The division was formed as part of the buildup of the Iraqi Army after the
Yom Kippur War. Pesach Malovany says it was 'newly established' in the leadup to the
Iran–Iraq War. Before the war it was garrisoned in the
An Nasiriyah area as part of the
3rd Corps. A British military attache reporting in 1977 and 1978, listed the division under the 3rd Corps, with its headquarters at
Samawa, and with its brigades as the 14th Mechanised and 43rd and 45th Armoured Brigades. It first saw action in the initial Iraqi invasion of
Khuzestan, and fought in several battles during the first phases of the Iran-Iraq War. However, the 9th Division was so badly beaten (and essentially wiped out) in the
Operation Ramadan, in July 1982, that it was disbanded. The 9th Division was the only Iraqi division to be disbanded without being reformed during the war. Because the number nine had become unlucky in the Iraqi Army due to the division's severe losses, it was decided not to rebuild it, but instead to transfer what personnel and equipment was left to the new
17th Armoured Division (Iraq), which had just been formed within the
2nd Corps. The division was reformed after the recreation of the Iraqi Army began after the
2003 invasion of Iraq. A 2006 article in
ARMY Magazine described how the division was being built from the 'wreckage of the old
Republican Guard. ..[i]ts facilities occupy the greater portion of
Camp Taji, Iraq, in scores of refurbished buildings that once belonged to the Republican Guard, and much of its equipment was salvaged' from the old regime's junk. T-55 tanks and '
armoured personnel carriers for two of its three brigades were cobbled together from battle-damaged vehicles..' at Camp Taji. Contractors rebuilt functioning equipment from the scrap. Used
T-72 tanks for the division's third brigade were to be purchased from a former
Soviet Bloc country. It was certified and assumed responsibility of the battle space of north
Baghdad Governorate on June 26, 2006. In September 2006,
ARMY Magazine said that two of the division's brigades had already been fielded and were operationally partnered with U.S. Army units. The division had carried out its first
command post exercise in the northern summer of 2006. One of the division's commanders has been General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, who was eventually promoted to Lieutenant General and took over the
Ninevah Operational Command (NOC). The
Institute for the Study of War, describing Riyadh's assumption of command of the NOC, said that the 9th Division had controlled the
Rusafa area of eastern
Baghdad, and that Riyadh had been credited with helping secure that 'key district.' Other divisional commander have included Major General Bashar Mahmood Ayob (2006) and, as of April 2009, Major General Qassim Jassem Nazal. == Composition ==