3rd Corps (Iraq)
The 3rd Corps was a major unit of the Iraqi Army, formed before 1978. It fought in the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 1978 its headquarters were in Nasariyah, and it included the 1st and 5th Mechanised Divisions and the 9th Armoured Division.
A former corps chief of staff, Major General Aladdin Hussein Makki Khamas, recalled in later interviews that in 1982 Iran launched major attacks and the III Corps was unprepared, so a withdrawal was decided. The Iranians attacked the southern sector, while two divisions—the 5th Mechanised and the 6th Armored—held the northern sector but were not under pressure. He argued that the right move would have been to use those two divisions to attack and outflank the enemy in the south, which could have stalled the Iranian assault; he and a few others believed this, while many did not. He described a moment where a senior commander hesitated when asked what to do with the two divisions, making the withdrawal seem inevitable.
By 2003, the 3rd Corps headquarters were still in Nasiriyah. It consisted of the 11th Infantry Division, the 51st Mechanised Infantry Division (in 2002 listed as having the 31st Mech Brigade, the 32nd Mech Brigade, and the 41st Armoured Brigade), and the 6th Armored Division—each about half-strength. The 51st covered the oilfields to the south; the 6th was in the north near Al Amarah, leaving three brigade-sized elements of the 11th ID to guard An Nasiriyah.
The 3rd Corps, like the rest of the Iraqi Army, was dissolved in May 2003 under Coalition Provisional Authority Order 2.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:46 (CET).