Khazir River

The Khazir River (Arabic: الخازر‎) is a river of northern Iraq, a tributary of the Great Zab river, joining its right bank.[1]

A bridge over the Khazir River on the road between Mosul and Erbil

Geomorphology

The area around the Khazir River is geologically active[2] and crosses three anticlines from the north to the south and this has greatly affected the course of the river. The river has a catchment of 2,900 km2.[1] The net yearly recharge rate of the valley water table is 111.6 mm/year[3][4][5] and the region is considered to be fertile.[6]

History

At a site called M'lefaat evidence has been found of a small village of hunter-gatherers dating to the 10th millennium BC that was contemporary with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A in the Levant.[7][8] Latter the river was part of an irrigation area that supported the Assyrian city of Nimrud.[9] Known to the Hellenistic Greeks as the Boumelus River[10] the river was site of a battle between Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia.

In August 686 AD, the river was a site of a battle between the armies of Ibrahim ibn al-Ashtar and Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad,[11][12] during the revolt of Mukhtar al-Thaqafi. On 25 January 750, the Battle of the Zab was fought nearby.

In 2014, following bombing by United States planes, ISIL forces retreated back to the Khazir River,[13] where ISIL destroyed bridges built by the Americans 10 years prior.[14]

References
  1. Abdulla, Fayez; Al-Badranih, Laith (2000). "Application of a rainfall-runoff model to three catchments in Iraq". Hydrological Sciences Journal. 45 (1): 13–25. doi:10.1080/02626660009492303.
  2. Ziyad Elia, The Neotectonic Activity Along the Lower Khazir River by Using SRTM Image and Geomorphic Indices Earth Sciences 2015; 4(1): 50-58 .
  3. Hussein Jassas and Broder Merkel, Estimating Groundwater Recharge in the Semiarid Al-Khazir Gomal Basin, North Iraq, Water 2014, 6(8), 2467-2481
  4. Hussein A. Jassas & Broder J. Merkel, Investigating groundwater recharge by means of stable isotopes in the Al-Khazir Gomal Basin, northern Iraq Environmental Earth Sciences June 2015, Volume 73, Issue 12, pp 8533-8546.
  5. Investigating groundwater recharge by means of stable isotopes in the Al-Khazir Gomal Basin, northern Iraq, Environmental Earth Sciences June 2015, Volume 73, Issue 12, pp 8533-8546.
  6. The Khirpa Zhuri - Khirpa Zheri - Perkholy - Lakan - Esmawa Local Road, The Duhok Governorate (Akree Region). Iraq. 2008
  7. Kozłowski, Stefan Karol (1998), "M'lefaat. Early Neolithic site in northern Iraq", Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8: 234,
  8. Solecki, Ralph S. (1997). "Shanidar Cave". In Meyers, Eric M. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Ancient Near East 5. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 15–16.
  9. Christopher Davey, The negub Tunnel, Iraq Vol. 47 (1985), pp. 49-55 .
  10. Curtis book 9.
  11. al-Syyed, Kamal. "The Battle of al-Khazir". Mukhtar al-Thaqafi. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Foundation. p. 21.
  12. Al-Mukhtār ibn Abū ʿUbayd al-Thaqafi, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2013.
  13. Raja Abdulrahim, The Daily Herald 5 October 2014 Iraqi Kurdish forces move toward complex battle in Mosul.
  14. COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY 3rd May 2003.

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