'Military Report on Mesopotamia (Iraq)' [‎8v] (21/226)

4
After various vicissitudes, now victorious, now cast into
a Turkish prison, he succeeded in establishing a tribal
domain, subject practically only in name to the Turkish
government.
During the war, despite a violently-preached Jihad,
the tribal inhabitants of Northern Jazirah displayed
little enthusiasm for the cause of Turkey. In some cases
their sympathies were alienated by the wholesale appro
priation of crops and animals, nor are they likely to
forgive the starvation and misery caused by the activities
of German agents, who, with the concurrence of the
Turks, commandeered what food supplies were left by
their allies and sent them to Germany.
With the occupation of Mosul, the British sphere of
influence was extended to embrace a large part of
Northern Jazirah. In the first few months of our occupa
tion, the prestige derived from our victories over the
Turks and the presence of large armed forces in Mosul
district restrained the tribes from their customary lawless
ness and predatory habits. The fall of Dair al Zor, how
ever, in December, 1919, and our seeming military weak
ness and loss of prestige, consequent on abortive efforts
to repress tribes on the Upper Euphrates, stirred to life
the temporarily quiescent predilections of the Jazirah
tribes for robbery and raid. In May, 1920, several
convoys on the Mosul-Shergat lines of communication
were looted and a train was derailed between Baiji and
Shergat. In the same month the Arab authorities in
Dair al Zor established a military post at Tel Fadgham
on the Khabur Biver and a virulent pan-Arab propaganda
was disseminated in the Jazirah. At the beginning of
June Jamil Beg, with a Sharifian force of about 100 men,
advanced on Tel Afar where the local gendarmerie,
suborned from their loyalty by a disaffected officer,
murdered the British Political authorities and handed the
town over to Jamil Beg. The intention of the latter was
to raise the local tribes and drive the British forces from
Mosul. Actually the expedition was joined only by small
elements of the Girgiriyah, Tel Afaris, Shammar,
Juhaish and A1 Mutaiwid. The tribesmen showed very
early that they had no desire to risk an engagement with
British troops, but had set out under their old pre
datory instincts to sack Tel Afar and, if fortune favoured
them, the City of Mosul. On the approach of a small
mixed British force the tribesmen dispersed ; the townsmen
of Tel Afar fled beyond our frontier and the Sharifian
foi’ce retired on Dair al Zor. Our material losses were