Hi, 1 Jul 1928 Control of the Iraq Levies passed from the Colonial Office to the RAF. The force had its origins in 1915 and was reconstituted as the Iraq Levies in 1919. The RAF had assumed operational command in Iraq in October 1922 as part of the policy of air control. Kingsley Oliver observed: “In addition to river gunboats and an armoured train, the RAF inherited a locally-enlisted force composed of Arabs, Kurds and Assyrians commanded by officers seconded from the British Army. The Iraq Levies of that time consisted of three cavalry regiments, four infantry battalions, two artillery batteries and a machine-gun company, totalling some six thousand men.” Regards, Mick D.
