History of the Middle East brought major protests, uprisings, and revolutions to several Middle Eastern countries, followed by prolonged civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. In 2014, a terrorist group and self-proclaimed caliphate calling itself the Islamic State made rapid territorial gains in western Iraq and eastern Syria, prompting international military intervention. At its peak, the group controlled an area containing an estimated 2.8 to 8 million people, 98% of which was lost by December 2017. By country: General: Works cited History of the Middle East Home to the Cradle of Civilization, the Middle East (usually interchangeable with the Near East) has seen
The Hamsters Bronze. In 1994, after having re-learned the bass using a custom-designed thumb-pick, he rejoined the band when Bronze left to join Eric Clapton's band. In 2011, Billups released a solo album "Afton Down", in a more "folky" style than The Hamsters material, which does not credit any contributions by Martin or Parish. From 2017 onwards Billups has been the bass player with the Free tribute band, Tons of Sobs. As the band always intended to combine humour and music and wanted to remain relatively anonymous, they decided to adopt light-hearted stage names: The Hamsters The Hamsters were a British band