The Khazir River () is a river of northern Iraq, a tributary of the Great Zab river, joining its right bank.
Geomorphology
The area around the Khazir River is geologically active
[Ziyad Elia, The Neotectonic Activity Along the Lower Khazir River by Using SRTM Image and Geomorphic Indices Earth Sciences 2015; 4(1): 50-58 .] and crosses three
from the north to the south and this has greatly affected the course of the river. The river has a catchment of 2,900 km.
[ The net yearly recharge rate of the aquifer is 111.6 mm/year][Hussein Jassas and Broder Merkel, Estimating Groundwater Recharge in the Semiarid Al-Khazir Gomal Basin, North Iraq, Water 2014, 6(8), 2467-2481][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.][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.] and the region is considered to be fertile.[ The Khirpa Zhuri - Khirpa Zheri - Perkholy - Lakan - Esmawa Local Road, The Duhok Governorate (Akree Region). Iraq, 2008.]
History
At a site called M'lefaat evidence has been found of a small village of dating to the 10th millennium BC that was contemporary with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A in the Levant.[Kozłowski, Stefan Karol (1998), "M'lefaat. Early Neolithic site in northern Iraq", Cahiers de l'Euphrate 8: 234,][Ralph Solecki. (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.]
Latter the river was part of an irrigation area that supported the city of Nimrud.[Christopher Davey, The negub Tunnel, Iraq Vol. 47 (1985), pp. 49-55 .]
Known to the Hellenistic Greeks as the river Boumelus[Curtis book 9.] or Bumodus, it was the site of the Battle of Gaugamela 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,[al-Syyed, Kamal. "The Battle of al-Khazir". Mukhtar al-Thaqafi. Qum, Iran: Ansariyan Foundation. p. 21.][ Al-Mukhtār ibn Abū ʿUbayd al-Thaqafi, in Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2013.] 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,[Raja Abdulrahim, The Daily Herald 5 October 2014 Iraqi Kurdish forces move toward complex battle in Mosul .] where ISIL destroyed bridges built by the Americans 10 years prior.[ COALITION EFFORTS AID IRAQ'S RECOVERY 3 May 2003.]
