanon 1977: A pipeline connecting Iraqi oil fields and Turkish ports opens May 1977: Menachem Begin of the Likud Party becomes prime minister of Israel with a program of pro-capitalist economic reforms 1977: North Yemen's leader al-Hamdi is assassinated 1977: Kuwait's emir Sabah al-Sabah dies and is succeeded by his cousin Jabir Sabah 1977: Kuwait and Qatar nationalize their oil industries 1977: Libya, that has the highest per-capite GDP of north Africa, renames itself a socialist republic 1977: An oil pipeline connecting Iraq to the Mediterranean via Turkey is inaugurated Oct 1977: A German airliner is hijacked by Palestinian terrorists and stormed by German paratroopers in Somalia (Israel) April 1977: Abu Abbas splits from the PFLP-GC and founds the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) (Palestine) 1977: Ariel Sharonminister of agricultureplans Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war (Israel) May 1977: Former Irgun terrorist Menachem Begin and the right-wing Likud party win electionsdefeating the Labor Party that had ruled Israel since its founding (Israel) Jan 1977: People riot in Cairo to protest economic conditions and 160 demonstrators are killed by the army (Egypt) Nov 1977: Sadat becomes the first Arab leader ever to visit Israel (Egypt) August 1978: A fire kills 477 people in a movie theater in AbadanIrancausing mass demonstrations against the regime (Iran) March 1978: Al Fatah terrorists led by an 18-year old woman and reporting to Khalil al-Wazir/ Abu Jihad hijack two buses in Israel killing 37 people (Israel) 1978: Israel begins resettling Jews in the Arab areas of the West Bank (Palestine) June 1978: Israel invades the southern part of Lebanon to uproot the PLOkilling more than 1,000 civiliansbut then withdraws (Lebanon) Jan 1978: Religious students in Qom stage mass demonstrations against the shah of Iran (Iran) Sep 1978: The Camp David agreement brokered by president Jimmy Carter of the USA prescribes a timetable for solving the Palestinian issuebut Jordan refuses to negotiate on behalf of Arafat and Israel refuses to negotiate directly with a terrorist like Arafat (Palestine) 1978: North Yemen's leader Ahmad al-Ghasmi is assassinated (the second in two years) and Ali Abdallah Saleh is appointed president 1978: Salim Rubay Ali is assassinated in South Yemen 1978: North Yemen's leader al-Hamdi is assassinated 1978: Iraq expels Iranian cleric Khomeini, who moves to France Mar 1979: Egypt (Sadat) and Israel (Begin) sign a peace treaty brokered by the USA in Washington 1979: Saudi Arabia accounts for more than 50% of arms sold by the USA 1979: Iraq produces 3 million barrels of oil per day 1979: South and North Yemen fight a second border war 1979: Saddam Hussein seizes power in Iraq and begins a ruthless dictatorship 1979: Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum becomes ruler of Dubai and turns it into a major financial hub 1979: South Yemen and the Soviet Union sign a treaty of friendship Jan 1979: a popular revolution deposes the shah Reza Pahlevi (Iran) Nov 1979: Dozens of Islamic fanatics seize the Grand Mosque in Mecca taking hundred of pilgrims hostage and after two weeks of fighting that kill more than 100 soldiers Saudi Arabia executes 63 rebels Nov 1979: Iranian students take 52 Americans hostage at the American embassy (Iran) Feb 1979: Islamic clerics (ayatollahs) seize the power and appoint Ruhollah Khomeini supreme leader of Iranjust returned from exile (Iran) April 1979: Israeli agents blow up a factory in France that builds components for Iraq's nuclear facility at Osirak (France) 1979: Massoud Barzani succeeds his father Mustafa Barzani as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (Iraq) March 1979: Sadat of Egypt and of Israel sign a peace treatyIsrael returns the Sinai peninsula to Egypt and Egypt enters the orbit of the USA (Israel) June 1979: Saddam Hussein inherits power in Iraq and begins a ruthless dictatorship (Iraq) 1979: the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran galvanizes Islamic extremistsespecially shiite Arabs (Lebanon) April 1980: American troops fail to liberate the American hostages (Iran) 1980: Berbers demonstrate against Arab domination in Algeria ("Spring of Kabyle") (Algeria) 1980: galvanized by the Islamic Revolution in IranMuslims riot in AleppoHoms and Hama (Syria) 1980: increasingly anti-American propaganda by Qaddafi (Libya) Sep 1980: Iraq (Saddam Hussein) attacks Iran (Iraq) June 1980: Israeli agents assassinate in France an Egyptian engineer working for Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility (France) June 1980: The Muslim Brotherhood tries to assassinate Assad of Syria (Syria) 1980: "mujaheddin" and volunteers from the Arab world, led by Saudi scion Osama bin Laden, organize the resistance against the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan 1980: Ali Nasser Muhammad, leader of the Socialist Party, becomes the de facto ruler of South Yemen 1980: Christians constitute 30% and Muslims constitute 18% of the world's population 1980: Khomeini declares the last friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as an international day of struggle against Israel and for the liberation of Jerusalem Sep 1980: Iraq (Saddam Hussein), with financial aid from France, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and intelligence aid from the USA, attacks Iran (Khomeini) 1980: Iraqi ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, leader of Iraq's first Shiite political party, is assassinated by Saddam Hussein's regime 1980: Berbers demonstrate against Arab domination in Algeria ("Spring of Kabyle") 1980: There are 3 million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, mostly from Yemen, Palestine, Egypt and Pakistan 1981: Egyptian president Sadat is assassinated by a radical Muslim organization and is succeeded by Hosni Mubarak 1981: Two thirds of Saudi citizens live in cities and only 10% are still nomads 1981: Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates found the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) Dec 1981: a member of Islamic Dawa Party blows himself up to attack the Iraqi embassy in BeirutLebanon (first suicide bomber) (Lebanon) Jan 1981: by trading weapons for hostagesthe new American presidentRonald Reaganobtains the release of the Americans held in Iran for 444 days (Iran) June 1981: Israel bombs Iraq's Osirak reactormanned by FrenchItalian and Brazilian engineersthat is producing enriched uranium fuel and plutonium that can be used for nuclear weapons (Iraq) Jul 1981: Israel bombs multi-story apartment buildings in Beirut to kill Arafat and the PLO leadershipkilling 300 civilians (Lebanon) June 1981: Israel bombs the Iraqi nuclear reactor built by Franceto prevent Iraq from building a nuclear weapon (Iraq) Oct 1981: Sadat is assassinated by soldiers led by Khalid al Islambouliinspired by radical Muslim organization (the Egyptian Islamic Jihad) of Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri and is succeeded by vice-president Hosni Mubarak (Egypt) April 1981: Syria defeats Bashir Gemayel's Phalange at Zahlebut Israel helps defeat the Syrian troops (Lebanon) Sep 1981: The French ambassador is assassinated in Lebanon (Lebanon) August 1981: two Libya airplanes are downed by the USA on the Mediterranean (Libya) Sep 1982: At the battle of Shouf a USA warship rescues Michel Aoun's Lebanese army that is being defeated by a coalition of Walid Jumblatt's Druze militia, Syrian troops, PLO guerrillas and Iranian Revolutionary Guards (Lebanon) 1982: ://www.scaruffi.com>Youstol Dispage joins the resistance (Israel) Feb 1982: Assad orders the bombing of Hamaone of Syria's major citiesfor 27 dayskilling more than 20,000 peopleto stem an uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood (Syria) June 1982: Fahd bin 'Abdulaziz (11th son of the founder of the Saudi kingdom) ascends to the throne (Saudi Arabia) August 1982: Bashir Gemayela moderate Christianis elected president of Lebanon (Lebanon) August 1982: Arafat and his forces are allowed to leave Beirutwhile the USA promises protection for the Palestinian civilians left in the refugee camps of Lebanon (Lebanon) August 1982: Iran sends "volunteers" to fight Israel in Lebanon (Lebanon) Sep 1982: The USA sends marines to restore order in Lebanonfollowed by French and Italian troops (Lebanon) Sep 1982: Bashir Gemayel is assassinated by Syrian agents, and in retaliation Israeli-backed Christian militiamen of the Phalange under Elie Hobeika with the support of Israeli troops (under the command of Ariel Sharon) massacre 1,000 unarmed Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut (Lebanon) Nov 1982: a suicide bomber blows up 72 Israeli soldiers in Tyre (Lebanon) 1982: Hezbollah (Party of God) is founded by a radical Shiite group with the mission of creating an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon, supported by Iranian revolutionary guards (Lebanon) June 1982: In retaliation for an assassination attempt by Abu Nidal and Iraqi agents on the Israeli ambassador in BritainIsrael invades Lebanon trapping the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its leader Yassir Arafat in Beirut (despite the fact that Abu Nidal is not part of the PLO) (Lebanon) 1982: Iran provides help to kurds fighting against Saddam Hussein in the north of Iraq and massive repression by Iraqi forces follows (Iraq) Jun 1982: Israel invades Lebanon to fight the Palestinian militias based there and obtains the evacuation of Arafat's PLO from Beirut 1982: Assad orders the bombing of Hama, one of Syria's major cities, for 27 days, killing more than 20 thousand people Jun 1982: In retaliation for an assassination attempt by Abu Nidal and Iraqi agents on the Israeli ambassador in Britain, Israel invades Lebanon trapping the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its leader Yassir Arafat in Beirut (despite the fact that Abu Nidal is not part of the PLO) 1982: Hezbollah (Party of God) is founded by a radical shiite group with the mission of creating an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon, supported by Iranian revolutionary guards 1982: There are 25,000 Jews in the West Bank and 65,000 Jews in East Jerusalem, both Palestinian areas 1982: Khalid dies and Fahd bin 'Abdulaziz, 11th son of the founder of the Saudi kingdom, ascends to the throne 1982: Oil production begins to drop in Libya Dec 1982: Zawahiri and more than 300 members of Islamic organizations are tried in Egypt Oct 1983: Hezbollah suicide commandos organized by Iran and masterminded by Imad Mughniyeh (Mugniyah) blow up the US and French barracks in Lebanon killing 241 marines and 58 French soldiers 1983: The Wafd Party is legalized again in Egypt 1983: a ferry sinks in the Nile, Egypt, and kills 357 people 1983: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iranian troops August 1983: "Carlos" carries out an attack on the Maison de France in Berlin that kills two people (Germany) sep 1983: A bomb blows up a Gulf Air flight over the United Arab Emirates killing all 112 passengers (United Arab Emirates) Nov 1983: a second suicide bomber in Tyre kills 28 Israelis and 32 Lebanese prisoners (Lebanon) Sep 1983: Begin resignsbut neither Likud nor Labor wins the electionsand Yitzah Shamir and Shimon Peres accept a power-sharing agreement to alternate as prime ministers of Israel (Israel) Oct 1983: Hezbollah suicide commandos organized by Iran and masterminded by Imad Mughniyeh (Mugniyah) blow up the US and French barracks killing 241 marines and 58 French soldiers (Lebanon) 1983: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iranian troops (Iraq) Oct 1983: Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is appointed ambassador to the USA with the goal to create a military alliance (USA) Dec 1983: Shiite terrorists funded by Iran (including three Lebanese of Hezbollah) blow up the USA and French embassies in Kuwaitkilling six people (Kuwait) April 1983: suicide commandos directed by Imad Mughniyeh (Mugniyah) blow up the US embassykilling 63 people (Lebanon) May 1983: Syria directs a mutiny within Arafat's Fatah that will force Arafat to leave Lebanon (Lebanon) Jul 1983: the Mufti of Jerusalem issues a fatwa to kill Assad in retaliation to his campaign against the Palestine Liberation Organization. (Palestine) Dec 1983: The USA government sends Donald Rumsfeld to Iraq to negotiate with Saddam Hussein (Iraq) 1983: Libya occupies northern Chad 1984: Rifaat Assad leads a failed coup against his brother and has to flee in exile 1984: Iraq uses chemical weapons against kurds (Iraq) 1984: Zawahiri is released from jail in Egypt Feb 1984: Militias fight for control of Beirutwhich has become the most dangerous city in the world (car bombskidnapsassassinations) (Lebanon) 1984: Saudi Arabia becomes the financial arm of the CIA to bypass the USA parliamentselling arms to Nicaragua's rebelsto Angola's rebels and to Afghanistan's rebels fighting communist regimes in three continents (Saudi Arabia) Jan 1984: The president of the American University of Beirul is assassinated in Lebanon (Lebanon) March 1984: the second highest-ranking USA official in Lebanon is kidnapped by Hezbollah (Lebanon) Feb 1984: USAFrench and Italian soldiers withdraw from Lebanon (Lebanon) 1984: Libya has 3.6 million people including 600 thousand foreign workers 1984: Osama bin Laden meets Palestinian cleric Abdullah Azzam in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and together they form in Peshawar (Pakistan) the Maktab al-Khidamat (Service Office) with the goal to recruit fighters and raise money for the Afghan resistance Jul 1984: Likud and Labor form a coalition in Israel while inflation is approaching 400% 1985: Iraq develops an offensive biological weapons program 1985: More than two thirds of the population of the United Arab Emirates is foreign workers 1985: Zawahiri moves to Saudi Arabia 1985: Kuwait has 1.8 million people, of which more than one million are foreign workers Jun 1985: Saudi Arabia's oil production reaches a 20-year low at 2.2 million barrels 1985: Hezbollah suicide commandos organized by Iran blow up the US and French barracks killing 241 marines and 58 French soldiers 1985: Israel raids the PLO headquarters in Tunis, killing 60 people Jun 1985: Israel withdraws from Lebanon Sep 1985: Saudi Arabia announces an increase in oil production that causes a fall in the price of oil May 1985: 1.260 Palestinian prisoners (among them Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) are released from Israeli jails in a prisoner exchange between Israel and Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC that has hijacked an American passenger plane (Israel) March 1985: A car bomb planted by CIA-funded Christian militia fail to assassinate Hezbollah's spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadballahbut instead kills 80 civilians (Lebanon) Dec 1985: Abu Nidal terrorists kill 13 people during an attack on El Al's offices in Rome and 3 people in a similar attack in Vienna (Palestine) 1985: Britain sells weapons to Saudi Arabiathe largest arms sale in its history yet (Saudi Arabia) June 1985: Hezbollah terrorists hijack a TWA flight and exchange the hostages for 435 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel (Lebanon) 1985: Israel raids the PLO headquarters in Tuniskilling 60 people (Tunisia) August 1985: Israel sells 500 antitank missiles to Iran under a covert plan by the USA to win the release of USA hostages in Lebanon (Israel) June 1985: Israel withdraws to the southern part of Lebanonwhich officially cedes to friendly Christian militias (Lebanon) Feb 1985: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia meets with USA president Ronald Reagan in the USAcarrying a "gift" of $2 million in diamonds (USA) Oct 1985: Palestinian terrorists led by Abu Abbas hijack the Achille Lauro cruise shipkill one USA passengerescape via Egyptare tracked down by USA warplanesand are finally helped to escape by the Italian government (Palestine) 1985: Syria and Iran sponsor Hezbollah guerrilla against Israeli troops stationed in Lebanon (Lebanon) 1985: Syria directs a world-wide terrorist campaign aimed at sabotaging the agreement between Jordan's King Hussein and Yassir Arafat (Syria) June 1985: Terrorists hijack a TWA flightkill one USA passenger and release the others after Israel accept to release 700 Shiite prisoners (Lebanon) 1985: the "15 May Faction" is dissolved and its leader and notorious bombmaker Muhammad Al-Amri joins the PFLP-GC (Palestine) Sep 1986: Abu Nidal terrorists hijack a Pan Am in Karachi (Palestine) August 1986: American planes bomb Libya trying to assassinate a defiant Qaddafi (Libya) 1986: Mordechai Vanunu is jailed for revealing the secret Israeli atomic weapons program (Israel) 1986: Mordechai Vanunua former Israeli nuclear technicianreveals the Israeli nuclear program (Israel) Sep 1986: Syria sponsors a string of bombs in Paris (France) May 1986: The USA directly delivers weapons to Iran to win the release of USA citizens held hostages in Lebanon by Hezbollah (Iran) April 1986: Two USA soldiers are killed in a disco of Berlin by Libyan agents (Germany) 1986: USA planes bomb Libya trying to assassinate Qaddafi 1986: Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas becomes president of South Yemen while thousands of people die in riot in Aden 1986: A causeway opens linking Bahrein to Saudi Arabia Jun 1986: Saudi Arabia increases oil production to 7 million barrels a day to bring down oil prices that are hurting world economies 1987: Zawahiri and others form al-Jihad in Pakistan Dec 1987: Palestinians in the occupied territories begin an uprising against Israeli occupation (first "intifada") 1987: 402 people die when Saudi police clash with shia pilgrims in Mecca 1987: The Cairo subway opens in Egypt Feb 1987: Syria invades Beirut to restore order, after the civil war has killed 130,000 people since 1975 1987: Inflation reaches 500% in Lebanon 1987: Zine El Abidine Ben Ali overthrows Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia 1987: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, backed by donors in the Gulf states and by Jordan, creates the Islamist civilian and military organization Hamas in Gaza, with the goal to drive Israel out of the Middle East and establish an Islamic state 1987: Chad expels Libya from northern Chad, despite Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC organization fighting together with Libya, and captures Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, who is then disavowed by Libya and is flown by the CIA to Congo Zaire 1987: An Iraqi Mirage warplane mistakenly attacks a USA warship in the Persian Gulfkilling 37 USA sailors (Iraq) Dec 1987: Emanating from the Jabaliya refugee campPalestinians in the occupied territories begin an uprising against Israeli occupation forces using mainly rocks (the first "intifada") mainly protesting continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank (Palestine) 1987: Khalil al-Wazir/ Abu Jihad unifies under Arafat the seven factions that had split the PLO since the exodus from Lebanon in 1982 (Tunisia) Dec 1987: Sheikh Ahmed Yassinbacked by donors in the Gulf statescreates the civilian and military organization Hamas in Gaza as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhoodwith the goal to drive Israel out of the Middle East and establish an Islamic state (Palestine) Feb 1987: Syria invades Beirut to restore order (Lebanon) Jul 1987: 402 pilgrims, 275 of them Iranian, die during clashes in Mecca Aug 1988: Osama bin Laden splits from Azzam and creates Al Qaeda ("The Base"), meant to become a worldwide alliance of fundamentalist militants, but also based on the teachings of Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (the 19th century founder of the conservative Islamic theology "wahhabism" that is still prevalent in Saudi Arabia) and Sayyid Qutb (an Egyptian philosopher that viewed western civilization as the main enemy of Islam) Nov 1988: Arafat declares the independece of Palestineand the state is recognized by TurkeyGreeceIndiaChinathe Soviet UnionPakistan and Austria (Algeria) Jul 1988: a missile fired by an American warship downs an Iranian civilian plane and kills all 290 passengers aboard (Iran) 1988: Riots in Algeria leave 500 people dead April 1988: A USA warship is damaged by an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulfand in retaliation the USA starts its largest naval battle since Vietnamdestroying two Iranian oil platforms and attacking Iranian warships (Iran) Jul 1988: Abu Nidal terrorists hijack a cruise ship in Greece (Palestine) April 1988: An Israeli commando assassinates Abu Jihad (Tunisia) Jan 1988: Arafat from Tunisia establishes a line of command to the intifada via Khalil al-Wazir/ Abu Jihad (Tunisia) August 1988: end of the war between Iraq and Iran that has cost about one million lives (600,000 Iranians and 400,000 Iraqis) (Iran) Dec 1988: Following Arafat's speech in which he renounced terrorism and recognized Israel's right to existthe USA recognizes the PLO and begins direct talks (USA) Jul 1988: Hezbollah executes USA diplomat William Higgins after two years of captivity (Lebanon) Feb 1988: Hezbollah kidnaps a USA diplomatWilliam Higgins (Lebanon) Sep 1988: Iraqi forces attack kurdish forces with chemical weaponsdestroying nearly 4,000 of the 5,000 Kurdish villages and killing tens of thousands of civilians (Iraq) March 1988: Iraqi troops kill 5,000 Kurds with poison gas in Halabjanorth Iraq (Iraq) Jul 1988: King Hussein of Jordan declares that Jordan will stop administering the West Bank (Jordan) March 1988: Palestinians of Abu Jihad's organization kill three Israeli workers of the Dimona nuclear facility (Israel) Dec 1988: terrorists backed by Libya blow up a Pan Am plane over Scotland killing 259 people probably on behalf of Iran (Libya) Dec 1988: terrorists of the PFLP-GC backed by Libya blow up a Pan Am plane over Scotland (Lockerbie) killing 270 people probably on behalf of Iran (Libya) 1988: Thanks to intelligence provided by the USAIraq bombs strategic targets inside Iran (Iraq) 1988: terrorists backed by Libya blow up a Pan Am plane over Scotland killing 259 people probably on behalf of Iran 1988: Egypt's population is 50 million 1988: The GDP per capite of Libya is eight times the one of Egypt Sep 1988: The war between Iraq and Iran that has cost about half a million lives (300,000 Iranians and 135,000 Iraqis) ends with no winner 1988: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Kurds (Halabja massacre) 1988: Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan, creates Al Qaeda, a worldwide alliance of (mainly Arab) fundamentalist militants, based on the teachings of Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahab 1988: Saad Eddin Ibrahim founds the Ibn Khaldun Center in Egypt to promote democracy in the Arab world 1989: a ceasefire is signed between Morocco and the Polisario 1989: Khomeini dies and is succeeded by Ali Khameini 1989: Algeria begins a process of democratization, allowing other parties to coexist with the FLN Oct 1989: Lebanese factions agree to end the civil war ("Taif Agreement"), splitting the parliament equally between Christians and MuslimsA, but the first Christian president is immediately assassinated and Lebanon is forced by Syria to pick Elias Hrawi as new president 1989: Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat is arrested in Italy at the request of the USA for selling thousands of tons of chemicals that Saddam Hussein's Iraq used to build chemical weapons Sep 1989: A bomb planted by Libyan agents blows up a French flight over Niger killing all 171 passengers (Libya) May 1989: Ahmed Yassinleader of Hamasis arrested and condemned to life in prisonand his successor Musa Abu Marzook separates the civilian and military wings of Hamas (Salah Shihada establishes Hamas' military apparatus) (Palestine) June 1989: Ali Khameini is appointed supreme leader of iran (Iran) 1989: German scientist Karl-Heinz Schaab sells German uranium-enrichment technology to Iraq (Iraq) 1989: Khomeini dies and is buried with one of the largest funerals ever (Iran) 1989: Morocco and the Polisario sign a truce and begin peace talks (Western Sahara) Sep 1989: Qaddafi publicly renounces terrorism and orders Ahmad Jibril to close his offices in Tripoli (Libya) Sep 1989: the PFLP-GC blows up a French UTA airliner over Nigerprobably on behalf of Libya (Niger) Nov 1989: A bomb kills Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Palestinian, a co-founder of Hamas and Lashkar-e-Taiba, considered the "father of global jihad" and a mentor of Osama bin Laden, in Pakistan August 1990: Iraqi troops invade Kuwait (Iraq) August 1990: King Fahd calls for US protection against Saddam Hussein (Saudi Arabia) Jul 1990: Saddam Hussein's Iraq accuses Kuwait of stealing its oil and waging a financial war (Egypt) May 1990: Saddam Hussein convenes an Arab summit in Baghdad during which he declares "Greater Israel" to be the common enemy and promises money to the family of every Palestinian suicide bomber (Iraq) May 1990: Saddam Hussein convenes an Arab summit in Baghdad during which he declares "Greater Israel" to be the common enemy and promises money to the family of every Palestinian suicide bomber (Iraq) Oct 1990: Saudi Arabiaafraid that Saddam Hussein may turn against them after invading Kuwaitjoins the U.S.-led coalition and for the first time ever allows troops of a non-Muslim country to deploy on its soil (Saudi Arabia) Oct 1990: the last Christian leader to fight Syria and the Muslims in Lebanongeneral Michel Aounsurrenders to Syria (after a battle that killed 700 Christians)and the civil war ends (40,000 people have died in 16 years) (Lebanon) May 1990: With funding from Saddam Hussein's IraqAbu Abbas' PLF (now based in Baghdad) attempts to land six boats on Israel's Nizanim beach (Israel) Aug 1990: Iraqi troops (Saddam Hussein) invade Kuwait 1990: 1,426 pilgrims die in a stampede in Mecca 1990: the last Christian leader to fight Syria and the Muslims in Lebanon surrenders, the civil war ends and Lebanon remains under Syrian occupation May 1990: Yemen and Aden unite under Ali Abdullah Saleh with capital in Sana 1990: the Iraqi army has 1.4 million soldiers, the fourth largest in the world after the Soviet Union, the USA and China 1990: Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum dies and is succeeded by his son Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum as ruler of Dubai 1990: After its spokesman is murdered, Islamic Group launches a terrorist campaign that kills several police officers in Egypt 1990: Former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar is expelled from Congo Zaire and moves to the USA Jan 1991: An international coalition (including most Arab countries) led by the USA expels Iraq from Kuwait, and 400 thousand Palestinians are expelled from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states, mostly relocating to Jordan 1991: 330 thousand Jews emigrate to Israel from the Soviet Union 1991: Saudi Arabia expels Osama bin Laden for his anti-government stance 1991: a ferry capsizes in Egypt killing 464 people 1991: Al Zarqawi returns from Afghanistanwhere he has fought against the Soviet Union (Jordan) 1991: Ayad Allawi founds the Iraqi National Accord with defectors of the Iraqi army (Britain) Jan 1991: George Bushpresident of the USAleads an international coalition that attacks Iraq from all sides and liberates Kuwait (Iraq) 1991: Mohammed Nazzala Jordan-based leader of Hamas with the help of Osama bin Laden terroristsunleashes a campaign of terrorist bombings and assassinations aimed at toppling the regime of King Hussein (Jordan) 1991: One of the founders of HamasKhaled Mashalsettles in Jordan (Jordan) Nov 1991: Paulo Jose de Almeida Santosa Portuguese Muslimtries to assassinate the Afghan king in exileZahir Shahon behalf of Al Qaeda (Italy) Dec 1991: the last American hostage is freed from Lebanon (Lebanon) Feb 1991: The US-led coalition stops short of reaching Bagdad and leaves Saddam Hussein in power but controlling only the central part of Iraq (the southern and northern part are off-limits to Iraqi planes in order to protect the shiite and kurdish minorities) (Iraq) May 1991: USA president George Bush authorizes plans to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq (Iraq) Mar 1992: A suicide bombing by Islamists (sponsored by Imad Mughniyeh) at Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires kills 29 people in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah's head Sayed Abbas al-Musawi 1992: Al Zarqawi is arrested for planning to overthrow the Jordanian government (Jordan) 1992: extremists launch a campaign aimed at ousting president Hosni Mubarakthat will kill 1,100 people in five years (Egypt) May 1992: Fouad Masoum is elected leader of the regional Kurdish governmentwhich controls northern Iraq and is de facto independent from Saddam Hussein (Iraq) June 1992: Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi organizes the Iraqi National Congress in Vienna to overthrow Saddam Hussein (Austria) 1992: Israel assassinated the leader of HezbollahAbbas al-Musawiand Hassan Nasrallah becomes the new leader of Hezbollah (Lebaonon) Feb 1992: Israeli agents kill Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Abbas Musawi (Lebanon) 1992: Jamaican-born Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal move to Britain and begins preaching at London's Brixton mosque (Britain) Jan 1992: The Algerian army cancels national elections won by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and seizes powerwhile Islamic radicals of the Arme` Islamique du Salut (AIS)the military wing of the FISbegin a guerrilla campaign (Algeria) Sep 1992: the extremist movement Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) warns tourists not to enter the province of Qenawhere most monuments areand begins a terrorist campaign against tourists (Egypt) 1992: the Mujahideen guerrillas dislodge the communist regime from Afghanistan 1992: Rabin's Labor Party wins elections in Israel 1992: Half the population of Saudi Arabia is under the age of 15 1992: An Egyptian Copt, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, becomes secretary general of the United Nations 1992: The Algerian army, led by general Khaled Nezzar, cancels national elections won by Abassi Madani's Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and seizes power, while the military wing of the Islamic Salvation Front begin a guerrilla campaign, supported by Iran Sep 1993: following secret negotiations in Oslo, the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat sign an agreement to start a peace process (Israel recognizes the PLO and the PLO recognizes Israel) Aug 1993: Zawahiri's al-Jihad tries to assassinate Egypt's interior minister Nov 1993: Zawahiri's al-Jihad tries to assassinate Egypt's prime minister Dec 1993: 135 countries have recognize Israel 1993: A group of of Algerian "Afghans" (Islamic fighters who received their military training in Afghanistan) forms the Group Islamique Arme` (GIA) with the mission to exterminate all infidels (basically Jews and Christians) and begins targeting foreign nationals in Algeriamurdering two Frenchmen (Algeria) 1993: a senior Bin Laden associate negotiate the purchase of enriched South African uranium with the mediation of Sudanese officials Sep 1993: following secret negotiations in Oslothe Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat sign an agreement to start a peace process (Israel recognizes the PLO and the PLO recognizes Israel) (Palestine) apr 1993: Iraqi agents attempt to assassinate former president George Bush during a visit to Kuwait (Kuwait) August 1993: Islamic terrorists try to assassinate two ministers in three months (Egypt) Feb 1993: Islamic terroristsunder the orders of Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahmanbomb the World Trade Center killing 6 peoplethe first major international terrorist attack on U. S. soil. (USA) 1993: scores of Islamic militants are hanged by Mubarak's regime (Egypt) Oct 1993: terrorists led by Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahrinew leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad that killed Sadat and affiliated to Osama bin Laden working in collaboration with Somali warlord Muhammed Farrah Aididtrap American troops in Mogadishushoot down three helicopters and kill 18 American soldiers (Somalia) 1993: the FBI suspects Ramzi Yousefan Egyptian terroristof organizing the bombing of the World Trade Center and finds ties with a blind sheik in Jersey City named Omar Abdel Rahmana radical Egyptian group and Afghan war hero Wali Khan Amin Shaha close ally of Osama bin Laden (USA) 1993: Mokhtar Belmokhtar returns to Algeria after fighting in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union and joins the Armed Islamist Group (GIA) Feb 1994: A jewish extremist kills 29 Muslims in a Hebron mosque (Palestine) 1994: Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, aka Fadl, publishes "The Compendium of the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge" from Yemen Dec 1994: Algerian terrorists hijack a French plane (Algeria) 1994: Algerian terrorists of the GIA hijack an Air France plane and try to crash it into the Tour Eiffel (France) Dec 1994: an Air France Airbus A300 is hijacked at Algiers airport by Islamic terrorists of the Group Islamic Army with the plan to blow it up over Parisbut the plane was stormed by French police in Marseille (Algeria) Jul 1994: A suicide bombing (sponsored by Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyeh) at a Jewish Community Centre in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires kills 85 people Nov 1994: Arafat's police clashes with Hamas rioters (Palestine) 1994: chaos reigns as the Group Islamic Army (GIA)led by Tayeb al Afghanian Afghan veterankills scores of foreigners and Algerian intellectuals in and around Algierswhile the Movement Islamic Army (MIA)also led by Afghan veteransattacks military and government targets in the western and eastern regions of Algeriawhile the Kataeb al Mout death squadsled by Afghan veteran) Sherif Gousmi (aka Abu Abdallah Ahmed)specialize in assassinations of government officials and several French citizens (Algeria) Mid 1994: during the civil war between communists and democratic forcespresident Ali Saleh enjoys the support of Islah (Islamic Reform Party)an offshoot of the Hashed tribes in northern Yemen headed by radical Sheikh Abdul Mejid Az Zindani (Yemen) April 1994: first Palestinian suicide bomber in Israel (Israel) Oct 1994: Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement begin a series of suicide terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, including 22 people in october 1994, 19 people in january 1995, 58 people in 1996, 24 people in 1997 (mostly suicide bombings) Dec 1994: Hamas terrorists that plotted to overthrow King Hussein are executed (Jordan) Oct 1994: Ilich Ramirez Sanchez ("Carlos the Jackal") is arrested in Sudan by French agents and jailed in France 1994: Ramzi YousefAbdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shahall three ex Afghan fighters working under Kuwait-born Al Qaeda terrorist and Youself's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammedplan terrorist attacks (to blow up several civilian U.S. airplanes over the Pacificto attack the CIA headquarters in the US with a plane loaded with explosivesto blow up two Boeing 747 airliners as they approached Hong Kong from different directionsand to blow up 11 US airliners simultaneously as they attempted to land at various American cities) (Philippines) April 1994: Saudi Arabia strips Osama bin Laden of his Saudi citizenship (Saudi Arabia) May 1994: The West Bank and the Gaza Strip are turned over by Israel to the Palestinian Authority under the command of Yassir Arafatwho isde factorecognized as the leader of the future Palestinian state (Palestine) 1994: the Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signs an agreement to start a peace process with Arafat's Palestinian Authority, which is granted the West Bank and the Gaza Strip 1994: Civil war erupts in Yemen but government troops from the north defeat the secessionist troops from the south 1994: Syria's population is 14 million 1994: One million Egyptian emigrants work in Libya 1994: Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement begin a series of suicide terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians 1994: 270 pilgrims die in a stampede in Mecca Jul 1994: Arafat returns to Palestine and establishes the Palestine National Authority Oct 1994: Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty 1995: Israeli prime minister Rabin is assassinated by a Jewish fundamentalist 1995: Boubacar Ould Messaoud founds SOS Esclaves to fight slavery in Mauritania 1995: Egypt's population is 60 million 1995: Kurdish terrorists carry out their first suicide bombing 1995: ://www.scaruffi.com>Youstol Dispage dies (Pakistan) 1995: A bomb kills 28 people at the headquarters of the Iraqi National Congress in the northern Iraqi region under USA protection (Iraq) 1995: a bomb kills five American soldiers in the capital of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) March 1995: A USA-founded coalition of Chalabi's militiaIraqi general Wafiq al-Samarrai and Talabani's Kurdish militia start a rebellion in northern Iraq but are stopped by Barzani's Kurdish militia and Turkish troops (Iran) 1995: Algerian terrorists of the GIA kill eight people in the Paris metro (France) Nov 1995: Zawahiri's al-Jihad attacks the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan killing 16 people 1995: Fatah security chief in GazaMohammed Dahlanarrests hundreds of members of Hamas (Palestine) Oct 1995: Fathi Shqaqifounder of the Islamic Jihadis assassinated by Israeli agentspossibly with the collaboration of the PLOand is replaced by Ramadan Shalah whose base is in Syria (Malta) Jan 1995: Osama bin Laden terrorists led by Ramzi Youssef and his uncle Khalid Mohammed plan to assassinate the Pope during a visit in Manila (Philippines) June 1995: Osama bin Laden terrorists try to assassinate Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa during his official visit (Ethiopia) Feb 1995: Pakistan and the FBI arrest Ramzi Yousef and uncover terrorist plans against the USbut his uncle Khalid Mohammed escapes to Afghanistan (USA) Nov 1995: Rabin is assassinated by a Jewish fundamentalist (Israel) 1995: The CIA sets up operations in Jordan to overthrow Saddam Hussein with the complicity of Jordanand infiltrates dozens of spies inside Iraq (Jordan) Sep 1996: 80 Palestinian protesters die in clashes with Israeli police on a tunnel opened by Israel under the mosque of Jerusalem (Israel) 1996: Former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar stages a coup against Qaddafi but is defeated and returns to the USA June 1996: Libya massacres 1270 inmates at the Abu Salim prison June 1996: 19 USA soldiers are killed in the bombing of the airforce barracks in Dhahran (Khobar Towers) and evidence points towards Saudi terrorists supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (Saudi Arabia) March 1996: Arafat cracks down on Hamaswhose terrorists are trying to derail the peace process (Palestine) May 1996: Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud party defeats Shimon Peres in the national elections (Israel) June 1996: Following the Khobar Towers attack, Sudan expels Osama bin Laden Feb 1996: Four suicide bombings in nine days from Hamas kill kill 59 Israelis (Israel) Jan 1996: Hamas' engineer of suicide bombing vests Yehiya Ayyash is assassinated by Israel (Palestine) 1996: Hassan Hattab leaves the GIA and founds the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)opposed to murdering civilians (Algeria) April 1996: Israel launches Operation Grapes of Wrath in Lebanon that displaces 400,000 Lebanese and kills more than 100 civiliansincluding 102 women and children killed in the bombing of the Kana refugee center run by the United Nations (Israel) August 1996: Israel lifts all restrictions on settlement building in the West Bank (Israel) August 1996: Osama bin Laden calls for worldwide attacks on USA citizensincluding civilians while his commandos spread around the world from Somalia to the USA, very few remaining in Afghanistan or Sudan June 1996: Osama bin Laden returns to Afghanistan and is welcomed by the warlord of JalalabadMullah Yunus Khalisand starts recruiting the foreign Arab militants still in Afghanistan after the war against the Sovietsand hundreds of wanted terrorists from all over the worldcreating the "055" brigade (Afghanistan) August 1996: Saddam Hussein launches an attack on Kurdistans' capital Erbil requested by Kurdish leader Barzani and his rival Talabani has to abandon the city (Iraq) June 1996: Saddam Hussein orders the arresttorture and execution of more than 100 secret agents of the Iraqi National Accord in Iraq who are preparing to overthrow him (Iraq) 1996: the Libyan Islamic Fighting Groupa fundamentalist Islamic groupcarries out a failed assassination attempt against Qaddafi (Libya) 1996: USA-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki begins preaching at the (USA) 1996: Osama bin Laden calls for worldwide attacks on USA citizens, including civilians, while his commandos spread around the world, from Somalia to the USA 1996: former BBC employees launch "Al Jazeera", the first pan-Arab satellite news channel (from Qatar) 1996: Saddam Hussein foils a coup by Iyad Allawi, who has to flee Iraq 1996: Hundreds of prisoners are killed by police in a jail of Tripoli, Libya, after they stage a protest 1997: 340 pilgrims die in a fire at Mina, Saudi Arabia Jul 1997: Islamic Group renounces violence in Egypt Nov 1997: Islamic terrorists affiliated to Ayman al-Zawahiri attack foreigners in Cairo and Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 people March 1997: A Jordanian soldier kills seven Israeli schoolgirls (Jordan) Sep 1997: An Israeli team fails to assassinate one of the founders of HamasKhaled Mashaland has to release Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin in exchange for Jordan to release its secret agents (Jordan) March 1997: Benjamin Netanyahu authorizes a Jewish settlement at Har Homathat cuts off Palestinians of Jerusalem from Betlehemand a few days later a suicide bomber kills three people in a Tel Aviv cafe (Israel) May 1997: Mohammad Khatamia moderateis elected president with 67% of the popular vote (Iran) 1997: Mohammed Dalanthe leader of Fatah in Gazais accused of having ammassed a personal fortune by stealing from levied taxes (Palestine) Jul 1997: Saudi police kills hundreds of Iranian fundamentalist pilgrims at Mecca's Grand Mosque (Saudi Arabia) March 1997: two bombs fail to kill Osama bin Laden but kill 50 people in Jalalabadand Osama bin Laden moves to Kandaharthe Taliban's stronghold (and site of its supreme leaderMulla Omar) (Afghanistan) Jul 1997: Two suicide bombers kill 16 people at the Mahane Yehuda market (Israel) Oct 1997: upset by a failed assassination attempt by Israeli secret agents against Hamas' leader in Jordan (Khaled Mishal)that threatens the peace treaty between the two countriesJordan's King Hussein demands and obtains the release of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (Palestine) August 1998: Al Qaeda terrorists led by Fazul Abdullah Mohammed destroy the American embassieskilling 213 people in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania (very few Americansmany Muslims)the latter carried out by Ahmed Khalfan Gailani (Kenya & Tanzania) 1998: Egyptian student Mohammed Atta and Yemeni terrorist Ramzi Binalshibhwho reports to Kuwaiti terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammedbecome roommates in Hamburgand Atta becomes the leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist cell in Germany (Germany) Feb 1998: Harakat ul-Mujahidinled by Fazlur Rehman Khalilwho has contacts with Osama Bin Ladencalls for attacks against the US (Pakistan) Feb 1998: military confrontation between Saddam Hussein and the United States after Iraq halts all work by United Nations arms inspectors (Iraq) Feb 1998: Zawahiri joins Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda Aug 1998: terrorists affiliated with Osama bin Laden blow up the USA embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 223 people Feb 1998: Osama bin Laden announces the creation of the "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders"an international alliance of terrorist organizationsincluding Al Qaedathe Egyptian Islamic Jihadand the Pakistan-based Jamiat-ul-Ulemaand Muhammad Atif (aka Subhi Abu Sittaaka Abu Hafs Al Masri) is named commander of their military operations (Afghanistan) Dec 1998: the U.S. and the U.K. bomb Iraq because Iraq is not allowing United Nations inspectors to resume their joband Clinton authorizes a program to overthrow Saddam Hussein ("As long as Saddam remains in powerhe will remain a threat to his peoplehis region and the world") (Iraq) August 1998: the U.S. bombs Sudan for helping terrorists and Afghanistan's camps where Osama bin Laden trains his militants Dec 1998: USA president Clinton lands at Gaza's new internatinal airportthe first USA president to visit Palestine (Palestine) january 1998: Yousef is sentenced to 240 years for his role in the World Trade Center bombing (USA) 1998: Emile Lahoud is appointed president of Lebanon 1999: Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the candidate of general Khaled Nezzar, is elected president of Algeria after all other candidates withdraw or are disqualified 1999: the Islamic rebels enter peace talks with the Algerian government after 150 thousand people have been killed in the civil war 1999: King Hussein of Jordan dies and is succeeded by his son Abdullah 1999: Morocco's king Hassan II dies and is succeeded by his son Mohammed VI 1999: Abdelaziz Bouteflika is elected president of Algeria after all other candidates withdraw or are disqualified (Algeria) Dec 1999: Ahmed Ressaman Algerian terrorist with links to Afghanistantries to enter the US and bomb the Los Angeles airport (USA) 1999: Al Zarqawi is released in an amnesty by the Jordanian government and flees to Afghanistan (Jordan) May 1999: Ehud Barak campaigns on a peace platform and is elected prime minister of Israel (Israel) August 1999: Jordan expels Khaled Mashal/ Meshaalone of the foundes of Hamas (Jordan) Dec 1999: Jordanian police arrests terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden planning attacks against western tourists (Jordan) Feb 1999: King Hussein of Jordan dies and is succeeded by his son Abdullah (Jordan) 1999: London-based Egyptian-born radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri tries to establish a terrorist-training camp in OregonUSA (USA) Oct 1999: Osama bin Laden calls for a jihad against India over the disputed territory of Kashmir (India) August 1999: pro-democracy riots in Iranfollowing the arrest of pro-democracy intellectuals and the closure of newspapers by ultraconservative ayatollah Khameini (Iran) 1999: The GIA and the AIS approve peace talks with the Algerian government (150,000 people have been killed in the civil war since 1992) (Algeria) 1992: Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani outs his father and becomes the new emir of Qatar, a state with 50,000 people 1992: Abu al-Suri moves to Spain and forms the Islamic think-tank al-Ansar 1999: with the approval of Osama bin LadenKuwaiti terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammedhead of Al Qaeda's military committee in Afghanistanplans a terrorist attack inside the USA and assigns it to Yemeni terrorist Ramzi Binalshibhwho recruits a terrorist cell in Germany (his housemate Atta and others) (Afghanistan) Oct 1999: Someone deliberately crashes EgyptAir Flight 990 off the coast of the USA killing all 217 people on board 2000: 70% of Palestinian children interviewed by the Arab psychologist Fadal Abu-Hin want to become martyrs (Palestine) Jul 2000: Arafat and prime minister Ehud Barak of Israel fail to reach a peace accord at Camp David mainly on the status of Jerusalem (Palestine) Sep 2000: As peace talks break downa visit of Ariel Sharon to a holy Muslim site near Jerusalem causes widespread riots among Palestinians (Palestine) June 2000: Assad of Syria dies and is succeeded by his son Bashir (Syria) Oct 2000: Islamic terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden attack an American aircraft off the port of Aden killing 17 sailors (the bomb was made by Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah and delivered through the radical cleric Sheik Abdul Majid Zandani under the supervision of Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri) (Yemen) June 2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon (Lebanon) Jul 2000: Mohammed Atta and the other members of his cell move to the USAwhere they take flight lessons (USA) Sep 2000: the new "intifada" rapidly escalates and gets out of control (319 Israelis will be killed by suicide bombers by april 2002) (Palestine) 2000: Assad of Syria dies and is succeeded by his son Bashir 2000: Saad Eddin Ibrahim is arrested by Egypt and the Ibn Khaldun Center is shut down 2000: a second "intifada" is started after Israeli-Palestinian negotiations break down 2000: 70% of Palestinian children interviewed by the Arab psychologist Fadal Abu-Hin want to become martyrs Oct 2000: The "Dubai Internet City" opens in the United Emirates 2001: Algerian suicide bombers kill Ahmad Shah Mas'ud, the leader of the anti-Taliban resistance or "Northern Alliance" 2001: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 2001: suicide bombings in several Israeli cities are carried out by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon retaliates with bombings, assassinations and invasions Sep 2001: The military leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Masood/Mas'ud/ Massoud, is killed by Algerian suicide bombers 2001: The Gulf states of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) pledge to adopt a unified currency 2001: The United Arab Emirates post an average growth rate of 14.8% between 2001 and 2008, with Dubai alone posting an average 21.9% growth rate. 2001: The USA signs free-trade agreements with Jordan Dec 2001: Al Zarqawi flees Afghanistan and moves to Iran (Afghanistan) Feb 2001: Ariel Sharon wins the elections and becomes prime minister of Israel (Israel) Oct 2001: Ayman al-Zawahri issues a videotape in which he claims that Andalusia (southern Spain) must return to the Muslims (Afghanistan) Sep 2001: Interpol issues a warrant for Ayman al-Zawahrinow considered Osama Bin Laden's number two man and main ideologue of his organization (France) Sep 2001: Islamic terrorists led by Mohammed Atta hijack four planes that crash into the Pentagon and the World Trade Centerkilling 4,000 people (USA) 2001: Khaled Meshaala member of Hamasmoves to Damascus to avoid assassination by Israel (Palestine) Nov 2001: Mahmoud Abu Hanoudleader of the Hamas military wing in the West Bankis killed by an Israeli missile (Palestine) Dec 2001: Osama bin Laden escapes from Tora Bora (Afghanistan) Oct 2001: Pakistan arrests Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmoodthe forner director of its nuclear programunder suspicion that he may have provided nuclear information to Osama Bin Laden (Pakistan) Sep 2001: reports emerge that Osama Bin Laden's network of terrorists may be planning chemical and/or biological attacks on the American population (USA) Dec 2001: Richard Reid (the "shoe bomber") tries to blow up a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami (USA) 2001: Sharon retaliates against the new Palestinian intifada and growing numbers of suicide bombings and thousands of Palestinians are killed (including assassinations of influential Palestinians) in the worst fighting since the first intifada (Israel) June 2001: suicide bombings in several Israeli cities are carried out by Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) and the Syria-based Islamic Jihad (the deadliest suicide bombings kill 20 people in june 200115 people in august 2001over 20 in november) (Palestine) August 2002: Abu Nidal is assassinated in Baghdadamid rumours that he was plotting a coup against Saddam Hussein (Iraq) 2002: Abu al-Suri publishes "Call for the Worldwide Islamic Resistance" March 2002: Abu Zubaydaha Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia and a chief operative of Al Qaedais captured in Pakistan and reveals that Kuwaiti terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the September 11 attacks (Pakistan) May 2002: Al Qaeda targets French citizens in Karachi and kills 12 people (Pakistan) March 2002: Al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Mansour Jabarah is arrested in Oman and reveals plans by Al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah to attack bars and discos popular with westerners in Southeast Asia (his associates Omar al-Faruq and Riduan Isamuddin Hambali are still at large) (Oman) Mar 2002: 15 schoolgirls are killed in a fire because they are forbidden to run out without proper Islamic dress April 2002: Al Qaeda terrorists kill 25 people at a synagogue in Tunisia Nov 2002: Al Qaeda terrorists loyal to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed carry out an attack against Israeli tourists in Kenya (Kenya) May 2002: Al Zarqawi is expelled from Iran and relocates to Iraq (Iraq) Feb 2002: dozens of foreign Islamic scholars are expelled as part of a crackdown on suspected al-Qaeda members (Yemen) Jan 2002: former militia leader Elie Hobeika is killed in Beirut (Lebanon) Sep 2002: in retaliation for suicide bombings in IsraelIsraeli troops demolish Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah (Palestine) 2002: Israel begins construction of a 360-km border fence ("security barrier") that annexes Palestinian land (Israel) April 2002: Israel invades Palestinian territory and arrests thousands of suspected terroristsincluding Marwan Barghoutimembers of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)now led by Ahmad Jibriland the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)now led by Ahmed Sa'adat (Israel) March 2002: Israel is hit by 16 suicide bombings that kill 80 people ("Passover massacres") carried out by suicide bombers of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (possibly under the control of Marwan Barghouti) (Israel) June 2002: Omar al-Faruqa Kuwaiti member of Al-Qaeda and of Jemaah Islamiyahis arrested in Indonesiaand reveals plans to attack targets in SingaporeMalaysia and Indonesia (Indonesia) Jul 2002: Salah Shehada, founder and leader of the military wing of Hamas (Izz ad-Din al Qassam brigades), is assassinated by an Israeli missile that also kills 15 civilians Dec 2002: the CIA foils a plan by Al Zarqawi's group to carry out poison attacks in several European capitals (Western Europe) March 2002: the League of Arab States approves a proposal by Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and make peace in return for all the occupied lands (Lebanon) 2002: the population of Israel is 6 millionof which 1 million are Arabs; the population of the West Bank and Gaza is 3 million; and Palestinian birthrates are much higher than Jewish ones (Israel) Nov 2002: the USA kills Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi (Abu Ali)one of Al Qaeda's top operativesand capture Al Qaeda's chief of operations in the Persian GulfAbd al-Rahim al-Nashiri (Yemen) Dec 2002: USA-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki moves from the USA to Britain (USA) Sep 2002: Yemeni terrorist Ramzi Binalshibhsuspected of being the link between Al Qaeda and the September 11 cellis arrested in Pakistan (Pakistan) Nov 2002: Youssef Aayyiri becomes commander of Al Qaeda in the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia) 2002: the Kurdish independence movement PKK changes name to "Kurdish Freedom and Democracy Congress" (KADEK) 2003: George W Bush orders the invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein, following which hundreds of people are killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq, with Sunnis fighting the USA and Shiites (especially Al-Sadr's Mahdi militias) killing both Sunnis and the USA 2003: 34 people die in a suicide bombing attack on westerners in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia May 2003: 45 people are killed by a suicide bombing attack on westerners in Casablanca, Morocco, carried out by members of Al Qaeda's affiliate Salafia Jihadia 2003: Hamas and Al-Aqka Brigades unleash five suicide attacks within 48 hours in Israel the day after the first meeting between Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas 2003: Militias of cleric Moktada Al-Sadr kill rival cleric Majeed Al-Khoei who just returned from his exile in Iran 2003: 17 people die in a suicide bombing attack on foreign Arab workers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2003: terrorists attack an Italian peacekeepers' base in Nasiriya, Iraq 2003: The Egyptian government allows the Ibn Khaldun Center, founded in 1988 by Saad Eddin Ibrahim to promote democracy in the Arab world, to reopen (Near International) 2003: Qaddafi of Libya admits a broad program of weapons of mass destruction and accepts to destroy it in return for an end to USA sanctions 2003: Jordanian terrorist Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi begins a campaign of terror in Iraq May 2003: Hamas and Al-Aqka Brigades unleash five suicide attacks within 48 hours in Israel the day after the first meeting between Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Israel) Nov 2003: 17 people die in a suicide bombing attack on foreign Arab workers in RiyadhSaudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) May 2003: 34 people die in a suicide bombing attack on westerners in RiyahdSaudi Arabiaand Saudi Arabia kills Youssef Aayyirithe commander of Al Qaeda in the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia) May 2003: 41 people die in a suicide bombing attack on westerners in CasablancaMoroccocarried out by Al Qaeda-affiliate Salafia Jihadia (Morocco) Jan 2003: 47 soldiers are killed in an ambush by Islamic terroriststhe worst carnage in six years (Algeria) April 2003: Abu Abbas is captured by the USA in Baghdad (Iraq) August 2003: Abu Musab Al Zarqawi begins a terrorist campaign against the USA occupation of Iraq and their Shiite and Kurdish allies (Iraq) Oct 2003: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula launches the Internet magazine "Voice of Jihad" (Saudi Arabia) March 2003: Ibrahim al-Maqadmaa senior leader of Hamasis killed by an Israeli missile (Palestine) Feb 2003: Israel increases its raids in Gaza and the West Bank to quell the two-year-old intifada that has already cost the lives of 1,800 Palestinians and 700 Israelis (Palestine) April 2003: Israel sentences Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti to jail August 2003: Israeli air strikes kill members of Hamas' military wing (Israel) 2003: Jamaican-born Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal is arrested for urging Muslims worldwide to kill JewsHindus and Christians (Britain) Feb 2003: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is arrested at the house of Ahmed Abdul Qadoosa leader of Pakistan's party Jamaat-e-Islami (Pakistan) August 2003: Libya accepts responsibility for the Lockerbie terrorist bombing and accepts to pay reparation to the families (Libya) March 2003: Mahmoud Abbasa critic of the Palestinian intifadais appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (Palestine) 2003: Nabil Sahraouileader of the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)announces an alliance with Al Qaeda (Algeria) March 2003: over 85 people are killed by a car bomb in the holy city of Najaf (Iraq) Dec 2003: Qaddafi of Libya admits a broad program of weapons of mass destruction and accepts to destroy it in return for an end to USA sanctions (Libya) Dec 2003: Saddam Hussein is arrested by the USA while he was hiding in a hole (Iraq) 2003: Sayf Adel becomes Al Qaeda's military commander (Afghanistan) Nov 2003: terrorists attack an Italian peacekeepers' base in NasiriyaIraq (Iraq) March 2003: terrorists blow up the United Nations building in Baghdadkilling 23 people (Iraq) March 2003: the USA and the UK invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power (Iraq) 2003: Mokhtar Belmokhtar earns millions of dollars in ransoms when he kidnaps 32 European tourists in Algeria Feb 2004: 181 Shia Muslims die in terrorist attacks in Karbala and Baghdad during the yearly holy festivaland the civil war escalates (Iraq) March 2004: 202 people are killed by synchronized bombs planted on trains near Madrid by Islamic terrorists (led by Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet and Rabei Osman Ahmed)andtwo days latertheir targetprime minister Jose Maria Aznaris defeated by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapaterothe first time that Islamic terrorists decide the outcome of a European election (Spain) March 2004: 23 people are killed by terrorist attacks in Tashkent and Bukhara (Uzbekistan) Feb 2004: 43 Shiite Muslims die in a bombing masterminded by Khalid's nephew Musaad Aruchi (Pakistan) April 2004: a car bomb explodes in Saudi Arabia's capital (Saudi Arabia) 2004: a Shiite Muslim rebellion led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi erupts in Yemen that will kill thousands over the next four years (Yemen) 2004: Qassem Suleimani's al-Quds funds and arms the Shiite militias in Iraq like the Mahdi Army to fight the USA March 2004: Abdulaziz al Muqrin (Abu Hajjer) becomes Al Qaeda's commander in Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) March 2004: Abu Abbas dies in USA custody (Iraq) Nov 2004: Arafat dies and is replaced by Muhammad Abbas as chairman of the PLOwho wins the first multi-party elections in Palestine (Palestine) April 2004: Britain foils a chemical terrorist attack by Islamic extremists in London (Britain) March 2004: Britain foils a massive terrorist attack by Islamic extremists in London (Britain) 2004: car bombs set by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorists and by Saddam Hussein loyalists explode in several cities of Iraq killing hundreds of civilians (Iraq) Jul 2004: co-ordinated bombings by the Islamic Jihad Union target the USA and Israeli embassies in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) 2004: Djibouti becomes a counter-terrorism base for the USA (Djibouti) Oct 2004: Islamic fundamentalists kill 16 people (Algeria) Oct 2004: Islamic terrorists attack an Egyptian hotel killing 34 people (Egypt) April 2004: Israel kills Hamas' leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (Palestine) March 2004: Israel kills Hamas' spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassinwho is replaced by Khaled Meshaal (Palestine) April 2004: Jordan foils a terrorist attack by Islamic extremist Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi that would have detonated a chemical bomb (Jordan) 2004: Khalid's nephew Musaad Aruchi is arrested (Pakistan) May 2004: London-based Egyptian-born radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is arrested (Britain) June 2004: Rabei Osman Ahmedmastermind of the Madrid bombingis arrested in Italy (Italy) April 2004: Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet blows himself up rather than surrender to the police (Spain) Feb 2004: Sharon announces Israeli's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza (Israel) May 2004: terrorists attack a compound for foreigners in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Khobar killing 22 people (Saudi Arabia) Dec 2004: terrorists attack the USA consulate in Jeddahand then two bombs explode in the capital (Saudi Arabia) June 2004: the Algerian army kills the leader of the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC)Nabil Sahraoui (Algeria) June 2004: the head of Al Qaeda in Saudi ArabiaAbdul Aziz al-Muqrinis killed by the police and Saleh al-Oufi succeeds him (Saudi Arabia) 2004: The Islamic terrorists of Algeria under the command of Abdelmalek Droukda join Al Qaeda (Algeria) March 2004: the Philippines foil a massive terrorist attack by Abu Sayyaf against stations and malls in Manila (Uzbekistan) August 2004: two bus bombs kill 15 people in Israel (Palestine) Jan 2004: USA-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki moves from Britain to Yemen (Yemen) Sep 2004: Yemeni forces kill fundamentalist cleric Hussein al-Houthi and hundreds of his supporters (Yemen) 2004: dozens of Iraqi Kurds are killed by suicide bombers of the Muslim militant group Ansar al-Islam (affiliated with Al Qaeda) 2004: Dubai begins construction of Burj Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world 2004: 251 pilgrims die in a stampede at Mina, Saudi Arabia 2004: the USA calls for Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 2004: 244 people die in a A stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia 2004: 181 Shia Muslims die in terrorist attacks in Karbala and Baghdad (Iraq) during the yearly holy festival 2004: 50 Shias die in terrorist attacks in Basra Baghdad (Iraq) 2004: in one year, about 300 thousand bodies have been found buried in mass graves, victims of Saddam Hussein's regime 2004: former exile Iyad Allawi is named prime minister of Iraq by the USA 2004: terrorists attack a compound for foreigners in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Khobar killing 22 people 2004: car bombs set by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorists and by Saddam Hussein loyalists explode in several cities of Iraq killing hundreds of civilians 2004: the USA and Britain admit that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (which was the reason to invade Iraq) 2004: Islamic fundamentalists kill 16 people in Algeria 2004: Arafat dies and is replaced by Muhammad Abbas as chairman of the PLO 2004: Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan dies and his son Khalifa ibn-Zayed succeeds him as president of the United Arab Emirates 2004: the first "Democratic Forum for Arab Women" is held in Yemen 2004: Arafat dies in France, of causes that are kept secret (probably AIDS), and is replaced by Muhammad Abbas as chairman of the PLO, who wins the first multi-party elections in Palestine 2004: Dubai International Capital is established as the foreign investment arm of Dubai 2004: a Shiite rebellion led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi erupts in Yemen (the Houthis), that will kill thousands over the next four years 2004: Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of the UAE dies and is succeeded by his son Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan 2004: The Zaydis of North Yemen begin an insurrection under the leadership of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi 2004: Hamas uses a female suicide bomber for the first time Mar 2004: Egyptian dissidents Abd El-Fattah and Manal Bahey El-Din Hassan launch the blog Manalaa Dec 2004: The Kifaya movement protests against Mubarak in front of Cairo’s High Court Dec 2004: Osama bin Laden appoints Zarqawi as the leader of a new group, al Qaeda in Mesopotamia 2005: Muhammad Abbas wins the first democratic elections in Palestine and restarts peace negotiations with Israel 2005: the first democratic elections in Iraq are won by an alliance of Shiite parties (48%), followed by an alliance of Kurdish parties (26%) and by the party of prime minister Allawi (14%) 2005: car bombs and suicide bombers kill hundreds of Iraqis every month 2005: the Iraqi parliament elects a Shiite, Ibrahim Jaafari, prime minister, and a Kurd, Jalal Talabani, president 2005: Egyptian archeologists discover the funerary complex at Hierakonpolis, dating from 3600 BC 2005: street demonstrations ("Cedar Revolution") force Syrian troops to leave Lebanon 2005: the Gulf states of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) meet in Bahrein to discuss a unified currency and a free trade zone with the USA 2005: more than 8 thousand people are killed in Iraq by suicide bombings, car bombings and shootings in the first six months of 2005 2005: Hundreds of thousands of people (mainly from Asia) are still sold into slavery in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar 2005: The opposition wins the first free elections in Lebanon since the civil war and Fouad Siniora, Rafik Hariri's right-hand man, becomes the new prime minister 2005: suicide bombers kill 83 people at the tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt 2005: riots caused by an increase in the price of gasoline kill more than 30 people in Yemen 2005: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies and is replaced by his half brother Prince Abdullah 2005: the price of oil jumps from $35 at the beginning of the year to an all-time record of $67 a barrel 2005: 965 shia pilgrims die in a stampede at Baghdad, Iraq 2005: Israel withdraws from the Gaza strip after 38 years of occupation 2005: thousands are arrested after riots erupt in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara 2005: a campaign of bombings targets anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon 2005: Ghazi Kenaan, Syria's interior minister, who effectively controlled Lebanon for two decades, "commits suicide" 2005: Iraqi suicide bombers affiliated with Abu Musib al-Zarqawi kill 57 people in three Amman hotels 2005: Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon founds a new centrist party 2005: Lebanese anti-Syrian politician Gibran Tueni is killed by a car bomb 2005: Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat is jailed for selling thousands of tons of chemicals that Saddam Hussein's Iraq used to build chemical weapons 2005: Anti-USA conservative cleric Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins presidential elections in Iran and calls for the destruction of Israel (Iran) 2005: car bombs set by Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorists and by Saddam Hussein loyalists kill hundreds of civilians in Iraq (Iraq) Jan 2005: Muhammad Abbas wins the first democratic elections in Palestine and restarts peace negotiations with Israel (Palestine) Jan 2005: the first democratic elections in Iraq are won by an alliance of Shiite parties (48%), followed by an alliance of Kurdish parties (26%) and by the party of prime minister Allawi (14%) (Iraq) Feb 2005: Israel and Palestinians declare a truce (Israel) Feb 2005: a car bomb kills former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Haririwho opposed Syrian occupation of the country and street demonstrations force the resignation of the Syria-installed government (Lebanon) Feb 2005: Hezbollah militants kill former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni who opposed Syrian occupation of the country April 2005: Palestinians claim that Israel killed hundreds of civilians in the Jenin refugee campbut it turns out to be a lie (the death were 23 Israeli soldiers22 Palestinian civilians and 30 Palestinian fighters) (Palestine) April 2005: popular demonstrations ("Cedar Revolution") force Syrian troops to leave Lebanon (Lebanon) April 2005: Vladimir Putin is the first Russian president to visit Israel (Israel) June 2005: The opposition wins the first free elections in Lebanon since the civil war (Lebanon) Jul 2005: suicide bombers kill 83 people at the tourist resort of Sharm el-SheikEgypt (Egypt) Jul 2005: four Pakistani suicide bombers kill 55 people in London and Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad is expelled from Britain for supporting the terrorist bombings (Britain) August 2005: police kill Saleh AwfiAl Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) August 2005: Britain bans Hizb ut-Tahrir members (Britain) August 2005: 350 bombs are detonated by Islamic fundamentalists of Jamayetul Mujahedin (Bangladesh) August 2005: 434 bombs by Islamic terrorists of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen target politiciansjournalists and judges in Bangladesh (Bangladesh) Sep 2005: The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes cartoons that satirize the founder of Islam Sep 2005: Israel withdraws from the Gaza strip (Israel) Sep 2005: a Palestinian terrorist accidentally sets off a bomb in a crowded Palestinian areakilling 22 people (Palestine) Oct 2005: Ghazi KenaanSyria's interior ministerwho effectively controlled Lebanon for two decades"commits suicide" (Syria) Nov 2005: Iraqi suicide bombers affiliated with Abu Musib al-Zarqawi kill 57 people in three Amman hotels (Jordan) Nov 2005: Seven people are killed by Islamic terrorists of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen in Bangladeshthe first suicide bombing in the country's history (Bangladesh) Nov 2005: Australia foils a terrorist attackarresting 17 people including Muslim cleric Abu Bakr (Australi) Nov 2005: Frank Wuterich and other US soldiers kill 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha Nov 2005: The Muslim Brotherhood is allowed to run in parliamentary elections in Egypt and wins more votes than the democratic party founded by dissident Ayman Nour Dec 2005: Lebanese anti-Syrian politician Gibran Tueni is killed by a car bomb (Lebanon) Nov 2005: Sharon founds a new centrist party in Israel (Israel) 2006: 34,452 Iraq civilians are killed in 2006 (Iraq) 2006: China inaugurates the Three Gorges Dam April 2006: a suicide bomber by Islamic Jihad kills nine people in Israelthe first major terrorist attack since Hamas won the elections (Israel) June 2006: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by USA bombs in Iraq (Iraq) Sep 2006: Al Jazeera broadcasts a video of 2001 in which Osama bin Laden is shown planning the terrorist attacks on the USA (Qatar) August 2006: Al Qaeda strikes an alliance with the Algerian terrorists of the Groupe Salafiste pour la Predication et le Combat (GSPC) and declares war against France (Algeria) Feb 2006: Bangladesh arrests Abdur Rahmanleader of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (Bangladesh) March 2006: Five US soldiers (Paul Cortez, James Barker, Jesse Spielman, Brian Howard and Steven Green) gang-rape and kill 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and then murder her and her entire family in Mahmudiyah April 2006: bombs kill 23 people at the tourist resort of DahabEgypt (Egypt) August 2006: British police disrupts a plot by Islamic terrorists led by Abdulla Ahmed Ali to blow up seven planes in flight from the Britain to the US (Britain) June 2006: Canadian police arrests 18 Islamic radicalsinspired by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlakiwho are planning targets in and around Toronto (Canada) March 2006: in march alone1313 Iraqi civilians are victims of sectarian violence (Iraq) Jun 2006: After Israeli bombings have killed dozens of Palestinians, Hamas captures an Israeli soldier, Gilat Shalit Jul 2006: in response to an incursion by Hezbollah militants, Israel invades southern Lebanon killing more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians while Hezbollah kills 116 Israeli soldiers and 43 Israeli civilians (Lebanon) March 2006: in the first Israeli elections after prime minister Sharon suffered a strokehis new party Kadima becomes the biggest party and Ehud Olmert the new prime minister (Israel) Jan 2006: Israel's prime minister Sharon suffers a stroke (Israel) June 2006: Israeli artillery is blamed by Palestinians for the massacre of a family on a beach near Beit Lahiya (Israel) August 2006: Israeli forces withdraw after expelling Hezbollah from southern Lebanon and the Lebanese army takes control for the first time of the region (Lebanon) Nov 2006: Lebanese Christian politician Pierre Gemayel is assassinated (Lebanon) April 2006: Lebanon arrests people who were plotting to assassinate the leader of HezbollahHassan Nasrallah (Lebanon) 2006: more than 350 Palestinians are killed in internal fighting in Gaza after Israel withdraws (Palestine) August 2006: Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki is arrested in Yemen (Yemen) 2006: Nouri al-Maliki forms a government of national unity in Iraq (Iraq) August 2006: Palestinian militants declare a unilateral end to attacks against Israel (Palestine) Dec 2006: Saddam Hussein is executed in Iraq for the crimes committed by his regime (Iraq) 2006: Taliban militants adopt the suicide attacks used by insurgents in Iraq and launch 78 suicide bombings across Afghanistan in the first nine monthskilling close to 200 people (Afghanistan) Jan 2006: terrorist group Hamas wins the first multi-party elections in Palestine and its leader Ismail Haniya becomes the new prime minister (Palestine) Feb 2006: The leader of Al Qaeda in Saudi ArabiaFahd Bin Faraj Al Joweiris killed by the police (Saudi Arabia) March 2006: two terrorists are killed in Saudi Arabia before they could detonate bombs against the Abqaiq oil complex (Saudi Arabia) 2006: 362 Muslim pilgrims are killed in a crush during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia 2006: Sectarian violence kills on average 180 people per day in Iraq 2006: terrorist group Hamas, famous for suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians, wins the first multi-party elections in Palestine and its leader Ismail Haniya becomes the new prime minister 2006: Muslims riot worldwide because a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Mohammed 2006: in the first Israeli elections after prime minister Sharon suffered a stroke, his new party Kadima becomes the biggest party and Ehud Olmert the new prime minister 2006: a ferry capsizes in Egypt killing about 1 thousand people 2006: Sunni terrorists in Iraq blow up the golden dome of Samarra's Al-Askareyya Shrine 2006: two terrorists are killed in Saudi Arabia before they could detonate bombs against the Abqaiq oil complex 2006: in march alone, 1313 Iraqi civilians are victims of sectarian violence 2006: bombs kill 23 people at the tourist resort of Dahab, Egypt 2006: Nouri al-Maliki forms a government of national unity in Iraq 2006: Abu Musib al-Zarqawi is killed in Iraq 2006: in response to an incursion by Hezbollah militants, Israel invades southern Lebanon killing more than 1 thousand Lebanese civilians while Hezbollah kills 116 Israeli soldiers and 43 Israeli civilians 2006: the opposition wins parliamentary elections in Kuwait 2006: Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon without having destroyed Hezbollah 2006: Muslims riot worldwide against anti-Islamic comments made by Pope Benedict 2006: Lebanese Christian politician Pierre Gemayel is assassinated 2006: more than 350 Palestinians are killed in internal fighting in Gaza after Israel withdraws 2006: Saddam Hussein is executed in Iraq for the crimes committed by his regime 2006: 34,452 Iraqi civilians are killed in 2006 2006: Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum dies and is succeeded by his brother Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as ruler of Dubai 2006: The USA signs free-trade agreements with Morocco, Oman and Bahrain 2006: Shiite militias kill an average of 50 Sunnis a day by power drills inserted in their skulls 2006: Serial killer Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour is arrested in Egypt after raping and killing 32 homeless children Oct 2006: Dozens of protesting women are assaulted on the streets of Cairo by pro-government gangs Oct 2006: Abd Al Moneim Mahmoud in Egypt launches the blog Ana Ikhwan ("I am the Muslim Brotherhood") 2007: the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) renames itself as Al Qaeda In The Maghreb and begins a campaign of terrorist attacks in Algeria Nov 2007: Fadl publishes "Rationalizing Jihad" that renounces violence against Christians and Jews and condemns Al Qaeda's terrorist attacks in the West 2007: Hamas and Fatah fight in the streets of Gaza 2007: Hamas militants shoot rockets at Israel 2007: Lebanon's militant group Fatah Islam kills 23 soldiers in clashes in Tripoli's Palestinian refugee camp 2007: Former British prime minister Tony Blair is appointed Middle Eastern envoy on behalf of the USA, Russia, the UN and the EU 2007: seven western tourists are killed by a suicide bomber in Yemen 2007: the Taliban carry out more than 140 suicide attacks 2007: the price of oil reaches an all-time record of $83 a barrel 2007: Al Qaeda carries out more than 30 suicide bombings per month in Iraq 2007: Al Qaeda bombs kill 62 people in Algiers 2007: Iraqis have suffered from 667 suicide attacks since may 2005 Jan 2007: the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) renames itself as Al Qaeda In The Maghreb and begins a campaign of terrorist attacks in Algeria (Algeria) 2007: ://www.scaruffi.com>Youstol Dispage dies (Pakistan) April 2007: A bomba by Al Qaeda In The Maghreb kills 33 people in Algiers (Algeria) June 2007: a car bomb kills five United Nations peacekeepers (Lebanon) Sep 2007: a car bomb kills the third anti-Syrian politician in a yearleaving Lebanon's government with only a slim majority over the pro-Syrian opposition (Lebanon) Jul 2007: a suicide bomber kills 10 Algerian soldiers (Algeria) Jul 2007: a suicide bomber kills 7 Spanish tourists (Yemen) May 2007: al-Qaeda's second-in-commandAyman al-Zawahricalls on Muslims in North Africa to cleanse their lands of Spanish and French citizens (Afghanistan) 2007: at the peak Al Qaeda carries out more than 30 suicide bombings per month in Iraq (Iraq) May 2007: Britain releases Jamaican-born Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal and deports him to Jamaica (Britain) April 2007: British Muslims are convicted of planning to attack civilian targets with a giant fertiliser bomb (Britain) April 2007: Hamas and the al-Qassam Brigades break a truce with Israel with a sustained barrage of rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel (Palestine) April 2007: Saudi Arabia foils a suicide terrorist attack against its oil fields and military bases (Saudi Arabia) May 2007: Hamas militants shoot rockets at Israel (Israel) May 2007: Lebanon's militant group Fatah Islaminspired by radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad kills 23 soldiers in clashes in Tripoli's Palestinian refugee campbut the army eventually regains control of the camp killing 400 people (Lebanon) June 2007: dozens of militants are killed as Hamas defeats Fatah and takes control of Gaza (Palestine) June 2007: explosives-rigged cars are found in London (Britain) June 2007: former British prime minister Tony Blair is appointed Middle Eastern envoy on behalf of the USARussiathe UN and the EU (Britain) Jul 2007: seven western tourists are killed by a suicide bomber in Yemen (Yemen) Sep 2007: suicide bomber kills 20 in Batna and 28 in DellysAlgeria (Algeria) Sep 2007: Denmark arrests Muslims who were plotting a terrorist attack (Denmark) Sep 2007: Mercenaries from Blackwater hired by the USA as "guards" in Iraq massacre 17 unarmed civilians at Baghdad's Nisour Square Sep 2007: Osama bin Laden urges a revolution against Musharraf in Pakistan (Pakistan) Sep 2007: Israel bombs a secret nuclear site in Syria built with help from North Korea (Algeria) Sep 2007: Israel strikes targets inside Syria for the first time since 2003 (Syria) Nov 2007: Saudi Arabia thwarts several planned terrorist attacks and arrests 208 Al Qaeda terrorists (Saudi Arabia) Dec 2007: Almost 8 thousand people are killed in terrorist attacks in one year in Iraq (peak of the Iraqi civil war) Dec 2007: 37 people are killed by two bombs in Algiers (Algeria) Dec 2007: 68 countries in Paris pledge billions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians (France) Dec 2007: Almost 8,000 people are killed in terrorist attacks in one year in Iraq (peak of the Iraqi civil war) (Iraq) Dec 2007: Lebanon's general Francois al-Hajj who had led the attack against the group Fatah Islam is killed by a car bomb while the parties cannot agree on a new president (Lebanon) Dec 2007: Iraqis have suffered from 667 suicide attacks since may 2005 (Iraq) Dec 2007: Iraqis have suffered from 667 suicide attacks since may 2005 (Iraq) Dec 2007: Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki is released by Yemen (Yemen) 2007: suicide bombers launched a campaign of terror in Afghanistan similar to the one staged in Iraq (Afghanistan) 2007: The population of Gaza has increased from one million people in 1997 to 1.4 million in just ten years (Palestine) Jul 2007: the USA accuses Iran of helping insurgents kill USA soldiers in Iraq (Iraq) May 2007: The USA arrests six radical Muslims whoinspired by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlakiare plotting to stage an attack on the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey (three ethnic Albanians from Macedoniaa Palestinian from Jordana Turk and an Albanian from Kosovo) (USA) Sep 2007: Turkish-born members of the Islamic Jihad Union are arrested while they are planning an attack against a USA military base (Germany) Jul 2007: USA government agencies declare that Al Qaeda has regrouped in Pakistan and that the terrorist threat against the USA has increased (USA) Dec 2007: USA president Bush convenes a conference at Annapolis to start talks about an independent Palestinian state (USA) Mar 2008: Iran's Suleimani helps arrange a ceasefire between the Iraqi Army and the Mahdi Army Sep 2008: A car bomb kills 17 people in Syria (Syria) Feb 2008: A car bomb kills Hezbollah's military chief Imad Mughniyeh while he is in Syria August 2008: A roadside bomb by Fatah Islam kills 18 people in TripoliLebanon (Lebanon) August 2008: A roadside bomb kills more than 20 people in Somalia's capital Mogadishu (Somalia) August 2008: A suicide bomb attack in Algeria's capital kills 43 peoplefollowed by car bomb attacks in eastern Algeria that kill at least 12 people (Algeria) july 2008: A suicide bomber of Sirajuddin Haqqani's Taliban kills 54 people in an attack on the Indian embassy in Afghanistan (Afghanistan) Dec 2008: A suicide bomber of the anti-Iranian group Jundaliah kills four people in Iran (Iran) Dec 2008: An Israeli invasion of Hamas-controlled Gaza kills more than 1,300 Palestinians (Palestine) Oct 2008: Blowing himself up in SomaliaShirwa Ahmed is the first USA citizen to become a suicide bomber (Somalia) Feb 2008: Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh is killed by a car bomb while in Syria (Syria) Sep 2008: Islamic extremists led by Said Ali al-Shihri kill 16 people in SanaYemenduring an attack on the USA embassy (Yemen) Sep 2008: Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmertfacing a corruption scandalis forced to resignand is replaced by Tzipi Livni (Israel) May 2008: Lebanon's opposition led by Shia group Hezbollah seizes of most of western Beirut over a power struggle with the Sunni and Christian members of the government (Lebanon) June 2008: Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki opens his website anwar-alawlaki.com to preach jihad (Yemen) Dec 2008: Nidal Hasana major in the USA armycorresponds via email with Yemen-based Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki (USA) Feb 2008: responding to mortar attacksIsrael attacks Gaza killing more than 100 Palestinians in a few days (Palestine) May 2008: Shiite Muslim rebels led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi attack a Sunni mosque and kill 18 people (Yemen) Jan 2008: Spain arrests 12 Pakistanis and 2 Indians who are planning a chain of terrorist attacks in Europe (Spain) Oct 2008: The USA carries out a raid into Syria to fight Al Qaeda (Syria) August 2008: Uighur Islamic separatists kill 16 Chinese border policemen in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) (China) Jul 2008: Violence resumes between Fatah and Hamas (Palestine) 2008: Shiite Muslim rebels led by Abdel-Malek al-Hawthi attack a Sunni mosque and kill 18 people 2008: Islamists win elections in Kuwait june 2008: oil price hits $139 a barrel sep 2008: Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, facing a corruption scandal, is forced to resign, and is replaced by Tzipi Livni sep 2008: Islamic extremists led by Said Ali al-Shihri kill 16 people in Sana, Yemen, during an attack on the USA embassy sep 2008: Having repaired relations, Condy Rice becomes the first USA secretary of state to visit Libya since 1953 sep 2008: A car bomb kills 17 people in Syria 2008: Fouad Ali El Himma founds the anti-Islamist Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) in Morocco Dec 2008: the price of oil plunges to $34 per barrel amid the world recession Dec 2008: Arab countries lose 2.5 trillion dollars in the global financial crisis of 2008 Jan 2009: An Israeli invasion of Hamas-controlled Gaza kills more than 1,300 Palestinians, including 252 children 2009: The Saudi king establishes the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Apr 2009: Tareq al-Fadhi, a former jihadist in Afghanistan, joins the secessionist movement of South Yemen Jun 2009: Saad Hariri's governing pro-Western coalition wins parliamentary election in Lebanon Jun 2009: Islamic extremists kill nine European tourists in Yemen Jun 2009: As the deadline approaches for the USA to withdraw troops from Iraqi cities, a spate of terrorist attacks kills hundreds of Iraqis Aug 2009: About 600 people are killed in Iraq by sectarian violence in the two months since USA troops withdrew from cities Aug 2009: Hamas attacks radical cleric Abdul-Latif Moussa's al-Qaeda-linked group Jund Ansar Allah, killing 13 people Sep 2009: almost 100 people are killed in a air raid by the Yemeni government against a Shiite refugee camp in Adi Sep 2009: The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opens in Saudi Arabia Dec 2009: Saudi Arabia bombs Houthis in the north of Yemen, killing more than 70 people Dec 2009: The government of Yemen claims to have killed 34 al-Qaida members Dec 2009: 103 thousand civilians have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasions by the USA, Britain and Australia Dec 2009: The number of people killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq has decreased from the 2007 peak of almost 8 thousand to about 1,400 2009: Between august and october suicide bombers of Al-Qaeda affiliate "Islamic State of Iraq" kill hundreds of people in Iraq Dec 2009: 103,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasions by the USABritain and Australia (Iraq) Oct 2009: 42 people including several members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards are killed in a suicide bombing in the Baluchi region by Sunni group Jundallah (Iran) Dec 2009: A joint USA-Yemeni operation bombs an Al Qaeda camp in Yemenkilling 30 people but missing Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki (Yemen) Nov 2009: A Muslim in the USA armyNidal Hasaninspired by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlakikills 13 people at the Fort Hood base in Texas (USA) Dec 2009: A series of car bombings by Al Qaeda kills at least 127 people in Baghdad (Iraq) Jul 2009: Al Qaeda ambushes a patrol in Mali and kills 11 (Mali) Jun 2009: As the deadline approaches for the USA to withdraw troops from Iraqi citiesa spate of terrorist attacks kills hundreds of Iraqis (Iraq) August 2009: Australian police arrest four people linked to the Somali-based al-Shabab group who were planning a terrorist attack. (Australia) April 2009: British police arrest at least ten Pakistanis who were plotting bombings in British cities (Britain) Aug 2009: Hamas attacks radical cleric Abdul-Latif Moussa's al-Qaeda-linked group Jund Ansar Allahkilling 13 people (Palestine) Dec 2009: Jordanian suicide bomber and Al Qaeda secret agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi kills seven CIA agents and a Jordanian secret agent in Afghanistan in revenge for the killing of Pakistani Taliban's chief Baitullah Mahsud (Afghanistan) Jan 2009: Muslim cleric Al-Awlaki publishes "44 Ways to Support Jihad-Essay" on his website (Yemen) August 2009: Suicide bombers of Al-Qaeda affiliate "Islamic State of Iraq" kill 100 people in Baghdad (Iraq) Oct 2009: Suicide bombers of Al-Qaeda affiliate "Islamic State of Iraq" kill 160 people in Baghdad (Iraq) Dec 2009: The government of Yemen claims to have killed 34 al-Qaida members (Yemen) Dec 2009: The number of people killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq has decreased from the 2007 peak of almost 8,000 to about 1,400 (Iraq) Dec 2009: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallaba Nigerian-born Muslim trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen and inspired by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yementries to blow up a USA airliner (USA) Dec 2009: A US drone strike kills 14 women and 21 children in Yemen August 2010: A bomb set off by a Uighur kills seven people in AksuXinjiangmainland China (China) 2010: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq 2010: There are 500,000 Jews living in the occupied West Bank in more than 100 settlementsnext to 2.5 million Palestinianswhile 1.4 million Palestinians live in the Gaza strip (Israel) Dec 2010: A car bomb placed by the Al Qaeda affiliate Army of Islam based in Gaza kills 21 Christians at a church in AlexandriaEgypt (Egypt) Dec 2010: A Muslim dies trying to carry out a suicide attack in StockholmSweden (Sweden) June 2010: A terrorist attack by Somali Islamists of al-Shabab kills more than 70 people in Uganda (Uganda) Sep 2010: Al-Qaeda's chief of operations for Afghanistan and PakistanEgyptian-born Sheikh Fateh is killed by a USA drone (Pakistan) March 2010: Al-Qaeda's chief of operations for Afghanistan and PakistanMustafa Abu al-Yazidis killed by a USA drone (Pakistan) Oct 2010: bombs manufactured by Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri are found in Dubai and London en route to Chicago (Pakistan) Dec 2010: Danish authorities prevent a terrorist attack by Muslims who wanted to kill as many people as possible in the building where the newspaper Jyllands-Posten is published (the newspaper published cartoons deemed offensive by some Muslims) (Denmark) Jan 2010: Hamas's co-founder Mahmoud Al Mabhouh is assassinated in Dubai (Palestine) Aug 2010: Hamas gunmen kill four Israeli settlers in their car outside the West Bank city of Hebron (Israel) May 2010: Indonesia uncovers a plot by Islamic terrorists to kill the president (Indonesia) March 2010: Indonesian police kill Dulmatina member of Jemaah Islamiyah who assisted Azahari Husin (Indonesia) June 2010: Iran executes the leader of the Sunni Muslim group JundollahAbdolmalek Rigi (Iran) Jan 2010: Kenya expels Jamaican-born Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Faisal (Kenya) Nov 2010: Lebanon arrests radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad (Lebanon) June 2010: Norway arrests three members of Al Qaeda accused of plotting terrorist attacks (a Uighur from Chinaan Iraqi and an Uzbek) (Norway) May 2010: Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzadtrained by Pakistani Talibantries to blow up a car bomb in Times SquareNew York (USA) Sep 2010: The USA convenes a peace conference between Israel and Fatah (West Bank) (USA) Dec 2010: Two suicide bombers of the Sunni Muslim group Jundollah kill 35 people in Chabahar (southeastern Iran) during a Shiite ceremony in retaliation for the execution of the group's leader (Iran) Nov 2010: USA-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki calls for killing USA citizens anywhere (Yemen) Jan 2010: Yemen arrests Muhammad al-Hanqthe leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula (Yemen) Jan 2010: Dubai inaugurates the tallest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Dubai (818 meters), which for the first time belongs to a Muslim and Arab country Jan 2010: A drive-by shooting leaves six Coptic Christians dead in Nag Hammadi, Egypt Jan 2010: Muhammad Badeen is elected leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt Mar 2010: Ayad Allawi's party narrowly wins Iraq's parliamentary election May 2010: Israeli troops attack ships that are carring humanitarian aid to Gaza and slaughters nine people on board Jun 2010: Islamic militants kill 11 Algerian police officers in the Sahara desert Aug 2010: The number of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians drops to 2 from a high of 452 in 2002 Aug 2010: The USA declares a formal end to its combat mission in Iraq Nov 2010: 58 people are killed after Islamic terrorists attack a Christian church in Baghdad, Iraq Nov 2010: A Kurdish suicide bomber detonates in the centre of Istanbul injuring 32 people Nov 2010: Riots erupt between Moroccan police and Western Sahara refugees near Laayoune Nov 2010: A suicide car bomb kills 17 Shiites in Yemen Dec 2010: A jobless graduate, Mohammed Bouazizi, sets himself on fire, igniting student riots in Tunisia ("Arab Spring") Dec 2010: A car bomb placed by the Al Qaeda affiliate Army of Islam based in Gaza kills 21 Christians at a church in Alexandria, Egypt Dec 2010: after police confiscate his goods, a young fruit vendor, Muhammad Al Bouazizi, sets himself on fire in Tunisia 2010: The number of civilians killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq is 2,500 down from 23 thousand in 2007 Jan 2011: Dozens of protesters, mainly students, are killed in riots in Tunisia against youth unemployment, causing president Ben Ali to flee the country and prime minister Mohammed Ghannouchi Foued Mebazaa announces democratic reforms 2011: Mustafa Badreddine leads Hezbollah's military operations in Syria, alongside Bashar al-Assad's troops Jan 2011: Tunisian-style protests spread to Algeria, Yemen and especially Egypt Jan 2011: Hezbollah causes the fall of the Saad Hariri government in Lebanon and the appointment of Najib Miqati as new prime minister Feb 2011: Hosni Mubarak is forced to resign by massive popular protests, while Tunisian-style protests spread to Libya and Bahrain Feb 2011: Algeria finally lifts the state of emergency that has been in place since 1992 Mar 2011: Oman's sultan grants parliament legislative powers, while hundreds of demonstrators die in Yemen, Syria and Bahrein, and NATO bombs Libya to defend the anti-Qaddafi rebels that also include former Libyan general Khalifa Haftar 2011: The Bahrein army destroys the Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque to fight protesting Shiites Apr 2011: A suicide bomber in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh kills 16 people Apr 2011: USA forces kill Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahir becomes the new leader of Al Qaeda May 2011: Members of Egypt's radical Salafi movement kill 12 Christians Jun 2011: Israeli troops kill 20 protesters marking the anniversary of Israel's capture of the Golan Heights in 1967 Jun 2011: Saleh of Yemen flees the country after scores of protesters have been killed, whereas Assad of Syria massacres hundreds of protesters Jul 2011: Syria bombs rebel cities, killing 2200 people in two months Jul 2011: About two thirds of Iraq's counterterrorism missions are aimed at Iranian-backed militias Aug 2011: 42 coordinated attacks by Sunni extremists linked to Al Qaeda kill 89 people in Iraq and a suicide bomber kills 24 at a Sunni mosque Aug 2011: Anti-Qaddafi rebels helped by NATO and trained by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates reach Tripoli, end Qaddafi's dictatorship over Libya and install Mahmoud Jibril and Mustafa Abdul Jalil as prime minister and chairman of the transitional government Sep 2011: Saleh of Yemen returns to Yemen, opposed by the troops of general Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, and promising to surrender power Sep 2011: Saudi Arabia grants women limited rights to vote Oct 2011: 24 people are killed during clashes between Copts and security forces Oct 2011: The USA foils a plot by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the USA and to bomb the embassy of Saudi Arabia in the USA Oct 2011: Israel exchanges 1,027 Palestinians for its soldier Shalit detailed by Hamas Oct 2011: The world's population is 7 billion Oct 2011: Israel swaps more than one thousand Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier detained by Hamas Oct 2011: Former dictator Qaddafi is assassinated by the rebels who have conquered Libya and Abdul-Rahim al-Keeb is appointed prime minister Oct 2011: Rachid Ghannouchi's Islamist Ennahda party wins the first free elections in Tunisia Dec 2011: The USA withdraws the last soldiers from Iraq, after more than 100 thousand civilians have been killed in the occupation and civil war, with 15000 civilians killed directly by the USA or allies, plus about 50 thousand non-civilian "insurgents" for a grand total of about 162 thousand Dec 2011: Saudi billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal invests a huge sum in social media Twitter Dec 2011: After the Iraqi government indicts Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi for running a death squad, a series of explosions destroy schools, markets and apartments killing 63 people in Baghdad's deadliest day in more than a year Dec 2011: The Syrian government carries out massacres in Jabal al-Zawiya while two suicide car bombings kill at least 40 people in Syria's capital Damascus 2011: 4,083 civilians are killed in Iraq in 2011 by bombs and sectarian violence, almost the same number as in 2010 Dec 2011: Hamas celebrates 24 years of armed resistance that have killed 1,365 Israeli soldiersfired 11,093 rockets and mortars at Israeland carried out 87 suicide bombings (Palestine) Feb 2011: Hosni Mubarak is forced to resign by massive popular protests (Egypt) Feb 2011: Moroccan protesters demand democratic reforms Apr 2011: Salafists in Gaza kill Italian peace activist Vittorio Arrigoni in retaliation for the detention of their leader Hisham Saidani (Palestine) August 2011: A car bomb by Boko Haram kills 18 people at the United Nations building in the Nigerian capital Abuja (Nigeria) April 2011: A suicide bomber in Marrakesh kills 16 people (Morocco) Dec 2011: After the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki indicts Sunni vice presidentTariq al-Hashimi for running a death squada series of explosions destroy schoolsmarkets and apartments killing 63 people in Baghdad's deadliest day in more than a year (Iraq) June 2011: Al Qaeda terrorist Fazul Abdullah Mohammedthe most wanted man in Africa after the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africais killed by Somali government troops (Somalia) Mar 2011: Hamas arrests Hisham Saidani/ al-Suedanithe leader of a Salafist and Al Qaeda affiliate organization (Palestine) jan 2011: Hezbollah causes the fall of the Saad Hariri government in Lebanon and the appointment of Najib Miqati as new prime minister (Lebanon) Apr 2011: Hundreds of people are killed and thousands arrested in violent anti-government protests in Syria (Syria) Oct 2011: Israel decides to build 2000 settler homes on Palestinian land in retaliation for Palestine's membership in United Nations agencies (Israel) Oct 2011: Israel swaps more than one thousand Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli soldier detained by Hamas (Israel) Apr 2011: Israeli bombings against Hamas militants kill at least 17 peopleincluding several civilians (Palestine) June 2011: Israeli troops kill 20 protesters marking the anniversary of Israel's capture of the Golan Heights in 1967 (Israel) August 2011: Militants from Gaza kill eight Israeli people in Eilat and Israel retaliates killing 16 people in Gazaincluding Popular Resistance Committees' leader Kamal al-Nayrab/ Abu Awad and al-Quds Brigades' leader Ismael al-Ismarand accidentally killing three Egyptian soldiers (Israel) Jan 2011: Morocco arrests 27 members of Al Qaeda in Western Sahara (Morocco) Sep 2011: Rezwan Ferdausa USA citizen living near Boston is arrested for plotting to blow up the Pentagon and the Capitol using remote-controlled drones filled with explosives (USA) Dec 2011: The collapse of the Lebanese Canadian Bank reveals that Hezbollah is involved in teh illegal drug trade in Latin America (Lebanon) Apr 2011: The new Egyptian government fosters reconcilation between Hamas and Fatah (Palestine) Apr 2011: US forces kill Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahir becomes the new leader of Al Qaeda Nov 2011: An Islamist party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Development and Justice Party (PJD), wins national elections in Morocco, and the king appoints its leader Abdelilah Benkirane as prime minister Dec 2011: The USA withdraws from Iraq (Iraq) Sep 2011: US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is assassinated by a US drone strike in Yemen (Yemen) Aug 2011: Qaddafi troops massacre 53 people at the Yarmouk Prison 2011: Israel's company NSO introduces the spyware Pegasus 2011: Harakat Al-Sha'abi Li-Tahrir Al-Sudan-Al-Shamal/ Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, based in South Kordofan, begins a separatist insurgency against the Sudanese government Jan 2012: A USA drone kills 12 al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen (Yemen) 2012: Qasem Soleimani leads Iran's efforts to help Assad of Syria against the rebels Jan 2012: Al Qaeda's Iraqi affialite, the Islamic State of Iraq, launches a campaign of terrorist attacks against Shiites Jan 2012: 72 people are killed after attacks on pilgrims in southern Iraq, and in Shia areas of the capital Baghdad Jan 2012: More than 200 people are killed in sectarian violence in the first month since the withdrawal of the USA from Iraq Jan 2012: A suicide attack in the Syrian capital Damascus kills at least 26 people, while 5 thousand civilians have been killed since protests began in 2011 Jan 2012: Jobless protesters set themselves on fire in Morocco Jan 2012: The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) wins the largest number of seats in Egypt's first democratic elections, and the hardline Salafist Nour party comes second Jan 2012: A USA drone kills 12 al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen Jan 2012: 79 people die during a football riot in Port Said, Egypt Feb 2012: Suicide bomb kills 15 at Baghdad police academy Feb 2012: Saleh's vicepresident Abdurabu Mansur Hadi is inaugurated as the new president of Yemen Mar 2012: About 90 soldiers are killed by Al Qaeda-affiliate Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen Mar 2012: A series of co-ordinated attacks in a number of Iraqi cities kill at least 45 people Apr 2012: Fighting between troops and rebels leaves 64 people dead in Lawdar, Yemen May 2012: The USA thwarts a plot to blow up an airplane and kills Fahd al-Quso, al-Qaeda's leader in Yemen, and other militants with drone attacks May 2012: More than 90 people are killed in a suicide bomb by al-Qaeda on soldiers in the Yemeni capital Sana May 2012: The Alawite Shabiha militia, allied with the Syrian government, kills more than 100 Sunni civilians, including dozens of children, in Houla Jun 2012: 2101 Iraqis are killed in the first half of 2012, up from 1832 the previous year, mostly Shiites killed by Al Qaeda Jun 2012: Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi wins presidential elections in Egypt Jun 2012: Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia attacks the US embassy in Benghazi and kills the ambassador Jul 2012: Mahmoud Jibril, head of a secular party, wins the first free elections in Libya after Islamists won both in Tunisia and Egypt Jul 2012: A suicide bomber kills about 20 people in front of a Yemeni police academy in the capital Sanaa Jul 2012: A terrorist attack in Bulgaria kills seven Israelis, and Israel accuses Iran Jul 2012: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, unleashes a wave of bomb attacks and shootings in Iraq targeting security forces that kills at least 107 people Aug 2012: Islamists attack a checkpoint on the Egyptian-Israeli border, killing 16 Egyptian policemen, and in retaliation Egypt launches air strikes that kill 20 people Aug 2012: An Al Qaeda suicide bomber kills 45 people at a funeral in southern Yemen, the first time that Al Qaeda targets civilians Aug 2012: al-Qaeda militants attack the intelligence headquarters in Yemen's southern city of Aden, killing at least 14 people Aug 2012: Libyan Islamists destroy Sufi shrines and mosques in Zlitan and Tripoli Sep 2012: Iraq's fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi, formerly the most senior Sunni Muslim in the Shia-dominated government, is sentenced to death in absentia for running death squads, while at least 92 people are killed in Sunni attacks across the country Sep 2012: The ambassador of the USA in Libya is killed by Muslim terrorists Sep 2012: Dozens of people are killed in the Islamic world during violent protests against an anti-Islamic amateur video posted online in the USA Sep 2012: Islamic terrorists kill the US ambassador in Libya Sep 2012: The Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, begins spreading outside the Middle East Oct 2012: A car bomb kills eight people including anti-Syrian politician Wissam al-Hassan in Lebanon's capital Beirut Nov 2012: An Israeli air strike kills Hamas' military chief Ahmed al-Jabari and other ten people, the beginning of an eight-day war that leaves 166 Palestinans and six Israelis dead Nov 2012: An Egyptian court issues death sentences against eight people in connection to an anti-Islamic film Nov 2012: The United Nations recognizes the state of Palestine with only nine countries voting against it Dec 2012: Atheists can be executed in Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and atheist views are illegal in Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait and Jordan Dec 2012: The death toll in Syria's civil war passes 46,000 Dec 2012: More than 100 people are killed in two days of attacks across northern and central Iraq (mainly Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato), bringing the total for 2012 to more than 4,000 Dec 2012: The Islamic militants of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and attracting Islamists from all over the world, joins the fight against Assad in Syria Jan 2013: Mokhtar Belmokhtar's Masked Brigade attacks a gas field in Algeria and takes 132 foreign workers hostage, 37 of which are killed (together with 29 terrorists) when the Algerian army tries to rescue them Jan 2013: Al-Qaeda's affiliate Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni group, assassinates Sunni tribal leader Efan al-Esawi for cooperating with the USA, 17 people are killed by a series of car bombings in the Baghdad area and 42 people are killed by a suicide bomber at a Shia mosque in Tuz Khurmato Jan 2013: 26 people die in the Egyptian city of Port Said in clashes sparked by the sentencing to death of 21 local people over football riots Feb 2013: Tunisia's anti-Islamist activist Chokri Belaid is murdered Feb 2013: A hot air balloon incident near Luxor in Egypt kills 19 tourists Mar 2013: Scores of people are killed in a series of coordinated car and suicide bombings in Shiite areas of Iraq's capital targeting markets, restaurants and buses on the 10th anniversary of the USA and British invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein Apr 2013: April 2013 is Iraq's bloodiest month for almost five years with 712 people killed Apr 2013: The Islamic militants of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announce that they intend to operate in Iraq besides Syria May 2013: Nine people are killed by a car bomb at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi May 2013: The civil war in Syria intensifies as Hezbollah vows to defend president Assad, Russia sells advanced weapons to Assad, Israel bombs Syria, Islamists join the rebels and the European Union lifts an embardo on selling weapons to the rebels May 2013: April 2013 is Iraq's bloodiest month for almost five years with 1000 people killed Jun 2013: Western Europe, the USA, Arab states and Turkey form the Friends of Syria group to arm Syrian rebels Jun 2013: Qatar's emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani hands over power to his son Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, having turned Qatar into one of the richest places on Earth ($80,000 GDP per person) with a population of two million Jun 2013: Abu Sayyaf of ISIS sets up a black market for oil sales to Turkey Jun 2013: A mob of fanatical Sunnis kills four Shiite Egyptians near Cairo Jun 2013: The Egyptian opposition movement Tamarod (Rebel) organizes protests to bring down president Morsi Jul 2013: Egypt's army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi removes democratically elected president Morsi from power, arrests the Muslim Brotherhood's supreme leader Mohammed Badie, and appoints top judge Adly Mahmud Mansour as new president at the head of a liberal and technocratic government while demonstrations pro and against Morsi cause the death of dozens of people Aug 2013: Egypt's army cracks down on pro-Morsi protesters, killing about 1,000 people, mostly in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, the biggest single-day massacre since the Tiananmen Square massacre in China of 1989 Jul 2013: Mohamed Brahmi, founder of the secular leftist Movement of the People party, is killed in Tunisia, five months after another prominent secular politician, Chokri Belaid, has been killed Jul 2013: 1057 Iraqis (mostly Shiites) are killed in the month of july, making it the most violent month in five years Aug 2013: Three US drone strikes kill about 14 al-Qaeda militants in south-eastern Yemen, following four such strike in two weeks, after Al Qaeda theatened to seize two ports and attack Western embassies Aug 2013: More than 500 Muslim Brotherhood protesters are killed by the military regime in Egypt Aug 2013: In retaliation for Hezbollah's support of Assad, a car bomb place by Syrian rebels of the Battalions of Ayesha in a Shiite suburb of Beirut kills 22 people Aug 2013: Sinai rebels kill 24 Egyptian policemen near Rafah Aug 2013: At least 29 people are killed by two car bombs in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, probably targeting Sunni leader Salem Rafii Sep 2013: More than 40 people are killed in southern Yemen by al-Qaeda attacks on army installations Sep 2013: Islamic militants carry kill seven people in an attack on a security forces of Iraqi Kurdistan, usually spared the violence that affects the rest of Iraq Oct 2013: Gunmen attack a military checkpoint south-east of the Libyan capital Tripoli killing 15 soldiers, and the USA captures al-Qaeda leader Anas al-Libi, accused of the 1998 bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania Oct 2013: The military in Egypt kill scores of Muslim Brotherhood protesters and Islamic militias kill six soldiers near the Suez Canal Nov 2013: Eleven Egyptian military personnel are killed in a car bomb attack in the Sinai Nov 2013: 23 people are killed by a bomb against the Iranian embassy in Lebanon's capital Beirut, in retaliation for Hezbollah's support of Assad's regime in Syria, and later Hezbollah commander Hassan al-Laqees is assassinated in Beirut Dec 2013: A US drone kills 17 civilians in Yemen by mistake Dec 2013: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula carries out an attack on a military hospital that kills 52 people, but later the leader, Qasim al-Raymi, apologizes publicly Dec 2013: Libya's first suicide attack (by Islamist militia group Ansar al-Sharia) kills seven people near Benghazi Dec 2013: A car bomb kills 14 people at the police headquarters in the Egyptian city of Mansoura Dec 2013: A car bomb kills Sunni leader Mohamad Chatah, opposed to Hezbollah and Syria Dec 2013: Violence between Yemen's soldiers and separatist group Hiraak al-Janoubi kills dozens of people in southern Yemen Dec 2013: More than 130,000 people have died in Syria's civil war 2013: Algeria's unemployment is about 40%, virtually all goods are imported and corruption is rampant 2013: 2013 is the bloodiest year in Iraq since 2008, with about 9000 people killed in sectarian violence and terrorist attacks 2013: The USA has carried out more than 80 attacks in Yemen, killing almost 500 people, since 2009 2013: Saudi women must still cover themselves from head to toe, are still forbidden to drive, and still need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry Dec 2013: Lebanon captures Saudi-born Majid al-Majid, commander of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades responsible for the bomb attack on Iran's embassy 2013: Egypt's Islamist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis kills scores of soldiers and police officers since the overthrow of Morsi 2013: According to a Pew Foundation poll, 74% of Egyptians support making Shariah law the state law, as do 91% of Iraqi Muslims 2013: Abdelaziz Bouteflika suffers a stroke and moves to Europe while remaining president of Algeria 2013: Sudanese activists form resistance committees to organize against the regime of Omar Al-Bashir Jan 2014: The Iraqi government loses control of Fallujah to Islamic fighters and local Sunni militia Jan 2014: Tunisian prime minister Ali Larayedh resigns and is replaced by Mehdi Jomaa Jan 2014: Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood supporters are killed in Egypt during rallies marking the anniversary of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak Jan 2014: A government is formed in Lebanon under president Michel Suleiman with prime minister Tammam Salam after 10 months of talks between Hezbollah the March 14th movement of Saad Hariri Feb 2014: Militants of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis fighting the Egyptian government kill four foreign tourists in the Sinai Feb 2014: Moktada al-Sadr announces his retirement from Iraqi politics Mar 2014: Saudi Arabia declares the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group and withdraws its ambassador from Qatar accusing it of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood Mar 2014: Seven Egyptian traders are killed in Libya, and more than 100 prominent Libyans have been assassinated in two years Mar 2014: Islamists kill 20 Yemeni soldiers Mar 2014: An Egyptian court sentences 528 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death Apr 2014: Islamist militants kill 14 Algerian soldiers Apr 2014: More than 100 people infected with the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus have died in Saudi Arabia since the outbreak began in 2012 Apr 2014: An Egyptian court sentences 680 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death for the killing of a police officer May 2014: Former general Khalifa Haftar, a US citizen, launches a war on terrorism against Libya's Islamists accusing them of having assassinated 70 people in a few months, and conquers Benghazi May 2014: Sinai's Islamist leader Shadi al-Menei is killed by the Egyptian military May 2014: Almost 2,000 people are killed by Syrian government air attacks in the northern city of Aleppo since the beginning of the year May 2014: Ex-army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi wins Egypt's presidential election Jun 2014: Islamic militants of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seize control of key parts of Iraq's second largest city Mosul and Tikrit, and slaughter 1700 Shiite air force cadets at Camp Speicher Jun 2014: The USA captures Ahmed Abu Khattala, responsible for the 2012 attack on the Benghazi embassy Jun 2014: Syrian warplanes bomb Iraqi towns held by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), killing 57 Iraqi civilians Jun 2014: ISIS massacres 700 soldiers, mostly Shia, at Camp Speicher near Tikrit in Iraq Jun 2014: The last of Syria's chemical weapons are shipped out of the country for destruction Jun 2014: ISIS declares a caliphate under Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi Jul 2014: Rocket attacks by Islamists kill seven civilians and one soldier in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, and an attack by Islamist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis kills 22 border guards near the borders with Libya Jul 2014: Islamists kill 14 Tunisian soldiers near the Algerian border, the heaviest death toll registered by the army since independence in 1956 Jul 2014: The murder of three Israeli teenagers and of one Palestinian teenager in retaliation cause a war between Israel and Hamas that kills more than 1,800 Palestinians Jul 2014: More than 100 people are killed in fighting between rival militia groups for control of Libya's main airport Aug 2014: The USA launches air strike against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Aug 2014: ISIS attacks Syrian Kurdistan, thus drawing the Kurds into the civil war Aug 2014: The Kurdish president of Iraq appoints Haider al-Abadi prime minister instead of Maliki Sep 2014: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beheads two journalists from the USA and US president Barack Obama de facto declares war on ISIS with the support of ten Arab states Sep 2014: After 50 days of fighting in which more than 2,100 Palestinians died (70% of them civilians), Israel withdraws from Gaza and accepts Hamas' demands to ease the embargo on Gaza Sep 2014: Islamists seize control of Libya's capital Tripoli and parliament moves to Tobruk, near the Egyptian border Sep 2014: Israel announces its biggest seizure of occupied Palestinian land in a generation Sep 2014: Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate, seizes the Golan Heights, a contested territory between Israel and Syria Sep 2014: Yemen's prime minister Mohammed Basindwa resigns amid escalating violence between Shia Houthi rebels, supported by former president Saleh, and the government forces, and the new government signs a peace agreement with the rebels Oct 2014: At least 43 people die in a suicide bomb attack on supporters of the Shia rebel group Houthi in Yemen's capital Sanaa while another suicide bomb attack on an army checkpoint in the eastern province of Hadramawt kills 20 soldiers Oct 2014: Islamists in Libya's city Derna declare loyalty to ISIS Oct 2014: The secular Nidaa Tounes party wins parliamentary elections in Tunisia, ahead of the Islamist party Ennahda Oct 2014: Sunni gunmen kill five Shiites in in the Shiite-majority town of Dalwah town of eastern Saudi Arabia Oct 2014: An Attack by Egypt's Islamist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis kills 33 soldiers Nov 2014: Egypt's Islamist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis pledges obedience to ISIS Dec 2014: Beji Caid Essebsi wins Tunisia's first free presidential election Dec 2014: Algeria kills the leader of the Islamist group Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) that kidnapped and beheaded French tourist Herve Gourdel Dec 2014: An Al-Qaeda suicide bomber kills more than 30 Houthi rebels in Yemen's southern city of Ibb Dec 2014: More than 76,000 people are killed in Syria's civil war in 2014, almost a quarter of them civilians, in the deadliest year yet Dec 2014: Iraqi civilian deaths roughly double in 2014 to 17,000 Dec 2014: ISIS destroys Iraq's oldest Christian monastery, St Elijah, near Mosul Jan 2015: A bomb by Al Qaeda kills 37 people outside a police academy in Yemen's capital Sanaa Jan 2015: Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, co-founder of the Liberal Saudi Network, is sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail after being convicted of insulting Islam Jan 2015: A suicide bomber of the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, kills 7 people in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli Jan 2015: An Israeli strike on Syria kills an Iranian general and Hezbollah fighters Jan 2015: Yemen's president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi resigns after Houthi rebels seize the presidential palace and become de facto rulers of the country, while Al Qaeda captures the headquarters of a Yemeni army brigade Jan 2015: Saudi king Abdullah dies and is succeeded by his half-brother Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud Jan 2015: Government troops kill the leader of Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, Mohammad al-Zahawi Jan 2015: Egyptian rebeles of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis pledge loyalty to ISIS, change name to Sinai Province, and carry out a series of strikes against military targets in Sinai that leave more than 30 people dead Jan 2015: ISIS burns inside a cage Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh Feb 2015: ISIS captures 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya and beheads them, and Egypt retaliates bombing ISIS targets Feb 2015: The Islamic State of Iran and Syria (ISIS) kidnaps 220 members of an Assyrian Christian community in north-eastern Syria Feb 2015: Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika accepts to retire after mass protests against his rule while unemployment among youth reaches 29% Mar 2015: ISIS demolishes the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud Mar 2015: Islamic terrorists attack the Bardo Museum in Tunisia, leaving 25 people dead, mostly foreign tourists Mar 2015: Suicide bombers of the Islamic State kill 137 people in two Shiite mosques in Yemen's capital Sanaa Mar 2015: A coalition led by Saudi Arabia launches air strikes against Shia-led Houthi rebels in Yemen, while the Houthis storm the presidential palace in Aden Apr 2015: Al Qaeda captures the port of Al Mukalla in Yemen Apr 2015: A Tunisian fishing vessel carrying illegal African emigrants to Europe capsizes off the coast of Libya, killing more than 1,000 people Apr 2015: Terrorists of the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis or Sinai Province (affiliated to ISIS) kill 12 people in Egypt's Sinai Apr 2015: An Egyptian court condemns Muslim Brotherhood's leader Mohamed Badie and other senior members to death Apr 2015: ISIS kills 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya Apr 2015: Houthi rebels attack Saudi Arabia from Yemen Apr 2015: Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz appoints his nephew Muhammad bin Nayef as the new crown prince, replacing Salman's youngest brother, prince Muqrin, and appoints his son Mohammad bin Salman as deputy crown prince May 2015: ISIS kills 300 Yazidi captives in Iraq May 2015: Yemen's ex-president Saleh denounces Arab coalition and declares alliance with Houthis May 2015: Egypt sentences to death Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi, former president Mohamed Mursi and 105 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood May 2015: ISIS captures Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria May 2015: ISIS suicide bombers kill 4 people in a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia and 26 in a Shiite mosque in the Saudi town of Dammam May 2015: A US drone strike in Yemen kills Al Qaeda in Yemen's leader Nasr bin Ali al-Ansi, responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris Jun 2015: A drone strike by the USA in Libya targets Al Qaeda's regional leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar and a drone strike in Yemen kills Al-Qaeda's leader in the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wuhayshi Jun 2015: A series of car bombs by ISIS kills more than 20 people in Yemen's capital controlled by Houthis Jun 2015: An Islamic State suicide bomber from Saudi Arabia kills 27 people in a Shia mosque in Kuwait Jun 2015: An Islamist gunman kill 38 people, mostly British tourists, at a beach resort in the Tunisian town of Sousse Jun 2015: Egypt's chief prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who led the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, is assassinated Jun 2015: A car-bomb by ISIS kills Shia Houthi rebels at a funeral in Yemen Jul 2015: More than 100 people are killed when Sinai Province. allied to the Islamic State, attacks military checkpoints in Egypt's Sinai Jul 2015: Clashes between Arab and Berber communities in the Algerian city of Ghardaia kill 22 people Jul 2015: An ISIS car bombing at Khan Bani Saad in Iraq kills at least 115 people celebrating the end of Muslim month of Ramadan. Jul 2015: Saudi Arabia arrests 431 suspected members of ISIS who were preparing suicide attacks on in various cities Jul 2015: A suicide bombers from ISIS kills 28 people in the Turkish town of Suruc near the Syrian border Aug 2015: Movements in 30 countries have pledged allegiance to ISIS, notably in Nigeria and Libya, and ISIS now counts on 20,000 foreign volunteers (Scandinavia, Gulf countries, France, Britain, Turkey and North Africa) Aug 2015: An ISIS suicide bomber kills 15 people in a mosque in the Saudi town of Abha Aug 2015: Oil prices fall below $40 a barrel for first time since 2009 Aug 2015: Italian energy group Eni discovers one of the world's largest natural gas fields off Egypt's coast Aug 2015: An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition backing pro-government forces in Yemen kills 31 civilians at a bottling plant in Yemen's northern province of Hajjah. Aug 2015: ISIS destroys the ancient temple of Palmyra in Syria Sep 2015: A Saudi bombing strike kills 135 civilians in Yemen who are attending a wedding Sep 2015: A collapsed crane kills more than 100 people in Saudi Arabia's Masjid al-Haram mosque Sep 2015: More than 700 people taking part in the Hajj pilgrimage are killed in a stampede near Mecca Sep 2015: An ISIS suicide bomber kills 25 people in a mosque of Yemen's capital Sanaa Sep 2015: The civil war in Syria causes an exodus of thousands of people towards Europe Sep 2015: Russia begins a bombing campaign in Syria against rebels to defend Assad's regime Oct 2015: ISIS attacks a hotel used by Saudi Arabia's anti-Houthi coalition in Aden and kills 22 people Oct 2015: ISIS in Sinai blows up a Russian airplane killing 224 people, mostly Russian tourists, in retaliation for Russian bombings in Syria Oct 2015: 18,800 people have been killed in the Iraqi civil war between January 2014 and October 2015 Nov 2015: A United Nations report details how ISIS is committing genocide, torture, rape and slavery against the Yazidis in Iraq Nov 2015: ISIS suicide bombers kill 43 people in Beirut's Shiite suburb, the deadliest attack since the end of Lebanon's civil war in 1990 Nov 2015: A US air strike kills Abu Nabil, the ISIS leader in Libya Nov 2015: Islamists kill 12 people in Tunisia on a military bus Nov 2015: Islamists kill 7 magistrates in Egypt's Sinai 2015: 3,589 people have been killed by ebola in Sierra Leone Dec 2015: Islamists kill 18 people in a nightclub of the Egyptian capital Cairo Dec 2015: ISIS kills the governor of Yemen's city of Aden, Jaafar Mohammed Saad Dec 2015: Women are allowed to vote for the first time in Saudi Arabia, but only in municipal elections Dec 2015: The price of oil declines to $36/barrel, the lowest in 11 years Dec 2015: Russian air strikes on Syria have killed more than 1,000 civilians since they began in september 2015: More than 3,000 people are killed by the Egyptian forces in the Sinai during 2015 trying to quell Sinai's rebels 2015: About 6,000 people have been killed by the civil war in Yemen 2015: Only 4% of the Middle Eastern population is Christian, down from 14% in 1910 Dec 2015: Syrian refugees live in Turkey (2.2 million), Lebanon (1.2 million) and Jordan (almost 630,000) and Europe (more than 1 million) Dec 2015: Israel begins a covert campaign of bombing in Egypt's Sinai, approved by Egypt's dictator Sisi Jan 2016: Saudi Arabia and Iran cut diplomatic ties after Saudi Arabia executes Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and protesters storm the Saudi embassy in Iran Jan 2016: Oil prices fall below $30 a barrel for the first time since April 2004 Jan 2016: 155 Palestinians and 26 Israelis have been killed in Israel and the Palestinian territories since unrest began in october 2015 Jan 2016: Uganda bans housemaids from working in Saudi Arabia because they are often abused and even tortured Jan 2016: Islamic terrorists kill 1,700 people worldwide in january alone Feb 2016: The USA begins bombing ISIS territory in Libya, killing more than 40 people including Noureddine Chouchane, who masterminded the terrorist attacks in Tunisia Feb 2016: Jordan foils an ISIS terrorist plot, killing 8 terrorists Mar 2016: ISIS stages attacks from Libya into Tunisia and Tunisia kills 28 militants in a cross-border raid Mar 2016: The United Arab Emirates invades Yemen to fight Al Qaeda Mar 2016: Saudi Arabia's intervention in Yemen has killed more than 6,000 people Mar 2016: ISIS kills 13 policemen in Egypt's Sinai Mar 2016: Since 2014 ISIS has staged 75 attacks in 20 countries (outside Iraq and Syria) that have killed 1,280 people Mar 2016: More than 40 Al Qaeda suspects are killed by a US drone strike in Yemen Apr 2016: A unity government is installed in Libya's capital Tripoli, headed by Fayez el-Sarraj, while former general Khalifa Haftar still holds Benghazi Apr 2016: Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman announces "Saudi Vision 2030" to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and modernize the country Apr 2016: Followers of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr storm the Iraqi parliament to protest political inaction Mar 2016: Russia and Assad's Syrian forces reconquer Palmyra from ISIS Mar 2016: The top military commander of Lebanon's Hezbollah is killed in Syria May 2016: Mustafa Badreddine, commander of Hezbollah's military wing, is killed in Syria by Sunni Islamists Jun 2016: The Libyan government expels ISIS from the city of Sirte Jun 2016: A bombing by ISIS kills 43 people in Yemen's city of Mukalla Jul 2016: A bombing by ISIS kills more than 300 people in Iraq's capital Baghdad, the biggest single terrorist attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein Jul 2016: Three suicide bombings by ISIS hit Saudi Arabia Aug 2016: Russian bombers use Iran to launch air strikes against Islamists and pro-democracy rebels in Syria Aug 2016: Tens of thousands of Yemenis demonstrate in Sanaa in support of Houthi rebels, who still control the city despite Saudi bombing raids, while an ISIS suicide bomber kills 71 people in Yemen's southern city of Aden Sep 2016: Nahid Hattar, a Jordanian Christian writer, is accused of offending Islam and shot dead outside the court Sep 2016: The Russian-Syrian coalition commits war crimes during a month-long aerial bombing campaign of opposition-controlled Aleppo in Syria Oct 2016: More than 140 people are killed by a Saudi air strike on a funeral in Yemen's Houthi-held capital Sanaa Oct 2016: After a two-year political stalemate, Lebanon's parliament elects Michel Aoun as president, a Maronite Christian former general backed by Hezbollah, while Saad Hariri, leader of the Sunni-dominated Future Movement, becomes prime minister Oct 2016: Protests erupt in Morocco after a poor fishmonger is crushed to death while trying to retrieve fish from a trash compactor in which police had thrown his fish Oct 2016: Protests erupt in Morocco after fisherman Mouhcine Fikri dies trying to recover the fish confiscated by police (the "Hirak Rif/ Rif Movement") Dec 2016: Roadside bombs by the Hasm Movement kill six police officers in Egypt's capital Cairo Dec 2016: An ISIS suicide bomber kills more than 30 soldiers at an army base in southern Yemen Dec 2016: An ISIS bomb in the Coptic quarter of Egypt's capital Cairo kills 25 people 2016: Sudanese doctors, lawyers, journalists, university professors and engineers form the Sudanese Professionals Association 2016: Saudi Arabia, a mostly Sunni country but hostile to Shiite Iran, executes the prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr 2016: More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in 137 settlements spread throughout the Palestinian territories of the West Bank 2016: About 15,000 people are killed in 2016 in Iraq, which means that since the 2003 invasion by the USA and Britain 188,000 Iraqi civilians have died (264,000 including combatants) Dec 2016: Abandoned by the USA and Europe, Aleppo falls to Syrian and Russian troops Dec 2016: An ISIS suicide bomber kills 40 Yemeni soldiers Dec 2016: Russia and Turkey broker a truce in Syria Jan 2017: A US raid in Yemen kills a dozen al Qaeda fighters but also twice as many civilians Mar 2017: The USA bombs Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al-Assad Mar 2017: Islamists attack two Coptic churches in Egypt and kill 44 Christians Apr 2017: In March and April the USA carries out 80 air attacks on Yemen with jets and drones Apr 2017: Syria’s government launches a chemical weapons attack upon its citizens in the town of Khan Shaykhun killing 90 people, including 30 children May 2017: 22 people are killed by an ISIS suicide bomber in Manchester May 2017: ISIS gunmen kill 26 Coptic Christians near the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in central Egypt Jun 2017: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Yemen's government and Libya's eastern-based government break up diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS Jun 2017: Saudi king Salman removes Muhammad bin Nayef from the line of succession to the Saudi throne and designates Mohammad bin Salman as the new crown prince and the de facto ruler of the country Jul 2017: Iraq reconquers Mosul from ISIS after three years Jul 2017: Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman authorizes a secret campaign of kidnapping, imprisonment and torture to silence dissenters, including the Rapid Intervention Group run by Saud al-Qahtani Jul 2017: Morocco jails journalist Hamid El Mahdaoui for publicizing the "Hirak Rif/ Rif Movement" Sep 2017: The Iraqi Kurds hold an independence referendum condemned by all neighboring countries Oct 2017: Islamists kill more than 50 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Oct 2017: A Saudi bombing kills 26 people at a market in Yemen Nov 2017: Saudi Arabi's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman locks hundreds of princes, businessmen and former officials in Riyadh's five-star Ritz-Carlton hotel on accusations of corruption, forcing them to surrender billions of dollars Nov 2017: Houthi rebels in Yemen shoot an Iranian missile towards Saudi Arabia's capital Nov 2017: Saudi Arabia's 32-year old heir to the throne Mohammed bin Salman arrests 11 princes, four ministers and dozens of ex-ministers, including billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal, on charges of corruption Nov 2017: Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri resigns while on a trip in Saudi Arabia, blaming Iranian interference in Lebanese politics, but Hezbollah claims that he was kidnapped by Saudi Arabia Nov 2017: Islamists affiliated with ISIS kill 305 people at the al-Rawda mosque in Bir al-Abed of Egypt's Sinai, a mosque for Sufis Dec 2017: Saudi Arabia's bombing campaign in Yemen has killed about 9,000 people, mostly civilians, including about 40 attacks on schools and hospitals, and caused a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people Dec 2017: Houthi rebels kill Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was ready to switch to the Saudi-backed government Dec 2017: Lebanon's prime minister Saad Hariri returns to Lebanon and resumes his job as prime minister Dec 2017: The USA (Donald Trump) recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel Dec 2017: Iraq declares that the war with ISIS is over Dec 2017: More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in the Yemeni civil war that pits a Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels Jan 2018: Turkish troops enter Syria to fight the Kurdish rebels who fought Assad and ISIS Jan 2018: Rebels supported by the United Arab Emirates install Aidarus el-Zoubaidi as the ruler of Aden in Yemen Jan 2018: Israeli agents in Iran steal secret documents about Iran's nuclear program Feb 2018: Israeli police recommend indicting prime minister Netanyahu on corruption charges Mar 2018: Israel kills 15 Palestinians after protests flare up at the border with Gaza Mar 2018: Humanitarian worker Abdulrahman Al Sadhan disappears in Saudi Arabia Apr 2018: The USA, Britain and France bomb Syria in retaliation for Syria's use of chemical weapons Apr 2018: Morocco severed its diplomatic relations with Iran over Tehran's military support for the Polisario Front, a largely peaceful movement that demands Morocco's withdrawal from Western Sahara, a land that Morocco occupied illegally in 1975 May 2018: Dozens of protesting Palestinians are massacred by Israel in Gaza after the USA moves its capital to Jerusalem May 2018: Moqtada al-Sadr's party wins parliamentary elections in Iraq, beating both the party of militia leader Hadi al-Amiri and the party of Iraq's prime minister Haidar al-Abadi May 2018: Israel launches a wave of missile strikes on Iranian forces in Syria, after coming under rocket fire May 2018: Saudi Arabia arrests scores of women's rights activists May 2018: Tripoli's prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj (head of the official government), Benghazi's general Khalifa Haftar of the Libyan National Army, Tobruk's parliament speaker Aguila Saleh Issa, and the Muslim Brotherhood's Khalid al-Mishri agree to hold national elections in Libya Jun 2018: Saudi Arabia finally allows women to drive but they still need permission from a male relative Jun 2018: South Sudan's president Salva Kiir (representing the Dinka ethnic majority) and his former vice president Riek Machar, who represents the the Nuer ethnic group and leads the largest rebel group fighting the government, sign a peace deal to end their country’s four-year civil war that has caused the emigration of 2.5 million refugees Jun 2018: Morocco sentences Nasser Zefzafi, the leader of the "Hirak Rif/ Rif Movement", to 20 years in prison Jul 2018: Israel's parliament votes that the country is an exclusively Jewish state Aug 2018: A Saudi-led coalition airstrike hits a school bus in northern Yemen killing more than 40 children, and a few days later another Saudi air strike in Yemen kills 22 children and four women in southern Yemen Sep 2018: Saudi Arabia inaugurates the first bullet train of the Arab world Oct 2018: Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, is killed and dismembered in the the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; and, after two weeks of denials, Saudi Arabia fires general Ahmed Al-Assir Oct 2018: Russian airstrikes in Syria have killed more than 18,000 people over the past three years Oct 2018: The USA and Britain pressure Saudi Arabia to end the war in Yemen war which has killed 10,000 people Nov 2018: Morocco inaugurates the first bullet train of Africa Dec 2018: Protests erupt in Sudan against president Omar al-Bashir Dec 2018: Egypt kills 40 Islamists Dec 2018: More than 40,000 international citizens have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS 2018: A new Al Qaeda branch called Hurras al-Din emerges in Syria, the successor to the Khorasan Group 2018: 3,319 civilians are killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq , down from 13,000 in 2017 2018: Sudan authorizes Russian mercenary Wagner group to mine gold as the Meroe Gold company Jan 2019: The biggest demonstrations ever in Sudan, mostly organized by the Sudanese Professionals Association, demand the resignation of president Omar al-Bashir Feb 2019: Saudi Arabia pledges a $20 billion investment in Pakistan Mar 2019: The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces conquer the last stronghold of ISIS in Syria Apr 2019: Following large demonstrations, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigns and is succeeded by Abdelkader Bensalah Apr 2019: Khalifa Hifter orders his troops to march towards Libya's capital Tripoli Apr 2019: Saudi Arabia arrests nine dissidents loosely related to women's rights activists, including the writers Thumar al-Marzouqi, Khadija al-Harbi, Mohammed al-Sadiq, Fahad Abalkhail, and Abdullah al-Duhailan Apr 2019: Following large demonstrations, Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir is ousted by the military after 30 years in power, all political prisoners are freed and Mohamed Hamdan seizes power Apr 2019: Mass protests in Morocco demanding the release of the leaders of the "Hirak Rif/ Rif Movement" Apr 2019: Saudi Arabia executes 37 "terrorists" in one day, most of them Shiites May 2019: Rocket fire from Hamas and bombings by Israel kill 27 people Jun 2019: More than 100 protesters are killed in Sudan by the military trying to restore order after the ouster of al-Bashir Jun 2019: Saudi Arabia executes 37 "terrorists", mostly Shiite, including one who is crucified Jun 2019: The United Arab Emirates withdraw most of its troops from Yemen, leaving Saudi Arabia to fight alone against the Huthis Jul 2019: Sudan military and civilians sign an agreement to share power Jul 2019: Following the Saudi assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi atrocities in Yemen, Congress blocks the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, but Donald Trump overrules Congress and still sells the weapons Jul 2019: A Houthi attack in Saudi-controlled Aden kills Saudi-allied Yemeni commander Munair al-Yafae and many others Aug 2019: The Southern Transitional Council expels Yemen's official government (of president Hadi) from Aden Sep 2019: Houthi rebels use drones to strike at Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, disrupting about half of Saudi Arabia's oil exports Sep 2019: Egyptian businessman and actor Mohamed Ali post a video online about government corruption which causes popular protests Sep 2019: Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arrested Sep 2019: Lebanon's economy crashes Oct 2019: Violent antigovernment protests in Iraq leave at least 200 people dead, especially in Baghdad and in the southern provinces Oct 2019: Trump orders the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, leaving the USA's allies, the Kurdish militias, undefended, Turkey launches an invasion on Syria's Kurdish area, and, within days, Russian troops replace US troops Oct 2019: Hariri resigns after mass demonstrations hit Lebanon, caused by the government's plan to tax calls on Internet-based messaging services such as WhatsApp, and joined (for the first time in Lebanon's history) by Christians, Druze, Sunni and Shiites all united Oct 2019: Kais Saied, a conservative academic with no previous political experience, wins presidential elections in Tunisia with the overwhelming majority of the younger vote Oct 2019: ISIS' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself rather than surrender to the US during a raid on his hideout in Syria, and ISIS replaces him with Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi Oct 2019: Violent demonstrations against the Iraqi government leave 149 people dead Nov 2019: A massive demonstration in Algeria asked for a new revolution on the 65th anniversary of its independence from France Nov 2019: Russia deploys 200 soldiers in Libya to boost warlord Khalifa Hifter Nov 2019: An Israeli air strike kills Islamic Jihad's leader Baha Abu al-Ata in Gaza and another militant in Damascus, causing Islamic Jihad's retaliatory rocket strikes, causing Israeli bombings of Gaza that kill more than 30 people Nov 2019: Iraq's prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigns after more than 400 people are killed in anti-government protests Dec 2019: Former prime minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune is elected Algeria's president in a vote marred by protests while army general Ahmed Gaid Salah remains the county's de facto leader, but Salah dies soon of a heart attack 2019: Saudi Arabia executes a record 184 people in 2019 2019: China becomes Israel's second-largest trading partner, behind the USA 2019: 2,392 civilians are killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq Jan 2020: A US drone kills Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group, while they are meeting in Iraq Jan 2020: Turkey sends troops to Libya to protect the government of national accord led by prime minister Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli from Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), which is backed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt Jan 2020: A drone by the United Arab Emirates kills 26 unarmed cadets at a military academy in Libya's capital Tripoli Jan 2020: Ahmad Abdessamad, a reporter who had been covering the protests in Iraq, and his cameraman Safaa Ghali are shot dead in Basra Jan 2020: Oman's sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said, the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, dies and is replaced by his cousin Haitham bin Tariq Al Said Jan 2020: A Houthi attack on a government's military camp in the province of Marib kills 80 government soldiers Jan 2020: Hezbollah and its allies choose university professor Hassan Diab as prime minister of Lebanon Jan 2020: Iraq's president Barham Salih appoints Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi prime minister Feb 2020: The USA and the Taliban sign a deal for the USA to withdraw its troops while Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah both claim to have won presidential elections Mar 2020: While world economies are impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic, Saudi Arabia starts a price war with Russia which causes a collapse of international stock markets Mar 2020: Saudi Arabia arrests hundreds of government officials on charges of corruption Apr 2020: The Southern Transitional Council, based in Aden and supported by the United Arab Emirates, splits from the Yemeni government supported by Saudi Arabia and declares independence May 2020: Russia's mercenary Wagner Group is fighting alongside rebel Haftar in Libya against the Turkish-backed government Jun 2020: French troops in northern Mali kill the leader of al Qaeda in the Maghreb, Algerian-born Abdelmalek Droukdel Jun 2020: Protests erupt in both Lebanon and Syria over the economy Jun 2020: Mustafa Kadhimi is appointed prime minister of Iraq Jun 2020: The Libyan army finally expels the Al-Kaniyat militia from Tarhouna, where hundreds of people have been killed since 2015 Jul 2020: Sudan scraps its apostasy laws, abolishes public flogging and bans female genital mutilation Jul 2020: The United Arab Emirates sends an unmanned mission to Mars and starts operations of the first nuclear power plant in the Arab world Aug 2020: A huge explosion in a warehouse kills 78 people and injures more than 4,000 in Lebanon's capital Beirut Aug 2020: Saad al-Jabri, living in exile in Canada, accuses Mohammed bin Salman of sending a hit squad to try and assassinate him Aug 2020: The main factions of the SPLM sign a peace agreement with the government of Sudan Aug 2020: Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalize relations, Israel's third peace deal with an Arab country after Egypt and Jordan Sep 2020: Saudi Arabia opens its air space to Israeli flights Oct 2020: Sudan's government and Sudanese rebels of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), comprising rebel groups from Darfur and southern states, sign a peace deal Oct 2020: Saad Hariri is appointed again prime minister of Lebanon amid the triple crisis of anticorruption protests, covid pandemic and the warehouse explosion Dec 2020: Morocco recognizes Israel in return for the USA to recognize its annexation of Western Sahara Dec 2020: Saudi Arabia sentences woman activist Loujain al-Hathloul to five years of prison 2020: 902 civilians are killed in terrorist attacks in Iraq, the lowest number since the 2003 US invasion 2020: ISIS carried out an average of 110 attacks with 207 casualties per month in Iraq Jan 2021: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt restore diplomatic ties with Qatar Jan 2021: An ISIS bomb kills 32 people in Baghdad's Tayaran Square, the deadliest bombing in Iraq's capital in three years Jan 2021: An Iraqi judge issues an arrest warrant for Donald Trump over the killing of Iran's general Soleimani Jan 2021: Israeli warplanes carry out intense airstrikes on eastern Syria targeting positions and arms depots of Iran-backed fighters Feb 2021: The USA bombs an Iranian-backed Iraqi group in Syria, the Kataeb Hezbollah militia Feb 2021: The USA reveals that it determined (already under Trump) that Saudi Arabia's crown prince Muhammad bin Salman approved the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi Mar 2021: Anti-government protesters in Lebanon burn tires to block key roads Mar 2021: Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh/Dbeiba takes over as prime minister of Libya's Government of National Accord Apr 2021: Israel sabotages Iran's Natanz nuclear facility Apr 2021: A fire in at a hospital in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills about 80 patients Apr 2021: A leaked tape by Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reveals that Iran entered the Syrian civil war at the behest of Russia and that Russia maneuvered to make sure that Iran would not make peace with the West Apr 2021: 45 people are crushed to death by Jewish worshippers during the Lag B'Omer religious festival in the north-east of Israel May 2021: Protests against Israeli settlers escalate into a military confrontation between Israel and Hamas that kills more than 200 Palestinians, including 65 children May 2021: Israel and Gaza fight an 11-day war that leaves 250 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead Jun 2021: Netanyahu, the longest serving prime minister of Israel, is ousted by a coalition of parties Jun 2021: Security officeers of Abbas' Palestinian Authority kill anti-Abbas activist Nizar Banat Jul 2021: A fire in at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriya kills about 100 patients and causes mass protests against the government Jul 2021: The Paris-based journalism coalition Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International discover that hundreds of journalists, dissidents and human-rights activists in 50 countries have been spied using the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus Jul 2021: An ISIS bomb kills more than 30 people at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City Jul 2021: Tunisia's president Kais Saied fires prime minister Hichem Mechichi and suspends parliament Aug 2021: A drone attack by Houthis kills 30 people at the Al-Anad government airbase in southern Yemen Sep 2021: After a year of political chaos and worsenin economy (700% inflation and 78% poverty rate), Lebanon's leaders form a new government led by Sunni tycoon Najib Mikati Sep 2021: Morocco's Development and Justice Party (PJD) is defeated in general elections and the king appoints billionaire Aziz Akhannouch, leader of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), as new prime minister Sep 2021: France assassinates the leader of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi Oct 2021: Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement demand the removal of the judge investigating the 2020 explosion in Beirut's port Oct 2021: Iraq parliamentary elections are won by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's also leader of the militia Saraya Salam, and his two Sunni and Kurdish allies (Mohammed Halbousi's Taqadum party and Masoud Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party) while the Iran-backed Coordination Framework which includes Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law and the Kurdish Patriotic Union as well as Qais al-Khazali's militia, loses about two-thirds of its seats, and the Alaa Rikabi's Imtidad list of independents born out of the 2019 protest movement wins only nine seats out of 329, leading to a long political impasse while caretaker prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi runs the country Oct 2021: Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (S.A.F.) jointly overthrow Sudan’s transitional government Nov 2021: Apple sues the Israeli company NSO whose state-sponsored spyware and surveillance technology spies on iPhone users Dec 2021: Israel's prime minister Naftali Bennett meets the UAE's de facto leader, crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed, in Abu Dhabi, the first offical visit by an Israeli leader to the UAE 2021: ISIS carried out an average of 87 attacks and 149 casualties per month in Iraq 2021: Algeria experiences the worst fires in its history, with multiple fires killing 90 people Jan 2022: Sudan's prime minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns following mass protests against his pact with the military Jan 2022: Lebanon's currency hit an all-time low of 30,000 pounds to the US dollar, a 95% loss from its value in 2019 Jan 2022: A German court sentences Syrian colonel Anwar Raslan, responsible for the torture of at least 4000 prisoners in the Al-Khatib prison of Damascus in 2011-12, including 58 deaths and many rapes, to life in prison Jan 2022: Yemen's Houthi rebels strike the United Arab Emirates with drones Jan 2022: Hundreds of people are killed when ISIS attacks a prison in Syria's northeastern city of al-Hasaka Feb 2022: ISIS' leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi kills himself rather than surrender to the USA during a raid on his compound in Syria Feb 2022: Libya's parliament, based in the east (Tobruk) and controlled by Khalifa Hifter, votes Fathi Bashagha as new prime minister to unseat prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeiba of the official government based in the west (Tripoli) Mar 2022: Top diplomats of four Arab countries (Egypt, Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco) meet in Israel Mar 2022: A missile by the Houthi rebels hits an oil storage facility near Jeddah in Saudi Arabia Mar 2022: ISIS-inspired Arabs kill 11 people in Israel in three separate attacks Mar 2022: Saudi Arabia executes 81 men in one day, the largest mass execution in modern Saudi history May 2022: Israel kills Sayad Khodayee, leader of Iran's covert Unit 840 May 2022: Israel and the United Arab Emirates sign a free-trade agreement Jun 2022: Israel is suspected of several killings in Iran Jul 2022: A US drone kills al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan Aug 2022: Israel arrests Islamic Jihad's leader Bassem Saadi and then kills ten people with strikes on Islamic Jihad Aug 2022: After Moqtada al-Sadr announces that he's quitting politics, his Shiite faction fights the Iranian-based Shiite faction and at least 30 men are killed in Iraq's bloodiest week in nearly three years Oct 2022: The USA kills three top ISIS leaders in two military operations inside Syria Oct 2022: Michel Aoun's term as president of Lebanon ends but no successor is appointed, and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Christian leader Saad Hariri both have retired from politics Oct 2022: Netanyahu's right-wing alliance wins elections again and Netanyahu becomes prime minister thanks to the support of Itamar Ben Gvir's far-right religious party Oct 2022: The Iraqi parliament chooses Shiite politician Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani as prime minister and Kurdish politician Abdul Latif Rashid as president 2022: Over 30 years the share of Middle Eastern exports going to China and India has climbed from 5% to 26%, while the share sent to Europe and America has fallen from 34% to 16%, with China taking less than 1% of Saudi Arabia's crude oil in 1990 and India less than 3% and those figures being 28% and 12% in 2021 2022: Morocco's car industry produces around 700,000 vehicles a year Jan 2023: Israeli troops kill nine Palestinians in the Jenin camp and a Palestinian kills seven Jews in a Jerusalem synagogue Feb 2023: An earthquake kills more than 46,000 people in Turkey and Syria Feb 2023: Israeli troops kill 11 Palestinians in Nablus trying to arrest Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists, a Palestinian kills two Israeli settlers in the West Bank, settlers attack Palestinian homes, and more Palestinians are killed by Israeli soldiers Mar 2023: Large demonstrations in Israel against Netanyahu's proposed law that would protect him from jail Apr 2023: Israel's prime minister Netanyahu provokes Palestinian violence to distract from popular protests Apr 2023: China mediates between Saudi Arabia and Iran that restore diplomatic ties severed in 2016 Apr 2023: Clashes erupt between Sudan's army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (the country's de facto leader), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Apr 2023: A stampede in Yemen at a Ramadan charity event kills about 80 people May 2023: An Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip kills at least 15 Palestinians, including three commanders of Islamic Jihad Jun 2023: Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an Arab militia, massacre more than one thousand Masalit refugees near West Darfur's capital El Geneina Jul 2023: The Sudanese army, headed by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, controls most of eastern and central Sudan, while the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo (aka "Hemedti"), armed by the United Arab Emirates, controls most of Khartoum and Darfur, the latter being ethnically cleansed by Arab militia Jul 2023: During the first seven months of the year, 137 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's military and 24 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian fighters Jul 2023: Saudi Arabia sentences Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a retired teacher, to death for tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations Jul 2023: Clashes between Fatah members and Islamist leave 11 people dead in Lebanon's Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp Jul 2023: Egypt's debt-to-GDP ratio is 93%, annual inflation is 38%, its currency has lost half of its value to the dollar in two years, its non-oil economy has contracted for three years but Egypt is the world's sixth-largest importer of arms Aug 2023:Human Rights Watch discovers that Saudi border guards have killed thousands of migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia trying to enter Saudi Arabia from Yemen Aug 2023: Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Emirates and Saudi Arabia join BRICS Aug 2023: Demonstrations begin in the southern province of Sweida, home to the country’s Druse sect, when the Syrian government slashes fuel subsidies Sep 2023: An earthquake kills more than 2,000 people in Morocco Sep 2023: Floods kill thousands people in eastern Libya Sep 2023: About 100 people are killed by a fire at a wedding in northern Iraq's Nineveh province Oct 2023: A drone kills about 100 people at a military academy in Syria's Homs Oct 2023: A Turkish drone strike on Syria's Kurdish-controlled region, targeting the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, kills 10 people Oct 2023: A surprise attack by Hamas kills more than 1,200 Israelis, the biggest massacre of Jews since World War II, and Israel's retaliation kills thousands of Palestinians Dec 2023: About 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza in two months plus about 300 in the West Bank since Hamas's attack 2023: The Middle East accounts for 36% of world oil production. 46% of oil exports, 22% of natural gas production and 30% of liquefied gas exports, and it has 52% of the world's total reserves of oil and 43% of gas 2023: More than half a million people have been killed in Syria's civil war since 2011, about 7 million are internally displaced and about 6 million left Syria Jan 2024: Iran-supported Houthis shoot missiles at ships in the Red Sea to protest Israel's war against Hamas and the USA and Britain bomb Yemen in retaliation Jan 2024: While waging the war in Gaza against Hamas, Israel assassinates three senior Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon, notably Hezbollah's commander Wissam al-Tawil Jan 2024: Israel kills four Iranian military advisers in Syria Feb 2024: The USA strikes Iranian-affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria after they a drone killed 3 US soldiers in Jordan, including the assassination in Baghdad of a senior commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kataib Hezbollah Mar 2024: Israel strikes Syrian troops and kills more than 30 and then kills seven officers of Iran's Revolutionary Guards in Damascus as well as Iran's general Reza Zahedi Apr 2024: Iran fires missiles to Israel Jun 2024: More than 1300 pilgrims die of heat in Saudi Arabia during the Hajj Jul 2024: ISIS kills six people near a Shiite mosque in Oman Jul 2024: A Houthi drone hits Israel and Israel retaliates by striking Houthis in Yemen Jul 2024: Israel assassinates Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah's commander Fuad Shukur in Beirut, Hamas' political chief Ismail Haniyeh while he is in Tehran Aug 2024: Hamas appoints Yahya Sinwar as its new political leader Aug 2024: The USA bombs ISIS targets in Iraq killing 15 people Also see a timeline of the modern Middle East |
Caliphs632-34 Abu Bakr 634-44 Umar ibn al-Khattab 644-56 Uthman ibn Affan 656-61 Ali ibn Abi Talib 661-80 Muawiya I 680-82 Yazid I 683 Mu'awiya II 684-85 Marwan I 685-705 Abd al-Malik 705-15 Walid I 715-17 Sulaiman 717-20 Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz 720-24 Yazid II 724-43 Hisham 743-44 Walid II 744 Yazid III 744 Ibrahim 744-50 Marwan II 750-54 Abu al Abbas al-Saffah 754-75 Al-Mansur 775-85 Al-Mahdi 785-86 Al-Hadi 786-809 Harun Al-Rashid 809-13 Al-Amin 813-33 Al-Mamun 833-42 Al-Mu'tasim 842-47 Al-Wathiq 847-61 Al-Mutawakkil 861-62 Al-Muntasir 862-66 Al-Musta'in 866-69 Al-Mu'tazz 869-70 Al-Muqtadi 870-92 Al-Mu'tamid 892-902 Al-Mu'tadid 902-8 Al-Muqtafi 908-32 Al-Muqtadir 932-34 Al-Qahir 934-40 Al-Radi 940-44 Al-Muttaqi 944-46 Al-Mustaqfi 946-74 Al-Muti 974-91 Al-Ta'i 991-1031 Al-Qadir 1031-75 Al-Qa'im 1075-94 Al-Muqtadi 1094-1118 Al-Mustazhir 1118-35 Al-Mustarshid 1135-36 Al-Rashid 1136-60 Al-Muqtafi 1160-70 Al-Mustanjid 1170-80 Al-Mustadi 1180-1225 Al-Nasir 1225-26 Al-Zahir 1226-42 Al-Mustansir 1242-56 Al-Musta'sim Cordoba756-88 Abd ar-Rahman I 788-96 Hisham I 796-822 Al-Hakam I 822-52 Abd ar-Rahman II 852-86 Muhammad I 886-88 Al Mundhir 888-912 Abdallah 912-61 Abd ar-Rahman III 961-76 Al-Hakam II al Mustansir 976-1009 Hisham II al Muayyad 1009-10 Muhammad II al-Mahdi 1009-10 Sulaiman al-Mustain 1010-13 Hisham II 1013-16 Sulaiman 1016-18 Ali ben Hammud 1018 Abd ar-Rahman IV 1018-21 Al-Qasim 1021-22 Yahya 1022-23 Al-Qasim 1023-24 Abd ar-Rahman V 1024-25 Muhammad III 1025-27 Yahya 1027-31 Hisham III Egypt909-34 Al-Mahdi 934-45 Al-Qaim 945-52 Al-Mansur 952-75 Al-Muizz 975-96 Al-Aziz 996-1021 Al-Hakim 1021-36 Az-Zahir 1036-94 Al-Mustansir 1094-1101 Al-Mustadi 1101-30 Al-Amir 1130-49 Al-Hafiz 1149-54 Az-Zafir 1154-60 Al-Faiz 1160-71 Al-Adid Egypt monarchy and republicKing Fuad (1922-1936) King Farouk (1936-1952) Muhammad Naguib (1952-1956) Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970) Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011) Mohammed Mursi (2012-13) Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (2013- |
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