TODAY IN HISTORY
July 10, 1883: With a dramatic bayonet charge, a Chilean army defeats a Peruvian force at the Battle of Huamachuco, the last major engagement of the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific. The Peruvians suffered 800 killed out of an army that was around 1880 strong and were forced to accept the Treaty of Ancón in October, which ended the war largely on Chilean terms. The treaty ceded considerable territory to Chile and ultimately triggered the collapse of Peruvian President Miguel Iglesias’s government and the subsequent 1884-1885 Peruvian Civil War.
July 10, 1943: In a pre-dawn landing the Allies begin their invasion of Sicily, codenamed “Operation Husky.” Although it wasn’t until mid-August that Sicily was in Allied hands the Italian military began evacuating forces from the island in late July, and the seemingly inevitable defeat proved to be the last straw for Benito Mussolini’s government, which fell on July 25. The Sicilian operation marked the first phase of the Allied invasion of Italy.
July 10, 2017: Iraqi authorities declare the city of Mosul liberated from the Islamic State, marking the recapture of the last major city in Iraq that had still been in IS’s hands. Two more large campaigns followed in Tal Afar and Hawija, but once Mosul was retaken the outcome of the campaign against IS in Iraq was no longer in doubt.
MIDDLE EAST
TURKEY
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told state media on Friday that, “God willing,” the US and Turkish governments “will reach a conclusion soon” regarding sanctions and the sale of F-35 aircraft to Ankara. Donald Trump, as you may recall, mentioned his intent to lift US sanctions against Turkey earlier this week but notably did not commit to any F-35 sale.
Turkey’s ownership of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system remains an obstacle to such a sale, but the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Friday that Ankara may be on the verge of selling its S-400 “to one of the Gulf nations.” The Russian government appeared to confirm, via Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, that it has been discussing with Turkish officials the potential sale or transfer of the S-400 to either Qatar or the United Arab Emirates. Russian permission is presumably required before Turkey can sell or give the system to another country.
