The Iraq war was a dark period in world history, repercussions of which the people of Iraq encounter even today. On this date, Whistleblower website Wikileaks released the Iraq War logs that detailed a whole host of undocumented events that took place during the war, which lay bare the transgressions of the US forces that, according to the reports, were responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths.
The 4,00,000 classified Iraq war documents revealed that the troops had killed about 700 civilians over the years near the checkpoints — including pregnant women and family members trying to get to hospitals. There were also reports of misclassification of civilian deaths as "enemy" casualties. They also put the total death count at 1,09,000, higher than the figure shared by the US. It also alleged that a majority of those deaths were civilians, including almost 15,000 previously unacknowledged casualties.
Apart from the negligence of the US troops to investigate Iraqi police and security forces brutalising prisoners, the documents also brought to light Iran's involvement in the war, both via their own forces and through the weapons and training provided to the Iraqi militia. When the reports were released, The New York Times had said that they revealed tensions between the Kurds and the Arabs in the northern region of Iraq, foreboding these spilling over once the US troops retreat.
Here's something else that happened on this day. Did you know that the ubiquitous Google Play was once known as Android Market? The official online store for apps that run on the Android Software Development Kit was initially released as Android Market back in 2008 and then relaunched as Google Play in July 2012.
