Sara B. Moller
Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy
Center for Strategic and International Studies
September 28, 2005
POST-WAR IRAQ CHRONOLOGY
2003
May 1, 2003: President George W. Bush declares an end to major combat operations in Iraq. The U.S. lost 138 soldiers during the war.
Seven U.S. soldiers are wounded when grenades are thrown at an American base in Fallujah, a stronghold for Saddam Hussein loyalists. Earlier, U.S. troops killed 15 civilians at a protest in the city.
May 2, 2003: U.S. troops apprehend Saddam Hussein’s Minister of Military Industrialization, Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, who is suspected of playing a central role in developing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
One of Saddam’s vice-presidents, Taha Mohieddin Ma’rouf, is also arrested, bringing the total number of regime members in custody to 17. A total of 55 former regime members are being sought by the Coalition.
May 3, 2003: Schools re-open in Baghdad for the first time in seven weeks, but many children remain at home, as parents fear for their safety.
May 5, 2003: Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, the woman dubbed “Mrs. Anthrax” for her role in Iraq’s biological weapons programs, is taken into U.S. custody. AmmashNo. 53 on the list of most-wanted Iraqis-is the 19th person on the list to be captured.
May 6, 2003: President Bush appoints L. Paul Bremer, former ambassador and counterterrorism director, the new civilian administrator for postwar Iraq. He replaces retired Lieutenant General Jay Garner.
May 7, 2003: U.S. officials discover that Qusay Hussein, bearing a letter of authorization signed by his father, removed $1 billion cash from the Iraqi central bank on March 18, 2003.
May 9, 2003: The U.S., U.K. and Spain present a blueprint for postwar Iraq to the United
Nations Security Council. The draft resolution names the U.S. and U.K. as “occupying powers,” and gives them control of Iraqi oil revenues for at least a year.
Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric-Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim-returns to Iraq after 23 years of exile in Iran.
U.S. General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. 4th Infantry Division, initiates disarmament talks with the “People’s Mujahidin,” an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq.
May 10, 2003: A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter crashes into the Tigris River, killing three U.S. soldiers.
May 12, 2003: L. Paul Bremer officially replaces Jay Garner as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA).
Coalition forces detain Rihab Rashid Taha Al-Azzawi Al-Tikriti, head of the Iraqi biological program.
May 13, 2003: A mass grave with 15,000 bodies is found near Baghdad. The remains appear to be Shiites killed during a 1991 popular uprising.
Microbiologist Dr. Rihab Taha, known as “Dr. Germ” for her role in Iraq’s biological weapons program, surrenders to coalition forces.
May 17, 2003: 9,000 additional U.S. troops arrive in Baghdad to assist in policing the capital.
May 19, 2003: Thousands of Shiites, apparently organized by the cleric Moqtada al-
Sadr, peacefully march through Baghdad to protest the American occupation.
May 22, 2003: The U.N. Security Council votes 14-0 to lift sanctions on Iraq and grants temporary control of the country to the U.S. and U.K. Syria boycotts the vote.
May 27, 2003: Two U.S. soldiers die in an organized attack on an army checkpoint in
Fallujah.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan names Sergio Vieira de Mello head of U.N. operations in Iraq.
May 30, 2003: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell deny allegations that pre-war intelligence was manipulated to justify the invasion.
May 31, 2003: 37 U.S. troops died in May.
June 2, 2003: Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, sends his last report to the U.N. Security Council. In it, he states that the inspections carried out prior to the war did little to account for Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction.
June 12, 2003: An Apache AH-64 helicopter is downed in western Iraq; it is the first U.S. helicopter to be brought down by enemy fire since the fall of the Hussein regime. The two pilots escape unhurt.
June 13, 2003: U.S. troops question nearly 400 suspects following Operation Peninsula Strike, the biggest military operation since the end of formal combat operations. Several Iraqis die in the three-day operation.
June 15, 2003: Hundreds of American soldiers swept through Fallujah in an operation called “Desert Scorpion”. The operation is intended to defeat organized Iraqi resistance.
An average of approximately one U.S. soldier has been killed per day since May
1st.
June 17, 2003: American troops mount searches through Baghdad after a sniper killed a U.S. solider on patrol.
June 19, 2003: A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) struck an American military ambulance, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring two.
June 24, 2003: Six British soldiers are killed in two attacks in the Shiite town of Al
Majar al-Kabir. The gun battles with residents stem from local anger over the Coalition’s use of dogs during house searches. According to Islamic doctrine, dogs are unclean animals.
June 26, 2003: A U.S. solider is killed when his vehicle is ambushed. A pedestrian also dies.
June 30, 2003: Three blasts rock Fallujah. One at the Al-Hassan mosque kills a Muslim cleric and six theology students, injuring 15 others. U.S. Central Command reports that “something like an ammunition dump” exploded near the mosque.
The death toll for U.S. troops in June is 30.
July 1, 2003: An explosion destroys a Sunni mosque in Fallujah, killing at least 10 Iraqis, including the chief cleric, and injuring four others. Many Iraqis blame an American missile for the destruction and chant, “America is the enemy of God.” U.S. troops kill two Iraqis who fail to stop at a checkpoint.
July 4, 2003: A tape recording, purportedly of Saddam Hussein, is broadcast urging guerrilla fighters in Iraq to continue their resistance against the U.S.-led occupation.
July 5, 2003: A British freelance TV cameraman is shot and killed in Baghdad.
Seven Iraqi police recruits are killed and 40 are wounded by an explosion at a police-training center in Ramadi.
July 7, 2003: General John Abizaid replaces retiring General Tommy Franks as commander of Central Command and, by extension, of Coalition forces in Iraq.
July 13, 2003: Iraq’s interim governing council meets for the first time. The 25-member council has the power to name officials and will be responsible for drafting Iraq’s new constitution.
July 14, 2003: One U.S. soldier dies and six are injured in an attack on a convoy in Baghdad.
July 16, 2003: Attacks in western Iraq claim the lives of a pro-U.S. mayor and his son.
Abizaid announces that replacement troops may be deployed for yearlong tours.
July 17, 2003: An audiotape, purported to be of Saddam Hussein and apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 1968 Baathist revolution, is played on Arab television station al-Arabiya, urging defiance of the U.S. occupation.
July 18, 2003: Moqtada al-Sadr announces plans to form an independent “Islamic army” to challenge the American occupation and the Iraqi Governing Council.
July 21, 2003: U.N. Secretary General Annan endorses Iraq’s Governing Council.
July 22, 2003: U.S. Special Forces kill Uday and Qusay Hussein in Mosul. Special Forces, who were backed by 200 regular Army soldiers and several helicopters, stormed a villa after receiving a tip from an Iraqi source. The Hussein brothers died along with a bodyguard and Qusay’s teenage son. Four Americans are wounded in the operation.
July 24, 2003: Three U.S. soldiers are killed when their convoy is ambushed in Qaiyara.
July 25, 2003: Japan agrees to support Iraqi reconstruction efforts with military personnel – its largest troop deployment since 1945.
July 26, 2003: A grenade attack kills four U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division at Baquba. The soldiers were guarding a children’s hospital.
July 27, 2003: A U.S. soldier dies in a grenade attack south of Baghdad, bringing the American death toll to five in the last 24 hours.
July 29, 2003: A recording, purported to be by Saddam Hussein, declares that his two sons died as martyrs for Iraq, and promises that U.S. forces will be defeated.
July 31, 2003: 47 American troops died in July.
August 7, 2003: A car bomb explodes outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. All of the dead are Iraqis. Following the attack, Iraqis storm the ruble, smashing portraits of Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
August 8, 2003: U.S. troops mistakenly open fire, killing six Iraqi civilians in Baghdad hurrying home before the start of the nightly curfew.
U.S. soldiers kill two Iraqis believed to be selling weapons at a market in Tikrit.
August 9, 2003: British troops fight to restore calm in Basra after fuel and power shortages.
U.S. casualties reach 255 at the 100-day mark; 43 British soldiers have also died.
August 11, 2003: Six Iraqi prisoners die and 59 are wounded when the Abu Ghraib prison comes under mortar fire.
August 14, 2003: A British soldier is killed and two others are injured during a guerrilla attack on a military ambulance in the outskirts of Basra.
August 15, 2003: Saboteurs blow up a crude oil export pipeline in northern Iraq, sparking an enormous fire and halting oil exports to Turkey.
August 16, 2003: In an rare example of Sunni-Shia cooperation, a popular Sunni cleric,
Ahmed Kubeisi, offers grass-roots and financial support to an outspoken antiAmerican Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.
August 19, 2003: A truck bomb explodes outside U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing
24 people, including the head of the U.N. mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello. Over 100 are injured. The dead also include the Iraq coordinator for the U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF, and several World Bank staffers.
August 21, 2003: Coalition troops capture General Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in the gas attacks against the Kurds in 1987. He is No. five on the United States’ list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis.
August 23, 2003: Three British soldiers are killed in a guerrilla attack in Basra.
August 29, 2003: An explosion at a Najaf mosque kills 95, including one of Iraq’s most important Shiite leaders, Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim. Another 125 are wounded. Ayatollah al-Hakim was the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and returned to Iraq in May following more than two decades of exile in Iran.
August 31, 2003: 35 American troops died in August.
September 7, 2003: President Bush announces that an additional $87 billion will be required to cover additional military and reconstruction costs in Iraq.
September 10, 2003: A suicide car bomb explodes outside coalition intelligence offices in Irbil. Three die; 41 are injured.
September 12, 2003: U.S. troops mistakenly shoot and kill ten Iraqi policemen in
Fallujah. In response, residents vow to launch a wave of violence against Americans.
September 19, 2003: Former Iraqi defense minister, General Sultan Hashim Ahmad – No. 27 on the list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis – surrenders to U.S. forces.
September 25, 2003: Dr. Aqila al-Hashimi, the only female member of the Iraq Governing Council, dies five days after being shot. Men with machine guns and a bomb attacked Hashimi near her home. The career diplomat was the only member of the former Baathist regime to occupy a position on the Council.
September 30, 2003: The death toll for American troops in September is 30.
October 2, 2003: David Kay’s interim report finds no evidence of WMDs in Iraq. U.S. forces face roughly 15-20 attacks per day in Iraq.
October 5, 2003: The White House announces a reorganization of its reconstruction efforts in Iraq, placing National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in charge while diminishing the role of the Pentagon.
October 7, 2003: Turkey agrees to send up to 10,000 troops to Iraq.
October 9, 2003: A suicide bomber rams his car into a police station in Baghdad, killing nine.
Two U.S. soldiers die and four are injured in an ambush in Baghdad.
October 12, 2003: A suicide car bombing near the Baghdad Hotel kills eight and wounds 32.
October 14, 2003: A suicide car bomb explodes outside the Turkish embassy in
Baghdad, killing one Iraqi and wounding at least 13. In an apparent change of strategy, insurgents are targeting supporters of the Coalition rather than U.S. troops.
October 17, 2003: Three U.S. soldiers and at least seven Iraqis die in a gun battle outside the office of a Shia cleric in Karbala.
All 15 members of the United Nations Security Council vote in favor of Resolution 1511. The resolution adds international legitimacy to the CPA but emphasizes the need to hand over political control to Iraqis as soon as possible.
October 19, 2003: Two American soldiers die in an ambush outside Kirkuk.
October 23-24, 2003: The Madrid Conference, an international donors’ conference of 80 nations, yields $13 billion in addition to the $20 billion already pledged by the United States. This amount falls short of the $56 billion target, a figure the World Bank and U.N. estimated would be needed for Iraq over the next four years.
October 26, 2003: A rocket hits the Rashid hotel in Baghdad, narrowly missing Paul Wolfowitz, the American deputy secretary of defense. An U.S. colonel dies; 18 others are wounded.
October 27, 2003: Four coordinated suicide attacks in Baghdad kill 43 and wound more than 200. The targets are the headquarters of the Red Crescent (Islamic Red Cross) and three police stations. It’s the bloodiest day since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
October 30, 2003: The U.N. withdraws all non-Iraqi staff from Baghdad.
October 31, 2003: 43 American troops died in October.
November 2, 2003: In the single deadliest strike on U.S. forces since the war began, guerrillas shoot down an American Chinook helicopter six miles south of Fallujah, killing 16 U.S. soldiers and injuring 21 others.
November 7, 2003: Six U.S. soldiers die when their Black Hawk helicopter crashes after being struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.
Turkey reverses its decision to send troops to Iraq.
November 12, 2003: A car bomb outside an Italian military police station in Nasiriya kills 18 Italian officers and at least eight Iraqis.
The U.S. launches Operation Iron Hammer against suspected Hussein loyalists.
November 21, 2003: A suicide bombing outside the PUK office in Kirkuk kills four.
November 29, 2003: Two U.S. soldiers, seven Spanish intelligence officers, two Japanese diplomats, and a Colombian oil worker die in separate guerrilla attacks.
November 30, 2003: U.S. forces repel three ambushes on American convoys in Samarra, killing 46 Iraqis and capturing eight.
November produces the highest monthly death toll for U.S. troops – 82 – since May.
December 6, 2003: Bremer’s convoy is attacked in Baghdad, but the CPA chief survives.
December 9, 2003: A car bomb explodes outside an American military barracks near Mosul, wounding 60, including 41 U.S. troops.
December 13, 2003: Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops. The former dictator is found hiding in a hole near Tikrit, his hometown. He surrenders without a fight.
December 14, 2003: A car bomb destroys a police station near Baghdad, killing at least 17.
December 27, 2003: Guerrillas attack government buildings and foreign military bases in Karbala with car bombs, mortars and guns. 19 Iraqis die; 120 are wounded.
December 31, 2003: Eight Iraqis die when a car bomb rips through a Baghdad restaurant. Over 30 are wounded, including three Western journalists.
The death toll for U.S troops in December is 40.
2004
January 5, 2004: Three American soldiers are discharged after beating Iraqi POWs.
January 6, 2004: Two French nationals are killed in Fallujah after their car breaks down.
January 9, 2004: A rocket downs a U.S. medivac helicopter near Fallujah, killing nine. A bomb explodes outside a mosque in Baquba, killing at least 5.
January 14, 2004: Some 30,000 followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Hussein al-Sistani march through Basra, protesting in support of his demands for direct elections.
January 17, 2004: A roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqis, bringing the U.S. death toll to 500 since the conflict began.
January 18, 2004: A suicide bomber detonates a truck packed with 500kg of explosives at CPA headquarters, killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 100.
January 19, 2004: Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims march through Baghdad, demanding direct elections to choose a new government. It is the largest protest since the occupation of Iraq began 10 months before. The demonstration is partly inspired by Sistani’s opposition to the American plan for caucuses.
January 21, 2004: Four Iraqi women, working as laundresses at an U.S. military base, are gunned down and killed on their way to work.
January 24, 2004: Five U.S. soldiers die in separate bombings in the Sunni Triangle.
January 25, 2004: Seven Iraqi policemen die in a pair of attacks in Ramadi. The U.S. military loses its fifth helicopter in a month. Two die.
January 26, 2004: Guerrillas fire a rocket into the parking lot of occupation headquarters. No injuries are reported.
January 27, 2004: Six American soldiers are killed and four are wounded when homemade bombs explode in two roadside attacks in central Iraq.
A gunman opens fire on cars carrying CNN employees south of Baghdad, killing two Iraqis and wounding an American.
January 28, 2004: A car bomb explodes outside the Shaheen Hotel in central Baghdad, killing three while destroying the building and a police post.
In his report to the Senate, David Kay, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector, says U.S. pre-war intelligence estimates of Iraqi weapons programs were “almost all wrong.”
January 31, 2004: 12 people, including three American soldiers, are killed in separate bomb attacks in northern Iraq: a suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in Mosul, killing at least 9 people and wounding 45; in the second attack, three American soldiers die when a homemade bomb destroys their Humvee.
519 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, 381 have died since May 1.
The death toll for U.S. troops in January is 46.
February 1, 2004: 109 people die and 247 are wounded in two suicide attacks during celebrations at the headquarters of two leading Kurdish parties in Irbil.
One American soldier is killed and 12 are wounded in a rocket attack.
20 people trying to loot an ammunitions dump in southwestern Iraq are killed when the munitions unexpectedly explode.
February 5, 2004: Gunmen open fire on the entourage of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a popular Shiite cleric. He survives the assassination attempt.
February 9, 2004: The U.S. military intercepts a document written by Abu Musab alZarqawi, an Islamic extremist from Jordan with ties to al Qaeda. The 17-page document details a planned campaign of violence meant to destabilize Iraq by pitting religious and ethnic groups against one another. Expressing frustration with the insurgency’s failure to force out American troops, Zarqawi asks al Qaeda for assistance in accelerating guerrilla activities. Zarqawi is suspected of being involved in a number of recent attacks, including the bombings of U.N. headquarters; the main gate of the Coalition’s headquarters in Baghdad; and a shrine in the holy city of Najaf. Together, the attacks have killed nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more.
February 10, 2004: A car bomb explodes outside a police station in Iskandariya, killing at least 55 and wounding up to 65. Many of the victims were applicants lined up outside. A riot follows when the Iraqi police chief, Ahmed Ibrahim, arrives at the scene. Crowds shout anti-American slogans.
February 11, 2004: In yet another attempt to disrupt the creation of security forces, a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into a crowd of Iraqi Army recruits in central Baghdad, killing at least 47 and wounding at least 50 others.
February 14, 2004: Roughly 70 guerrillas firing rockets, mortars and machineguns raid police headquarters and the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) in Fallujah in an effort to free foreign prisoners. 15 policemen, four insurgents and at least four civilians die in the attack. The dead guerrillas appear to be Lebanese and Iranian nationals. At least 70 prisoners escape, many – 18 by one account – flee with the attackers.
February 15, 2004: Muhammad Zimam Abd al-Razzaq al Sadun, No. 41 on the Coalition’s list of most wanted Iraqis, is captured in a Baghdad suburb.
February 18, 2004: Polish troops thwart twin suicide car bombs as the vehicles approach a Coalition base in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The speeding trucks explode prematurely, killing 11 Iraqi civilians and wounding as many as 100, including nearly 60 coalition troops from Poland, Hungary and the U.S.
February 23, 2004: At least 10 people are killed and over 35 are injured when a car bomb explodes outside a Kirkuk police station.
February 25, 2004: A U.S. OH-58 Kiowa Helicopter crashes into the Euphrates River near Hadithah, killing two of its crew. The cause of the crash is unknown, though several eyewitnesses say it was shot down.
Abu Mohammed Hamza, a Jordanian explosives expert believed to be a top lieutenant of Zarqawi, is reported killed after an American raid in Habbaniya.
February 27, 2004: A group of Sunni clerics issue a fatwa demanding an end to violence in Iraq. The document calls on Iraqis to stop killing each other inside the country but makes no mention of attacks on Americans or other foreigners.
The death toll for U.S. troops in February is 21.
March 1, 2004: The Iraqi Governing Council reaches agreement on a draft constitution. The proposed document recognizes Islam as the central source of Iraqi law but also protects individual rights. The draft envisions 25% of the seats in the national assembly to be filled by women.
March 2, 2004: In the bloodiest day in Iraq since the end of the war, at least five bombs explode near Shiite religious ceremonies in Baghdad and Karbala, as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims pack the streets for the Ashoura ceremony. At least 270 people die; 573 are wounded. A mourning procession marches to the hospital decrying, “We defy you, America and Israel.” It is the first time Shiites are permitted to observe the holy day since the Baathists took power.
March 9, 2004: Iraqi policemen deliberately kill two CPA officials and their Iraqi translator 70 miles south of Baghdad. The “targeting killings” are the first American civilian deaths in Iraq.
March 10, 2004: In a repeat of an earlier incident, two Iraqi women who wash laundry for U.S. troops are gunned downed and killed in Baghdad.
March 13, 2004: Three U.S. soldiers die in Baghdad when an improvised roadside bomb explodes. Another U.S. soldier meets the same fate the following day.
March 15, 2004: Four American missionaries are murdered in a drive-by shooting in Mosul.
564 U.S. servicemen have died since the start of the war, 426 since May 1.
March 16, 2004: Four die – including Dutch and German engineers – in an ambush in Karbala.
March 17, 2004: Seven die when a car bomb levels the Mount Lebanon Hotel in Baghdad.
March 18, 2004: Four Iraqis die in an explosion outside the Mirbad Hotel in Basra. Locals are said to have attacked – or even killed – the suspected perpetrator.
March 20, 2004: On the anniversary of the start of the war, rocket attacks strike several targets in Baghdad, killing at least four Iraqi civilians. There are no organized protests.
March 22, 2004: Grand Ayatollah Sistani warns the U.N. of “dangerous consequences” if it endorses the American-sponsored interim constitution.
March 23, 2004: Attacks against Iraqi police persist; 11 Iraqi policemen are killed in separate attacks in Kirkuk and Hilla.
March 24, 2004: Fallujah continues to be a hotbed of insurgent activity, as attackers ambush a U.S. military patrol, killing three civilians and wounding two American soldiers.
U.S. Marines assume security responsibility from the Army, hoping to bring a “softer” approach to the volatile town.
March 25, 2004: A bomb explodes at an oil field in Khabaz, about 55 miles west of Kirkuk. The ensuing fire rages for 24 hours before being extinguished.
March 26, 2004: U.S. Marines kill four Iraqis during a four-hour gunfight in Fallujah.
March 28, 2004: Several thousand Iraqis protest the closure of a Baghdad newspaper after the CPA claimed the paper incited violence. Demonstrators burned American flags and chanted anti-American slogans.
March 31, 2004: In one of the most gruesome scenes since the conflict began, four American civilian contractors are killed in an ambush in Fallujah. Jubilant crowds then drag the charred bodies through the streets and hang them from a bridge. Some corpses are dismembered and displayed above a sign that reads, “Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans.”
In a separate incident, five U.S. soldiers die when their convoys hits a roadside bomb in Malahma, 12 miles northwest of Fallujah.
March produces the second-highest death toll for U.S. troops – 52 – since May.
April 4, 2004: The followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, a militant Shiite cleric espousing fiercely anti-American rhetoric, march through at least six Iraqi cities, seizing control of the area around Kufa and killing nine Coalition troops – seven in Sadr City alone. The violence began when demonstrations supporting Sadr and his deputy, who was arrested the previous day, clash with Coalition forces, in Najaf and in Sadr City.
April 5, 2004: In response to the rising violence, the CPA issues a warrant for the arrest of Sadr in connection with the murder or a rival cleric in April 2003.
The U.S. is also pursuing those responsible for the March 31 slayings of American civilians in Fallujah.
April 6, 2004: At least 20 American soldiers die in three days of ferocious fighting in central and southern Iraq. In one of the most lethal days for American troops, an additional 12 Marines are killed in an attack in Ramadi, an area of relative calm up until recently.
Coalition forces suddenly face a war on two fronts: against the Sunnis in central Iraq and against the Shiites in the south. Fighting continues to rage in Sadr City and Fallujah.
Sadr’s militiamen clash with Iraqi security forces in Najaf, Nasiriya, Basra and Baghdad. In Kufa, Shiite opposition forces replace police, essentially creating an occupation-free zone. Sadr urges his followers to carry on fighting and proclaims his solidarity with Ayatollah Sistani, claiming to be “his military wing in Iraq.” Sistani, for his part, asks Shiites to remain calm.
April 7, 2004: Coalition troops clash with opposition fighters throughout central and southern Iraq, and as far north as Kirkuk. U.S. forces drop a 500-pound bomb on a mosque compound in Fallujah. Ukrainian troops evacuate Qut after confrontations with Sadr’s “Mahdi Army”. Polish forces combat opposition in Karbala.
A Canadian aid worker is abducted in Kufa.
April 8, 2004: Sadr’s militiamen maintain control of Kufa, Qut, and parts of Najaf. Kidnappers seize three Japanese civilians near the Kuwaiti border and threaten to burn them to death unless Japan withdraws its forces in Iraq. A total of 13 foreigners are taken hostage.
Eight South Korean missionaries are freed after a brief kidnapping in Baghdad.
April 9, 2004: U.S. forces halt their offensive in Fallujah to allow for negotiations and the entry of foreign aid.
Coalition troops retake Qut.
Kidnappings continue to plague foreign workers. An American truck driver is taken prisoner and shown on Arab television while two U.S. soldiers and seven oil workers are reported missing.
April 10, 2004: Sadr’s supporters retain control of Kufa and Najaf.
Hundreds of reinforcements join Marines surrounding Fallujah. Insurgents promise a truce if U.S. forces leave the city.
Militants threaten to kill and mutilate an American contractor they kidnapped during a convoy ambush.
April 11, 2004: Insurgents down a U.S. helicopter in Baghdad, killing two of the crew.
The streets of Fallujah remain quiet on the first day of the ceasefire.
26 American soldiers die in weekend fighting.
At least 28 civilians from 11 countries have been kidnapped in the last week.
April 12, 2004: Sadr withdraws his militia from Najaf, Karbala and Kufa in a bid to stave off an American assault.
Seven Chinese civilians are released after being held in captivity.
April 13, 2004: U.S. Central Command requests an additional 10,000 troops.
A U.S. military helicopter crashes outside Fallujah. Enemy fire is suspected.
Five Ukrainian and three Russian energy workers are released after being kidnapped from their Baghdad homes.
April 14, 2004: Sporadic fighting persists in Fallujah despite a four-day-old ceasefire that quelled much of the violence. Dozens of foreign workers remain missing.
April 15, 2004: Khalil Naimi, an Iranian diplomat, is shot and killed one day after his arrival in Najaf to mediate the standoff between U.S. troops and al-Sadr supporters.
A group calling itself the Green Brigade kills one of four abducted Italians.
April 16, 2004: A missing American soldier is seen held captive by insurgents on Al Jazeera.
15 Iraqis die in skirmishes with U.S. troops in Fallujah.
April 17, 2004: 10 U.S. soldiers die in fighting throughout the country; two die in accidents.
April 20, 2004: Insurgents attack a U.S. detention center near Baghdad, killing 22 prisoners.
American forces ease the Fallujah blockade but demand that insurgents disarm.
April 21, 2004: Suicide car bombs explode outside several police facilities in and around Basra, killing at least 68. Angry crowds hurl stones at Coalition forces trying to reach the wounded.
April 23, 2004: A CPA spokesman warns that “time is running out” for the Fallujah ceasefire.
April 24, 2004: Seven American soldiers die in insurgent attacks.
28 Iraqis are killed in roadside and market bombings near Baghdad.
April 26, 2004: Al-Arabiya TV broadcasts a video in which militants promise to kill three Italian hostages unless the Italian public protests against the war in Iraq.
April 27, 2004: U.S. forces kill 64 insurgents in an overnight firefight near Najaf.
April 28, 2004: U.S. Marines call in AC-130 gun ships to blast rebel positions in Fallujah.
April 30, 2004: A former Iraqi Army general enters Fallujah under a Coalition plan to restore order with a new Iraqi force led by officers who once served Saddam Hussein.
April 31, 2004: Photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused and tortured while in U.S. custody are splashed across newspapers and on televisions around the world.
137 U.S. troops died in April, which is the highest monthly death toll since the invasion of Iraq, and more than the past three months combined.
May 3, 2004: American commanders select a new Iraqi general to command security forces in Fallujah after charges of torture and repression emergesurrounding the first choice.
May 5, 2004: As Iraqi protesters demonstrate outside Abu Ghraib prison, President Bush appears on Arab television, saying: “What took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know.”
May 6, 2004: U.S. forces seize parts of Karbala, Najaf and Kufa, but fierce resistance remains.
A suicide car-bomber kills five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier in Baghdad.
In an audiotape posted on an Islamic website, bin Laden offers 22 pounds of gold to anyone who kills CPA chief L. Paul Bremer or top U.S. military officials. May 7, 2004: Insurgents ambush a police car in Mosul, killing four Iraqi officers.
May 11, 2004: A videotape showing the decapitation of Nicolas Berg, an American civilian in Iraq, appears on an Islamic website. The executioner is purportedly al Qaeda-affiliate Zarqawi. In the video, he claims revenge for the American mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
May 15, 2004: Coalition forces battle Shiite insurgents in Najaf, Karbala, Al Amara, Nasiriya and Sadr City.
May 16, 2004: Gunmen kill three Iraqi women working for the CPA in Baghdad.
May 17, 2004: A suicide bomber kills Izzedin Salim, the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, and at least six others at a check point into a CPA headquarters zone.
U.S. forces call in an air strike in Karbala against Al-Sadr’s militia, which is taking refuge near the Shrine of Hussein, one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam.
May 18, 2004: Fighting between Coalition Forces and insurgents continues in Najaf.
May 19, 2004: The group headed by Zarqawi, calling itself Jama’at al-Tawhid, claims responsibility for the slaying of IGC chief Izzedin Salim.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani, demands that all “armed forces” – both Coalition and insurgent – “leave the holy cities and open the way for police and tribal forces.”
May 20, 2004: Iraqi officials claim U.S. forces killed 40 unarmed civilians at a wedding party near the Syrian border. American commanders deny the charge, claiming Coalition Forces were fired upon first.
May 23, 2004: U.S. troops strike insurgents loyal to al-Sadr in Kufa, killing 36.
Al-Sadr’s militia appears to withdraw from the Shrine of Hussein in Karbala.
May 25, 2004: For the second time in a month, the Shrine of Imam Ali, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims, is damaged when U.S. forces clash with militiamen loyal to Sadr in Najaf and Kufa. American commanders deny damaging the shrine. At least 13 Iraqis die.
May 29, 2004: Fighting continues between U.S. forces and Sadr’s militia in Najaf despite Sadr’s offer to withdraw his “Mehdi Army” from Najaf as a compromise.
May 31, 2004: A peace deal seems less likely after two American soldiers die in clashes with Sadr’s supporters in Kufa.
80 American troops died during the month of May.
June 6, 2004: 21 Iraqis die in bomb blasts at a police station and military base around Baghdad.
June 10, 2004: In yet another cease-fire infraction, Sadr’s Mehdi Army seizes a Najaf police station, freeing prisoners and looting facilities.
June 11, 2004: In a surprise move, Sadr endorses the Iraqi Interim Government and urges his followers to adhere to the negotiated ceasefire.
June 14, 2004: A morning car bomb kills 12 in Baghdad, ending one of the bloodiest weekends in recent months.
Multiple suicide bombings targeting Iraqi policemen kill dozens of civilians.
Separately, two Iraqi government officials are assassinated.
June 17, 2004: Suicide car bombs explode outside a military recruitment center and a city council building in Baghdad, killing at least 41 and wounding at least 142.
June 23, 2004: A South Korean interpreter, abducted five days earlier in Falluja, is beheaded by Zarqawi after Seoul refuses to end its troop deployment to Iraq.
June 24, 2004: Sunni insurgents launch coordinated attacks, directed primarily at Iraqi security forces, killing at least 70 in Fallujah, Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi and Baquba.
June 27, 2004: Violence continues to escalate as the deadline to transfer authority approaches.
Twin car bombs kill at least 40 south of Baghdad.
As President Bush visits Turkey, militants loyal to Zarqawi kidnap three Turks and threaten to behead the hostages unless Turkey ceases relations with the CPA.
June 28, 2004: In an effort to quell the violence, U.S. officials hastily ceded authority to the Iraqi Interim Government in a secret ceremony two days ahead of schedule.
June 30, 2004: 42 U.S. troops died in June.
July 1, 2004: Saddam Hussein is taken into Iraqi custody and formally charged with several criminal acts.
July 8, 2004: Five U.S. soldiers die in a mortar attack on military headquarters in Samarra.
July 14, 2004: A suicide car bomb explodes outside the gates of the Green Zone, killing 10.
July 15, 2004: 10 Iraqi civilians die from a suicide car bomb in Haditha.
A Filipino contract worker is abducted; his captors demand that Manila withdraws its 51 troops from Iraq.
July 18, 2004: A U.S. air strike kills 10 in Fallujah.
July 23, 2004: A spat of kidnappings by militants continues to plague Iraq, as a senior Egyptian diplomat is abducted in Baghdad.
July 25, 2004: As kidnappings of foreign truck drivers increase, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urges other nations not to bow to captors’ demands.
July 26, 2004: An Egyptian diplomat is released by his captives while two Jordanian truck drivers are kidnapped and two Pakistanis are reported missing.
July 27, 2004: Complying with kidnappers’ demands, a Jordanian firm withdraws from
Iraq.
July 28, 2004: In the deadliest single attack since the transfer of authority, roughly 70 people die when a suicide car bomb explodes in Baquba.
July 31, 2004: The death toll for American troops in July is 54.
August 1, 2004: Militants bomb five churches in Baghdad and Mosul, killing at least 12.
August 3, 2004: Six American troops and at least three Iraqi National Guardsmen die in sporadic insurgent attacks in Baquba, Baghdad and in Al Anbar province.
August 11, 2004: The standoff in Najaf continues as American troops await orders to attack al-Sadr’s group, which remains in the Shrine of Imam Ali.
August 15, 2004: Six U.S. troops and one Pole die in attacks throughout the country.
August 21, 2004: Six U.S. troops die amid skirmishes in the Al Anbar province and Baghdad.
August 26, 2004: After returning from medical treatment in London, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani brokers a truce between Sadr’s militia and U.S. forces. Al-Sadr and his followers evacuate the Imam Ali shrine.
August 31, 2004: A group calling itself the Army of Ansar al-Sunna executed 12 Nepalese hostages, apparently without making any demands. The same group claimed to have killed an American Marine in July who later surfaced unharmed.
66 American troops died in August, the highest number since May.
Nearly 1,100 U.S. troops are injured in August, the highest number since the U.S.-led invasion 18 months ago.
September 6, 2004: Seven U.S. Marines and three Iraqi soldiers die in a car bomb attack outside Fallujah. Insurgents have controlled the city for months; U.S. officials fear that insurgent strongholds may not be able to participate in January’s election.
More U.S. troops have died since the June 28 handover of authority than died during the war itself (138).
September 7, 2004: One American soldier and 33 Iraqi insurgents loyal to al-Sadr die in a day of fighting in Sadr City.
The official U.S. military death toll in Iraq since the invasion reaches 1,000.
September 9, 2004: A previously unknown Islamic group claims responsibility for kidnapping two female Italian aid workers on September 7 Calling itself the Al Zawahiri Loyalists – apparently in homage to Al Qaeda’s second-in-command – the group made no demands of the Italian government but promised to execute the women in an effort to punish Prime Minister Berlusconi’s support for the U.S. war.
U.S. warplanes hammer suspected insurgent hideouts in Fallujah.
September 12, 2004: A bloody weekend of insurgent attacks suggests that guerilla forces are better organized and more sophisticated than previously judged.
Iraqi officials estimate that 80 civilians died on Sunday alone. A group calling itself Unity and Jihad, which is reportedly led by Zarqawi, claims responsibility for many of the coordinated attacks.
September 14, 2004: A car bomb kills 47 outside Army headquarters in Baghdad, where hundreds of recruits were lined up. An angry crowd gathered, cursed the U.S. and blamed American warplanes for the carnage.
12 policemen are gunned down in drive-by shooting in Baquba.
Zarqawi’s group, Unity and Jihad, claims responsibility for both attacks.
September 16, 2004: The U.S. military claims to have killed 60 non-Iraqi fighters in an air strike on a “terrorist meeting site” near Fallujah.
September 17, 2004: A suicide car bomb kills at least 13 near a police checkpoint in Baghdad.
U.S. soldiers clash with rebels near Haifa Street in Baghdad.
September 23, 2004: A virulent form of hepatitis – one that is especially lethal for pregnant women – breaks out in Sadr City and Mahmoudiyah. The outbreak is blamed on the collapse of sewage and water systems.
September 25, 2004: In appearances before the U.N. and the U.S. Congress, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declares, “We are succeeding in Iraq,” despite an increase in violence. Foreign contract workers, including two Americans and a Briton who were abducted from their home a week ago, are beheaded.
September 28, 2004: U.S. warplanes bomb suspected insurgent positions in Sadr City and Fallujah. Hospital officials report at least 10 people killed.
A U.S. military official reports that 34 car bombs have been detonated in Iraq in September, the highest monthly tally since the war began in March 2003.
According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, nearly 3,200 Iraqi civilians have died since April in terrorist attacks and in clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents.
Two female Italian aid workers are freed after being abducted three weeks ago. Italian officials deny paying ransom.
September 30, 2004: Two car bombs rip through a street celebration at the opening of a new sewer plant, killing 41 Iraqis, including at least 34 children; 139 are wounded.
The official death toll for U.S. troops in September is 81.
October 1, 2004: U.S. and Iraqi forces mount a major offensive in Samarra; 96 insurgents are declared killed. Samarra had been under insurgent control since the summer.
October 4, 2004: American and Iraqi forces successfully retake Samarra in an operation that may soon be copied in Fallujah.
Three car bombs – two in Baghdad and one in Mosul – explode, killing 26 people and injuring another 100.
October 7, 2004: A spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr agrees to a tentative peace plan, involving the disabling of al-Sadr’s militia in Sadr City and other hotspots.
Two rockets strike the Sheraton Baghdad hotel, which houses foreign journalists.
October 10, 2004: U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld arrives in Baghdad.
At least 10 Iraqis die in explosions near the oil ministry and police academy.
A suicide bomber fatally wounds a U.S. soldier outside the Ministry of Culture in Baghdad.
October 11, 2004: Militiamen loyal to al-Sadr surrender hundreds of weapons in the initial phase of a weapons buy-back program aimed at quelling the violence in Sadr City. In exchange, the Iraqi government and American commanders agreed to halt military operations against the group.
October 12, 2004: Six American troops die from hostile fire in Baghdad and in Al Anbar Province.
October 13, 2004: Bombs in Baghdad, Mosul and the Al Anbar region kill seven U.S. soldiers.
October 14, 2004: For the first time since the war ended, insurgents penetrate the heavily-fortified Green Zone, killing four Americans and six Iraqis.
October 15, 2004: American warplanes target insurgent hideouts in Fallujah.
Car bombs near the Syrian border and in Mosul kill five American troops.
October 17, 2004: In a statement posted on an Islamic website, Zarqawi pledges allegiance to Osama bin Laden. Zarqawi claimed that his Unification and Jihad movement “badly needed” to join forces with al Qaida and pledges to follow any order given by bin Laden.
October 22, 2004: The British-Iraqi director of CARE International begs for her life on Arab TV after being kidnapped by unknown insurgents days before in Baghdad.
October 23, 2004: In the single deadliest insurgent ambush, guerrillas dressed as police officers execute 49 newly trained Iraqi soldiers on a remote road in eastern Iraq. The unarmed soldiers stopped at a fake checkpoint while returning home after completing training with U.S. forces. The incident supports assertions that insurgents have infiltrated the Iraqi security infrastructure. Two days later, Prime Minister Allawi blames Coalition Forces for leaving the Iraqis vulnerable to attack.
October 25, 2004: An explosion near the Australian embassy in Baghdad kills three Iraqi and injures two Australian soldiers.
American forces claim to have killed a high-level associate of Zarqawi during an air strike on Fallujah.
October 26, 2004: The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that almost 377 tons of explosives are missing in Iraq after being removed from a military complex sometime after the invasion.
October 27, 2004: After militants holding a Japanese hostage demand the withdrawal of Japanese forces, Tokyo declares that Japanese troops will remain in Iraq.
October 28, 2004: A militant group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna executes 11 Iraqi security officers taken hostage south of Baghdad. The group, which is blamed for numerous beheadings, is an offshoot of Ansar al-Islam.
October 30, 2004: In the deadliest day for American forces in six months, nine Marines are killed and nine more are injured in insurgent attacks in the Al Anbar province.
At least 25 Iraqi civilians die from insurgent violence and from reckless fire by Iraqi security forces. Seven died when insurgents attacked the Al Arabiya news network. A previously unknown group calling itself the 1920 Revolution Brigades takes responsibility for the attack.
The body of a Japanese backpacker taken hostage days before is found beheaded and wrapped in an American flag in Baghdad. A group affiliated with Zarqawi is blamed.
October 31, 2004: Insurgents fire a rocket at a Tikrit hotel, killing 15 Iraqis and wounding eight.
65 American troops died in Iraq during the month of October.
November 1, 2004: Two Iraqi government officials, including the deputy governor of Baghdad, are assassinated in separate attacks in Baghdad and Baquba.
Gunmen abduct an American and three other foreigners in Baghdad.
U.S. warplanes continue to strike suspected insurgent hideouts in Fallujah.
November 2, 2004: Twin car bombings kill at least a dozen people and wounds dozens more in Baghdad and Mosul. For the first time, insurgents targeted the Ministry of Education in Baghdad.
Insurgents blow up a northern oil pipeline, shutting down the flow of crude to a Turkish port.
November 3, 2004: The decapitated bodies of there Iraqi guardsmen are found in Baghdad. A group calling itself the Brigades of Iraq’s Honorable People claims responsibility.
Separately, another group called the Ansar al-Sunnna says it has beheaded a
senior Iraqi Army officer.
Hungary announces that it will withdraw its 300 troops from Iraq by April 2005.
November 4, 2004: A roadside bomb kills three British soldiers in route to support American and Iraqi forces near Fallujah.
The humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders announced that it is ceasing all operations in Iraq due to security concerns.
November 5, 2004: The Republic of Georgia announced that it will increase its troop presence in Iraq by some 300 soldiers.
November 6, 2004: Proving the resistance has not been eradicated in Samarra, insurgents detonate four car bombs and attack three police stations in the surrounding area.
November 7, 2004: U.S. and Iraqi forces begin a siege in Fallujah.
November 8, 2004: As the mortar and air assault on Fallujah continues, the U.S. military reports that a total of 130 attacks occurred on this day alone, well above the average of 80 per day during the summer. These include car bombs aimed at Christian churches and police outside the Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad.
U.S. forces clash with insurgents in Mosul, a city that has seen a dramatic increase in violence in recent weeks.
November 9, 2004: U.S. forces reach the center of Fallujah amid fierce fighting and now control at least half of the city. 10 American and two Iraqi troops are reported killed. U.S. officials believe Zarqawi and his associates fled Fallujah before the assault began.
Two U.S. soldiers die in a mortar attack in Mosul, where government authority appears to be waning.
Three of Prime Minister Allawi’s relatives are abducted in Baghdad.
November 10, 2004: Iraqi troops discover “hostage slaughterhouses” in Fallujah. It is believed that foreign captives were held and assassinated here.
November 11, 2004: A wave of assaults continue across Iraq, believed to be part of a loosely coordinated counteroffensive by guerrillas.
Insurgents attack American troops in Baghdad, Balad and Mosul, killing two soldiers.
A suicide car bomb in Baghdad kills at least 19.
American fatalities in Fallujah now total 18.
November 12, 2004: Even as American troops advance rapidly into the southern part of Fallujah, they face fierce counterattacks from insurgents.
Two American Super Cobra helicopters are downed by rebel ground fire.
Insurgent violence surges throughout the Sunni triangle with ambushes, bombings and mortar attacks in Tikrit, Kirkuk, Hawija, Samarra and Ramadi.
In Mosul, insurgents stormed and looted at least six police stations, causing much of the 5,000-member police force to desert en masse.
One U.S. soldier is killed in Baghdad and another dies in Mosul.
November 14, 2004: U.S. forces capture Fallujah. Only a few insurgents still remain in the city. American commanders said 38 servicemen were killed and 275 were wounded in the week-long battle. An estimated 1,200-1,600 insurgents were killed during the fighting.
November 15, 2004: U.S. forces launch air and ground strikes in Baquba after rebels storm Police stations there; at least 27 are reported dead.
Six Iraqi troops are killed in Mosul when insurgents raid two police stations.
Two of Prime Minister Allawi’s relatives are released after being kidnapped last week. The sole male relative remains in insurgent custody.
A message claiming to be from Zarqawi appears on an Islamic website encouraging Muslims to continue fighting U.S. troops.
The killing of a wounded and apparently unarmed insurgent by a U.S. Marine in a Fallujah mosque is aired on NBC, causing an outcry in the Arab world.
November 17, 2004: Violence in Mosul quells after American troops sweep the city for the second day. Explosions rock the Sunni triangle, from Ramadi to Beiji to Kirkuk.
November 18, 2004: U.S. officials report that 51 Americans and about 1,200 insurgents have died in the fighting in Fallujah.
November 19, 2004: American and Iraqi troops raid a prominent Sunni mosque in Baghdad known for inciting insurgent violence. At least three worshipers die in clashes with Iraqi forces.
November 20, 2004: Sunni-led insurgent violence surges in Baghdad, Ramadi and
Fallujah.
November 21, 2004: Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi’s cousin, the last of his relatives in kidnappers’ custody, is released.
November 26, 2004: 15 of Iraq’s most powerful political groups, mainly comprised of Sunni Arabs and Kurdish factions, call for a six-month delay in the elections scheduled for January 30, 2005. President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi reject the request, declaring that election will be held as scheduled.
U.S. forces discover at least 32 dead bodies in Mosul; more than 20 are identified as new members of Iraq’s security forces.
November 30, 2004: A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy kills seven Iraqi civilians in
Baiji.
Iraqi security forces formally assume control of Najaf.
November is the deadliest month for American troops since the invasion of Iraq. 137 soldiers were killed, fewer than half of them in Fallujah.
December 1, 2004: Multinational troops arrest 210 suspected militants in a weeklong crackdown against the insurgency in the area south of Baghdad known as the
“triangle of death.”
December 3, 2004: Four suicide bombers drive an explosives-laden van into a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 14 civilians.
Insurgents attack a Baghdad police station, freeing prisoners and killing at least 12 officers. It is the second day of increased insurgent activity in the capital after the relative calm that followed the U.S.-led assault on Fallujah.
December 4, 2004: A suicide bomber plowed a car into a busload of Kurdish militiamen, killing 18.
December 5, 2004: In Tikrit, militants surround a bus full of unarmed Iraqis employed by American forces and gun down 17 of them. Increasingly bold and deadly insurgent attacks have killed 80 Iraqis in the past three days.
December 6, 2004: A roadside bomb kills three Iraqi troops and wounds 11 south of Baghdad.
December 7, 2004: Insurgents detonate two bombs outside Christian churches in Mosul.
December 12, 2004: Seven U.S. Marines die in a two-day security operation in Al Anbar province.
In the north, one American soldiers is kiled after a roadside bomb strikes his convoy.
Deadly attacks continue against Iraqi security forces throughout the country.
December 13, 2004: A suicide car bombing outside the Green Zone in Baghdad kills nine and wounds 19. Most of the dead work for foreign governments.
Three more U.S. Marines die fighting insurgents in Al Anbar province.
December 14, 2004: For the second day in a row, insurgents drove a car bomb into a checkpoint near Baghdad’s Green Zone, killing at least seven.
December 15, 2004: Insurgents attempt to overrun two police stations in Mosul but are repelled by Iraqi police and National Guards. The security presence in Mosul remains fragile after 80% of the police force fled last month.
December 19, 2004: Car bombs in Najaf and Karbala, both holy Shiite cities, kill at least 60, making it the second deadliest day for Iraqi civilians since the U.S. transferred authority to the Iraqi government six months before.
December 21, 2004: A bomb rips through a U.S. military mess tent in Mosul, killing at least 22 people, including 18 American service members. The Sunni group Ansar al-Sunna claims responsibility for the attack.
December 25, 2004: Iraqi churches cancel traditional nighttime Christmas Masses.
December 27, 2004: A suicide car bomb explodes outside the Baghdad headquarters of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party, increasing fears of sectarian violence and civil war.
December 28, 2004: Insurgents trick Iraqi police into raiding a booby-trapped home, triggering an explosion that kills at least 29, including 12 policemen.
December 29, 2004: After a two-hour gunfight, U.S. troops kill 25 insurgents attempting to overrun a military outpost in Mosul.
December 31, 2004: Iraqi officials announce the capture of Fadil Hussain Ahmed alKurdi, a suspected lieutenant in Zarqawi’s terrorist organization.
72 American service members died in Iraq in December.
2005
January 2, 2005: A suicide bomber kills 18 National Guardsmen and a civilian in Balad.
January 4, 2005: Insurgents assassinate the governor of Baghdad province. Zarqawi’s group, now calling itself Al Qaeda in Iraq, claims responsibility.
Attacks throughout the country leave five U.S. and 13 Iraqi servicemen dead.
January 7, 2005: U.S. Defense officials announce that a retired general will be sent to Iraq to review American military operations and the training of Iraqi security forces.
January 8, 2005: As many as 14 Iraqi civilians are killed by U.S. forces when American planes mistakenly bomb a building thought to be an insurgent safe house in northern Iraq.
U.S. forces capture Abu Ahmed, a top commander of the Mosul branch of the group led by Zarqawi.
January 10, 2005: Insurgents gun down Baghdad’s deputy police chief and his son.
Later, two U.S. soldiers die when a roadside bomb explodes in Baghdad.
January 12, 2005: An ambush on a U.S.-Iraqi convoy in Mosul kills two Iraqi soldiers.
U.S. officials confirm that the Iraq Survey Group has ended its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
January 13, 2005: In the latest in a string of predominantly Sunni insurgent attacks against Shiite leaders, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Sistani is assassinated in Salman Pak, a city south of Baghdad.
Gunmen kill the director of a Baghdad election center.
January 16, 2005: Insurgents continue to intimidate and threaten election candidates.
Salama al-Khafaji, a candidate for the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) survives an assassination attempt in central Baghdad.
January 17, 2005: Insurgents continue widespread attacks aimed at Shiite institutions and Iraqi security forces.
At least 17 Iraqi police and National Guardsmen are killed.
In a three-day crackdown, U.S. troops detain 81 suspected insurgents and seize several weapons caches in the volatile Al Anbar province.
In Basra and Baghdad, gunmen assassinate two candidates running for the National Assembly.
January 18, 2005: Iraqi officials announce that the government will close its borders in an effort to thwart terrorist attacks as election day approaches.
As insurgent activity and high-profile kidnappings continue to plague Iraq, the archbishop of Mosul is released unharmed one day after his abduction; a new video emerges showing eight Chinese nationals in the custody of militants of the Nuamaan Brigade of the Islamic Resistance.
January 19, 2005: In about a 90-minute span, five suicide car bombings kill at least 25 in and around Baghdad. Targets include: the Australian Embassy, a medical center for the handicapped, and checkpoints manned by Iraqi police.
January 20, 2005: U.S. troops launch raids in Mosul, killing five suspected insurgents. Iraqi police warn that some 250 suicide bombers are poised to strike on election day.
Zarqawi’s group releases a tape, promising years of jihad against the U.S.
President George W. Bush takes the Oath of Office, beginning his second term.
January 21, 2005: At least 14 Iraqi civilians die and some 40 are wounded when a car bomb explodes outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad. Later, an ambulance drives into a wedding party and explodes south of Baghdad, killing several.
In Hit, west of Baghdad, 15 masked gunmen raid a police station, causing policemen to flee. The insurgents steal two police cars and blow up the building.
January 23, 2005: Zarqawi releases an audiotape saying, “We have declared an all-out war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology.”
January 24, 2005: Iraqi officials announce the arrests of several insurgent leaders, including one man, Abu Umar al-Kurdi, who claims responsibility for 32 car bomb attacks since March 2003. Among the attacks he takes credit for are: the May 2003 bombing of the Jordanian Embassy and the August 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, as well as numerous assassinations of Iraqi political figures and attacks on Coalition and Iraqi security forces.
A car bomb explodes outside Prime Minister Allawi’s office in western Baghdad, killing at least five, including four police officers.
At least six U.S. troops die in roadside attacks and accidents.
January 25, 2005: Violence continues to plague Iraq in the lead-up to elections.
Insurgents storm a police station in eastern Baghdad, killing three officers.
A senior judge is shot dead, along with his son, on his way to work in Baghdad.
A U.S. hostage abducted November 1, 2004, appears on TV, pleading for his life.
The White House asks Congress for another $80 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
January 26, 2005: In the deadliest day for U.S. forces since the start of the war, 37 American soldiers die in Iraq. 31 are killed in a helicopter crash in Ar Rutbah, in western Iraq; six others die in clashes with insurgents in Al Anbar province.
At least eight car bombings throughout the country killed 13 Iraqis and wounded dozens more, including 11 Americans.
January 27, 2005: A suicide tractor bomb explodes outside the Kurdish Democratic Party office in Sinjar, killing four Iraqi soldiers and a guard.
Insurgents warn candidates and potential voters to stay home on January 30.
January 29, 2005: A rocket strikes the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, killing two Americans –one a civilian– and injuring five.
In Mosul, insurgents distribute flyers warning people not to vote.
January 30, 2005: Despite threats from insurgents telling them not to, large numbers of Iraqis vote in the historic election – Iraq’s first free election in over 50 years. The higher-than-expected turnout prompts most international observers to declare the election a success, although insurgents did kill at least 50 Iraqis. Experts believe it bolsters the prospects for democracy while striking a blow to the insurgent movement.
January 31, 2005: Three U.S. troops are killed in clashes with insurgents south of Baghdad.
U.S. troops kill four prisoners in a riot at Camp Bucca, near the Kuwaiti border.
107 American troops die in Iraq in the month of January.
February 1, 2005: Iraq’s interim president, Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar, says it would be “complete nonsense to ask the [U.S.] troops to leave in this chaos and vacuum of power.”
In a statement posted on a radical website, Zarqawi’s group pledges to “continue the jihad until the banner of Islam flies over Iraq.”
February 3, 2005: Insurgents kill 12 Iraqi soldiers in an ambush south of Kirkuk, executing the unarmed men one by one in the street.
Five policemen and a National Guardsman are killed in Baghdad.
February 6, 2005: Insurgents attack a convoy of trucks hauling cars destined for Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior. The truck drivers are kidnapped and the cars destroyed.
Four Egyptian telecommunications technicians are kidnapped in Baghdad.
February 7, 2005: At least 27 Iraqis die in two suicide bombings, one targeting policemen collecting paychecks near a Mosul hospital, the other a police post in Baquba.
February 8, 2005: In the second straight day of violence since the elections, a suicide bomb struck Baghdad’s National Guard volunteer center, killing at least 20 potential recruits.
Four Egyptian technicians held captive by insurgents are released unharmed.
February 9, 2005: Masked gunmen kill a television correspondent working for the American-funded network Al Hurra and his 3-year-old son in Basra.
In Baghdad, insurgents assassinate a director of the Ministry of Housing and three Kurdistan Democratic Party officials. Zarqawi’s group claims responsibility.
10 British soldiers die when a C-130 crashes.
February 10, 2005: On the first day of the Muslim New Year, insurgent violence claims more than 50 lives throughout Iraq.
February 11, 2005: Insurgents attack three Shiite targets – a mosque and two bakeries – in central Iraq, killing at least 21.
February 13, 2005: Gunmen kill an Iraqi general and two companions in Baghdad.
February 16, 2005: Gunmen kill an Iraqi Interior Ministry intelligence officer in Baghdad.
In Mosul, a police colonel and his driver are shot and seriously wounded.
Clashes in Baquba kill one policeman and eight insurgents.
Seven members of the Iraqi security forces die in firefights in Samarra.
A kidnapped Italian journalist pleads for her life on a newly released video.
February 17, 2005: The certified election results from the January 30 election are released. A Shiite alliance wins 140 of the 275 seats in Iraq’s legislature.
Insurgents release a kidnapped Turkish businessman, who says he paid a $500,000 ransom.
February 18, 2005: A day before Ashura – the holiest day of the year for Shiites – insurgents kill 35 Iraqis: suicide bombers attack two Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 16 worshippers; a rocket targeting another Shiite mosque in Baghdad kills three; one police officer dies when a suicide bomber explodes at a Baghdad checkpoint.
February 19, 2005: 10 suicide bombings kill at least 16 Iraqis, many of whom had taken to the streets in Baghdad and Karbala to commemorate Ashura.
February 21, 2005: U.S. and Iraqi forces begin a security sweep through Ramadi. 42 suspected insurgents are arrested and several weapons caches are seized.
Australia announced it would send an additional 450 troops to Iraq.
February 22, 2005: Iraq’s main Shiite alliance, known as the Dawa Party, nominates Inrahim al-Jaafari for prime minister after Ahmad Chalabi withdraws his candidacy.
A U.S. Marine is killed on the second day of security operations in Al Anbar province.
A car bomb kills two Iraqi soldiers and wounds 30 near Baghdad’s Green Zone.
February 23, 2005: Insurgents assassinate a Dawa Party official in the Diyala province.
A car bomb kills two and wounds 14 in Mosul; RPG fire kills two outside Kirkuk.
A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier in the northern city of Tuz.
In total, 22 people die in stepped-up insurgent violence throughout the country.
February 24, 2005: Insurgents strike to the north and south of Baghdad, killing 30, including two U.S. soldiers: a car bomb outside a Tikrit police station kills at least 10 officers; an hour later, insurgents attack a police convoy in Tikrit, killing two officers; in Hilla, a suicide car-bomber targets the headquarters of leading Shiite
political party and kills seven.
February 25, 2005: A roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers and wounds eight.
February 27, 2005: Syrian authorities hand over a group suspected of supporting the insurgency. Among them is Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan, Saddam Hussein’s halfbrother and a leading financier of the insurgency.
February 28, 2005: A suicide car bomber plows into a crowd of Iraqi police and army recruits in Hilla, killing 127 in the deadliest single bombing since the start of the war.
In February, 58 American soldiers died in Iraq.
March 1, 2005: In Baghdad, insurgents assassinate a judge and his lawyer son who worked on the tribunal that is scheduled to try Saddam Hussein. Another judge is targeted but survives.
An unknown group calling itself Saladin Al Ayobi Brigades issues a statement condemning beheadings, car bombings and the sabotage of Iraqi infrastructure, as well as promising not to attack any Iraqis or foreign civilians.
March 2, 2005: Two car bombs target national guardsmen in Baghdad, killing 13.
A U.S. soldier dies in combat in Babil province bringing the American death toll in Iraq to 1,500.
March 3, 2005: Two suicide car bombs explode outside Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior in Baghdad, killing five police officers.
March 4, 2005: Gunmen kill Saad Kamil, an al-Sadr associate, outside a Baghdad mosque.
March 7, 2005: Insurgent attacks on Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, Baquba and Balad leave at least 30 Iraqis dead, including 14 security officers.
March 8, 2005: Drive-by assassins kill a senior Iraqi Interior Ministry official in Baghdad.
15 headless bodies are discovered at an old military base between Karbala and Latifiya; 26 dead bodies are found riddled with bullets east of Qaim near the Syrian border. The 41 dead include men, women and children.
March 9, 2005: A series of bombs targeting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad, Basra and Fallujah kill at least six people. Zarqawi’s group claims responsibility for one of the attacks.
A roadside bomb in Baghdad kills a U.S. soldier.
March 10, 2005: A suicide bomb explodes in a Shiite mosque in Mosul, killing 53 Iraqis attending a funeral for a Kurdish politician.
Shiite and Kurdish officials are close to reaching an agreement on a coalitional government in Iraq.
Insurgents dressed as Iraqi police shoot and kill the chief of a Baghdad police station and two officers. Insurgents film the attack.
Zalmay Khalilzad is nominated to become the new ambassador to Iraq.
March 12, 2005: Gunmen kill three Iraqi police officers as they drive to a colleague’s funeral in Mosul.
A roadside bomb kills two U.S. security contractors south of Baghdad.
March 16, 2005: A suicide car bomber kills three Iraqi soldiers and wounds 12 more at an army checkpoint in Baquba.
Iraq’s first freely elected parliament in a half-century meets for the first time in Baghdad.
March 19, 2005: A bomb kills three Iraqi police officers in Kirkuk.
March 20, 2005: Iraqi insurgents ambush a U.S. military convoy near Salman Pak. 24 insurgents are killed and six U.S. soldiers are wounded.
March 22, 2005: A roadside bomb meant for a U.S. military patrol kills four civilians in Mosul.
Militants ambush a convoy carrying Iraqi security officials, including a senior police officer, in front of a mosque in Mosul.
Police kill 17 militants and capture 14.
March 23, 2005: Iraqi and U.S. forces kill 85 insurgents during a raid on a guerrilla training camp northwest of Baghdad.
Seven Iraqi police officers are killed and six wounded.
March 24, 2005: A suicide car bomber kills 11 Iraqi special police commandos and wounds nine others in Ramadi.
Militants shoot five Iraqi women dead as they leave work at a U.S. military base in southern Baghdad.
March 25, 2005: A suicide bomb kills three Iraqi soldiers and wounds six others in an attack on an Iraqi military convoy in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
March 30, 2005: Militants launch three attacks against Shiite pilgrims on their way to Karbala to attend a religious festival: gunmen open fire on a minibus and wound eight near Latifiya; a second group of gunmen kill one and injure two in a car near the town of Mahaweel; and, also near Mahaweel, a suicide bomber on a bicycle rides into a police patrol protecting pilgrims and kills two officers.
March 31, 2005: A suicide car bomb kills two Iraqi Army soldiers and two civilians in a crowd of Shiites celebrating a religious holiday in the northern city of Tuz Khormato, about 100 miles north of Baghdad.
A suicide car bomber rams a U.S. military vehicle, killing one Iraqi civilian and wounding seven in Samarra.
In March, 36 U.S. soldiers were killed, the lowest figure in a year.
April 2, 2005: Seven suicide car bombers and 40 to 60 insurgents armed with an array of weapons attack the U.S.-controlled Abu Ghraib prison. 20 U.S. soldiers and marines are wounded.
A car bomb kills four Iraqi policemen and one civilian at a police station in the town of Khan Bani Saad, 10 miles north of Baghdad.
April 3, 2005: The Iraqi National Assembly appoints Hajim M. al-Hassani, a prominent
Sunni Arab and the Minister of Industry in the interim government, speaker, and Hussain al-Shahristani, a nuclear physicist and leading Shiite Arab, and Arif Taifour, a Kurd, as deputies.
April 4, 2005: Brig Gen Mohammad Jalal Saleh and his bodyguards were kidnapped in Baghdad.
Two car bombs kill one civilian and one U.S. soldier.
U.S. troops battled dozens of insurgents east of Baghdad.
April 5, 2005: A bomb exploded near a bus filled with Iraqi soldiers returning from leave. At least three were killed and 44 were wounded.
Two other car bombs struck Baghdad.
U.S. troops continued to battle insurgents east of Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi soldier are killed.
April 6, 2005: Iraq’s parliament selects Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, as President of Iraq.
22 insurgents were arrested in Mosul.
April 7, 2005: Iraq’s presidential council selects Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a prominent Shia politician, as Prime Minister.
A car bomb targeting an American motorcade wounds 12 Iraqi civilians.
South Korea plans to draw 270 of its 3,450 troops out of Iraq.
April 8, 2005: Four Iraqi children were killed by an IED in Baghdad.
The bodies of 11 Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military are found near Ramadi.
Three masked gunmen kill an Iraqi Army officer.
A bomb that went off next to a bus stop in Najaf injured four Iraqi civilians.
April 9, 2005: Tens of thousands of Al Sadr supporters protested in Baghdad’s streets demanding U.S. troops leave Iraq. This is the largest protest against U.S. forces since the war.
In Baghdad, Sayed Fadel al-Shoq, a deputy to Sadr was killed, and another deputy was injured in the southern Dura district as they drove to an anti-US protest.
Car bombs and IEDs killed at least 30 and injured at least another 13 Iraqis.
Four drivers were killed and four others wounded in an ambush on a Trade Ministry convoy traveling between Qut and the capital.
Malik Mohammad Javed, an assistant at the embassy of Pakistan, was kidnapped.
April 10, 2005: An officer was killed Sunday and another kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in al-Haditha.
Iraqi security forces have nabbed the son of a half-brother of Saddam Hussein believed to be supporting the insurgents.
April 11, 2005: Three U.S. Marines were wounded in a three-car suicide bomb attack outside a U.S. military base in western Iraq, near the border with Syria.
In Mosul, 400km north of Baghdad, a member of the provincial council was
shot dead by an armed group. It was the second assassination of a provincial politician in the past three weeks.
In Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a pre-dawn raid in the southeastern Rashid district arresting 65 suspected insurgents.
Other violence claimed at least 4 lives and injured at least 24.
An American contractor believed to be working on an aid project was reported kidnapped in the Baghdad area.
April 12, 2005: Poland announced that it will withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
Interior Undersecretary Major General Tareq Al-Badawi on Tuesday survived an assassination attempt in western Baghdad.
A car bomb targeting a U.S. convoy killed at least five Iraqis and wounded three others in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
On Tuesday, U.S. continued troops battled arms smugglers and fighters near the Iraqi town of Qaim along the Syrian border, killing an unknown number of foreign insurgents.
A car bomb kills five people and wounds eight, including seven children.
April 13, 2005: Insurgents blew up a fuel tanker in Baghdad. Also in Baghdad, insurgents struck a U.S. convoy on the road to the Baghdad International Airport, killing five Iraqis and wounding four U.S. contract workers.
In Kirkuk, gunmen kill 12 policemen.
In the north of the country, 12 Iraqi guards were killed when a roadside bomb exploded as they were defusing another explosive device, later revealed to be a decoy.
Nine Iraqi soldiers, including the commander in charge of guarding Kirkuk’s oil fields, were killed in a bomb explosion near a pipeline.
Explosive charges targeting U.S. forces and Iraqi police blew up in two different parts of Mosul.
April 14, 2005: A U.S. soldier is killed in fighting in western Iraq,
The U.S. military says it had killed 30 insurgents since Monday near Syrian border.
Fighting in the western border town of Qaim continued for the sixth consecutive day.
Two car bombs exploded near government offices in Baghdad, killing 18 and wounding three dozen as insurgent attacks against security forces left at least eight others dead.
Gunmen attack police patrols near Baquba, killing one officer and wounding three others.
Other violence throughout the country claimed 8 lives.
April 15, 2005: Militants detonate three bombs in Baghdad, killing at least one civilian and wounding eight others.
Roadside bombs kill three Iraqi soldiers in Balad; two policemen near Tuz; and a foreign truck driver in Al-Dujail.
In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb targeting a US military convoy wounds five.
Sunni insurgents have taken at least 60 people hostage in Madain, near Baghdad, and are threatening to kill them unless Shi’ites leave.
Guerrilla bombings targeting U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least four people, as insurgents appeared to rebound after a lull in violence.
April 16, 2005: A spokesman for Muqtada al-Sadr denied that 60 people had been taken hostage in Madain. Sunni militants blew up an empty Shiite mosque in Madain. U.S. and Iraqi forces have surrounded the town.
27 insurgents are captured by Iraqi and U.S. forces near Mosul.
Other violence in the country left 6 U.S. soldiers injured, and 9 Iraqis dead.
April 17, 2005: Iraqi soldiers, backed by coalition forces, raided Madain, freeing the hostages. Later, national security adviser Qasim al-Daud denied that any hostages had been found.
Three soldiers were killed and another seven injured in an indirect fire attack on Camp Ramadi last night.
An American humanitarian worker was among three people killed in a car bomb attack on a convoy traveling on Baghdad’s airport road.
The bodies of 41 Kuwaitis believed killed during the first Gulf War have been unearthed in southern Iraq.
Armed men opened fire on Major Amar Hussein at Al-Iskan district in Baghdad.
Armed men assassinate the director of Haditha’s police force along with two of his family members.
April 18, 2005: The Iraqi Army said it had found no hostages in the besieged town of Madain, where Sunni militants had reportedly been holding Shiite residents captive, but did find a car bomb factory in an abandoned farm.
Five journalists have been killed in the last four days.
A high-ranking Defense Ministry adviser was assassinated late Monday night by armed gunmen at his house in southern Baghdad.
Doctors in Baghdad, fear an outbreak of hepatitis, following an increase in cases reported by the Infectious Diseases Control Centre (IDSC) last week. Open sewers and polluted water are responsible.
At least 10 Iraqis were killed in attacks across the country on Monday, while police and U.S. forces said they had detained eight suspected insurgents.
April 19, 2005: A soldier from the U.S. contingent in Iraq attacked Fatah ash-Sheikh, a member of the Iraqi Parliament.
A suicide car bomb exploded near one of former-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s palaces. Six people were killed and 40 wounded.
The Iraqi police clash with armed protestors in Nasiriyah province who demand that the government provide more jobs.
A suicide car bomber detonated next to a U.S. Army convoy traveling close to the capital’s international airport.
Twin blasts struck an oil pipeline near the city of Kirkuk.
At least 10 people have been killed in two separate attacks by insurgents on Iraqi soldiers.
Gunmen shot dead an academic on his way from home to Baghdad University.
April 20, 2005: One hundred bodies have been retrieved from Tigris River in the alSawrah region near the city of Madain. The bodies may be those of the Madain hostages.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded near his convoy in Baghdad, killing at least two policemen.
A booby-trapped tanker exploded near a U.S. Army base in central Ramadi, followed by a barrage of mortar rounds targeting the governorate building and U.S. troops.
A bomb blast near a U.S. military patrol in Baghdad killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded four.
At least two Iraqis were killed and several other people were wounded in two car bombings that occurred within 90 minutes of each other and in two drive-by shootings.
Three Iraqi civilians were injured when a third consecutive car bomb occurred in Baghdad.
Other violence claimed two Iraqi lives and injured another nine.
April 21, 2005: A Russian-built commercial helicopter operated by Bulgarians was shot down north of Baghdad. This marks the first downing of a civilian aircraft in Iraq.
11 people were killed, including six Americans, three Bulgarians and two
Filipinos.
Up to 2,800 prisoners were released unconditionally and 3,300 others were released with bail after the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry reviewed the files of 9,700 detainees in U.S. detention camps.
A bomb targeting Western contract workers exploded on the road to Baghdad’s airport, killing two people.
Three foreign security contractors have been killed by insurgent gunfire in Iraq, and a fourth contractor injured.
April 22, 2005: Insurgents give Romania four days to withdraw its troops from Iraq in order to save the lives of three Romanian journalists kidnapped last month.
A car bomb blew up outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad killing 10 people and wounding 15.
19 executed Iraqi soldiers’ bodies were found dumped near the oil refinery town of Beiji, north of Baghdad.
A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. Army patrol in northern Iraq, killing one soldier and wounding another.
Gunmen killed the manager of a government prison in the northern city of Mosul.
Insurgents attacked an oil pipeline that feeds a power station in the northern Iraqi town of Beiji.
April 23, 2005: Iraqi insurgents struck around the country killing at least 16 people, including an American soldier, and wounding at least another 20.
A suicide car bomb attack targeted a U.S. military convoy near Baghdad airport killing a civilian and wounding 25 others.
April 24, 2005: Insurgents exploded two car bombs in a Baghdad market and two more in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, killing a total of 21 Iraqis and wounding 73 in one of the bloodiest days since Iraq’s historic elections.
In the Baghdad area, insurgents attacked several U.S. military convoys killing one American soldier and wounding four, including two U.S. soldiers.
A Pakistan embassy official that was kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago was freed.
At least 16 people have been killed in twin bombings in a market near a mosque in a Shiite area of Baghdad. 50 others were wounded in the explosions.
April 25, 2005: Three roadside bombs aimed at U.S. military convoys explode Baghdad, killing an American soldier.
The CIA’s top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has „gone as far as feasible” and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the alleged programs of Saddam Hussein.
Insurgents attacked oil pipelines in the northern city of Kirkuk where some of the country’s vital oil installations are located.
The Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it had abducted six Sudanese drivers working for U.S. forces in Iraq.
April 26, 2005: Denmark announced that it would keep its troops in Iraq for at least eight months after their current mandate expires at the beginning of June.
The kidnappers of three Romanian journalists in Iraq extended by a day the deadline for killing the hostages.
Iraq’s insurgency remains undiminished in its capabilities in the past year despite U.S.-led efforts to crush the rebels, Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
April 27, 2005: Gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim lawmaker in her home — the first elected official slain since the country’s landmark election on Jan. 30.
Iraqi police officers were dismantling what appeared to be a decoy roadside bomb near Kirkuk today when another bomb exploded. At least 12 people were killed.
In Baghdad, Iraqi militants targeted a U.S. fuel-supply convoy.
An Iraqi police general was badly injured and two of his bodyguards killed in an assault in the western part of Baghdad.
The kidnappers of three Romanian journalists threaten to kill them soon unless Romania pulls out its troops out of the country.
Other blasts across the country kill two Iraqi soldiers and wound five others.
April 28, 2005: The new Iraqi cabinet is appointed. Representing most of the co untries ethnic, religious and sectarian groups, the cabinet is comprised of 16 Shias, eight Kurds, five Sunnis, one Christian and one Turkman. Six portfolios have yet to be allocated.
Gunmen assassinated a senior Interior Ministry official in Baghdad.
At least 17 Iraqis were killed in violence across the country.
The Romanian government announced that the three Romanian journalists held hostage in Iraq were still alive after the deadline set by their kidnappers for Bucharest to withdraw its troops expired.
Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it killed six Sudanese drivers working for the U.S. military.
April 29, 2005: Insurgents unleashed a series of car bombings and other attacks across Iraq, killing at least 41 people, including three U.S. soldiers, and wounding dozens of people.
April 30, 2005: At least five car bombs struck Baghdad.
Six bombs exploded in the northern city of Mosul.
At least 17 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier were killed.
Investigators have uncovered a mass grave in southern Iraq containing as many as 1,500 bodies, most of them thought to be Kurds forcibly removed from their homes in the late 1980s.
52 US soldiers died in Iraq in April.
May 1, 2005: A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a Kurdish party in northern Iraq, killing 25 people.
Unknown armed men killed two employees of an Iraqi company working for the U.S. Army in the southeastern part of Baghdad.
Insurgents kill five Iraqi policemen at a checkpoint and a car bomb killed four people in Baghdad on Sunday.
May 2, 2005: Four car bombs left 11 Iraqis dead and injured 29 others in Baghdad.
Iraqi and U.S. forces carried out a number of raids in the Baghdad area over the past 24 hours in an attempt to crack down on the insurgency, arresting 84 suspected insurgents.
An Iraqi child was killed and 15 others were wounded in two suicide bombings in Mosul today, in the fifth attack in three days against civilians in northern Iraq.
U.S. forces killed 12 people and wounded two others, including a six-year-old girl, in a firefight near the Syrian border. Six soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq were wounded in the battle.
The crew of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson lost contact with two jets. Navy officials suspect the jets collided in bad weather during a routine mission.
May 3, 2005: The U.S. military found the body of a pilot from one of the two missing Marine Corps F/A-18 jets that disappeared the day before.
A bomb exploded near an Iraqi police convoy in Baghdad, wounding three people.
At least 14 civilians were killed when U.S. forces and Iraqi National Guardsmen battled insurgents in the city of Ramadi.
May 4, 2005: Search teams locate the body of the second pilot from one of two missing U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 aircraft from the U.S.S. Carl Vinson.
A suicide bomber killed at least 60 people and wounded 150 more when he blew himself up at the office of a Kurdish party in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.
Two Iraqis were wounded when a car bomb struck a U.S. Army patrol in Mosul.
Nine Iraqi soldiers were killed and 17 people wounded in a car bomb attack in Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces captured the son of one of Saddam Hussein’s half brothers in a raid on suspected militants near Tikrit.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry has sacked several hundred employees as part of a crackdown on corruption and smuggling that has cost the state billions of dollars.
May 5, 2005: The Bulgarian government votes to withdraw all of the country’s troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
Insurgents killed at least 24 people in a wave of attacks in Baghdad.
Insurgents set fire to an oil pipeline in northern Iraq.
May 6, 2005: An armed group has kidnapped six Jordanian contractors for the U.S. military in Iraq.
A senior Iraqi Army officer and his brother are killed.
Suicide bombers killed at least 67 Iraqis in the Shiite town of Suwayra. Escalating violence has killed more than 250 people since the cabinet was announced eight days ago.
A car bomb targeted a police patrol in Mosul, killing four police commandos and five civilians.
A mortar attack hit a checkpoint jointly manned by U.S. and Iraqi forces in southern Fallujah. In the firefight that ensued, one civilian was killed and three others were wounded.
Followers of al-Sadr clashed with Iraqi soldiers after Friday prayers in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf. Hours later, gunmen killed two Sadr supporters in Baghdad.
May 7, 2005: 17 people were killed in a car bomb blast in central Baghdad and at least 33 Iraqis were wounded.
Iraqi security forces have captured an aide to Jordanian militant Abu Musab alZarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Ghassan al-Rawi, identified as the militant leader of the western town of Rawa, was arrested by Iraqi forces in late April.
A U.S. marine was killed in a bomb attack in Iraq’s Al Anbar province.
May 8, 2005: Iraq’s newly confirmed human rights minister turned down the job Sunday, saying he was selected only because he was a Sunni Arab.
Bombs in central Iraq killed three US soldiers.
Coalition forces killed six insurgents in raids targeting the terror network of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi near the Syrian border. 54 insurgents were detained and several weapons caches uncovered in Qaim.
More than 1,000 U.S. troops supported by fighter jets and helicopter gun ships attack villages along the Euphrates River, seeking to uproot the insurgency in an area that American intelligence believes has become a haven for foreign fighters.
Gunmen assassinated a senior transport ministry official in Baghdad.
May 9, 2005: U.S. forces have killed 75 insurgents, including foreign fighters, over the past 24 hours in an ongoing sweep of a desert region of northwest Iraq close to the Syrian border.
Other violence claimed the lives of three U.S. soldiers.
Nine Iraqis were killed and 17 wounded in attacks elsewhere in the country.
May 10, 2005: A suicide car bomb targeting a U.S. military convoy in central Baghdad killed at least seven Iraqis and injured 16.
Gunmen kidnapped the governor of Iraq’s Al Anbar province, telling his family he would be released when U.S. forces withdrew from Qaim.
Saboteurs attacked a crude oil pipeline complex near the Kirkuk oil fields.
May 11, 2005: Four suicide bombs killed at least 71 people in Iraq, brining the number of Iraqis killed by insurgents since the new government was formed two weeks ago to 400.
A mortar round struck the Iraqi Oil Ministry complex in Baghdad.
Danish soldiers engaged in a brief firefight with insurgents in southern Iraq. One Iraqi was injured in the exchange.
In western Baghdad, insurgents kill two Iraqi soldiers.
Two people were killed and 20 seriously wounded when an explosive device exploded near a chemical fertilizer factory in Umm Qasr south of Baghdad.
May 12, 2005: A car bomb exploded near a local market in eastern Baghdad killing at least 17 people and wounding 65.
Two Iraqi ministry officials were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad.
Two U.S. Marines were killed when their armored vehicle drove over a mine in northwest Iraq. 14 Marines were also wounded.
May 13, 2005: More than 1,000 U.S. forces continue to hunt down followers of Zarqawi near the Syrian border.
Snipers opened fired on the motorcade of Maj. Gen Hikmat Moussa Hussein-the undersecretary for the Interior Ministry-in western Baghdad. One bodyguard was killed and three others wounded.
In other violence, 10 Iraqis were killed and 12 injured.
May 14, 2005: Fighting between U.S. troops and rebels near the Syrian border claimed the lives of four Marines.
Gunmen assassinate a top Iraqi Foreign Ministry official in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad.
A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a police convoy in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 10. Earlier, three civilians, believed to be street cleaners, were killed and four others wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad’s southern district of Dura.
In Mosul, two civilians died and a policeman was injured when a suicide bomb exploded near a U.S.-Iraqi patrol.
The U.S. military announced the end of its weeklong offensive near the Syrian border, saying it had successfully “neutralized” an insurgent sanctuary and killed more than 125 militants. Nine U.S. Marines were killed and 40 injured during the campaign known as Operation Matador.
May 15, 2005: The bodies of 38 men shot execution-style were found dumped at an abandoned chicken farm, west of Baghdad.
At least eight other Iraqis were killed in a spree of bombings and shootings.
Iraqi security forces killed four gunmen and arrested 97 others in Mosul.
Insurgents have freed the governor of Iraq’s Al Anbar province after kidnapping him last week.
A failed assassination attempt on the governor of Iraq’s Diyala province killed five people and injured 24
More than 450 people have been killed in the two weeks since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s cabinet was announced.
May 16, 2005: Mortars, bombs and gunmen killed at least 24 Iraqis.
Two car bombs exploded within minutes at a mostly Shiite Baghdad market, killing at least nine soldiers and a civilian.
At least eight Iraqis were found shot near a Baghdad dam.
The body of an Iraqi Kurd was found in a garbage dump in northern Iraq, raising the number of bodies recovered in recent days to 50.
Gunmen killed two Iraqi journalists working for a Kuwaiti newspaper and their driver, south of Baghdad.
Sheik Qadim al-Ghiri-an aide to Iraqi Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistaniwas assassinated in Baghdad.
A suicide car bomber killed at least five people and wounded 30 at a customs checkpoint near Iraq’s border with Syria.
May 17, 2005: Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Baghdad for talks with top Iraqi officials, marking the highest-level visit by an official from Iran to its neighbor since the fall of the Hussein regime.
Gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim cleric. Two missing Sunni clerics were found shot dead.
Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it killed two Iraqis working for U.S. contractor Hallibuton.
Insurgents killed four Iraqi soldiers in clashes outside a power plant in a southern
Iraq.
Iraq’s government said yesterday its soldiers would no longer participate in raids on mosques in their efforts to clamp down on an increasingly violent insurgency.
May 18, 2005: 18 people, including 14 policemen were injured when a car bomb struck a police convoy in Baquba.
Two children were killed and their mother wounded when a bomb struck a Shiite mosque in Baghdad. A second blast killed a U.S. soldier.
In other violence, seven Iraqis, including a senior member of Iraq’s Interior Ministry died.
May 19, 2005: Gunmen killed an official from the Iraqi Oil Ministry official.
Gunmen killed two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad.
An Iraqi lawmaker said 10 of his private guards were killed during an hour-long battle with insurgents and Apache helicopter-backed U.S. forces.
May 20, 2005: A picture of Saddam Hussein wearing only his underwear appeared on the front pages of the New York Post and the British newspaper, The Sun. The papers said an unidentified U.S. military official provided the pictures. The U.S. military condemned the photos and launched an immediate investigation into who took them.
Thousands of Shiites stomped on American flags painted on roads outside mosques in a show of anger over the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Sunni leaders called for the closure of places of worship to protest the sectarian violence many fear may erupt into civil war.
In Baghdad, a car bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded five, including three soldiers.
A roadside bombing killed a U.S. soldier north of Baghdad.
Three U.S. soldiers and two civilians have died in the last 24 hours.
May 21, 2005: Eight members of an elite Interior Ministry force have been killed in an ambush in Iraq. Their 20-vehicle convoy came under attack in downtown Beiji.
Ninety more Fiji soldiers will be deployed to Iraq as part of the United Nations Assistance Mission in July.
Insurgents fired rockets at the British military base in the southern province of Mesan.
Insurgents attacked an Iraqi Army convoy on route from Mosul to Baghdad, killing six soldiers and wounding six others.
May 22, 2005: U.S. officials acknowledged that poor security in the country is hurting efforts to speed up reconstruction and that security accounts for 16 percent of all spending on reconstruction projects.
Three Romanian journalists and their translator, held hostage since March 28, were rescued.
A senior civil servant of Iraq’s trade ministry was shot dead while being driven to work in northwest Baghdad. Insurgents have killed more than a dozen senior government officials in Baghdad in recent months.
Iraqi police and security forces arrest 20 armed men in Samarra.
A roadside bomb killed one Iraqi civilian and wounded another Kirkuk.
Iraq’s troubled transition towards a fully inclusive democracy appeared to make a significant breakthrough over the weekend when an important group of Sunni Arab leaders agreed to participate in the political process for the first time in two years.
Two car bomb attacks targeted two U.S. military convoys in Mosul, killing three U.S. soldiers. A fourth soldier was killed when a car bomb struck his vehicle in Tikrit. Another soldier was killed in Kirkuk.
May 23, 2005: Insurgents detonate bombs at a Baghdad restaurant and a Shiite mosque, part of a series of attacks that killed at least 26 and wounded 130.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded outside a northern Baghdad restaurant frequented by police, killing eight people and wounding at least 80. Also in Baghdad, gunmen assassinated a national security official.
Later, a suicide car bomber targeted a Shiite mosque in Mahmoudiya, killing seven people and wounding 23, many of them children.
A suicide car bomb struck the government headquarters of Tuz Khormato, south of Kirkuk, killing four people and wounding more than 10 others.
Two car bombs exploded outside the home of a community leader in Tal Afar.
U.S. and Iraqi forces detained 285 suspected insurgents in Operation Squeeze Play in Abu Ghraib.
Iraq’s government says it has captured an insurgent related to Izzat Ibrahim alDouri, the most-wanted aide of Saddam Hussein. A government statement said Muthana al-Douri was captured near Tikrit last week.
An insurgent squad shot dead the commander of Iraq’s new counter-insurgency headquarters as he drove to work in Baghdad.
May 24, 2005: Four US soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in central Baghdad. 14 American troops have been killed in the last 48-hours. At least 620 people, including 58 U.S. troops, have been killed since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced the formation of the new government.
A Turkish businessman is kidnapped in Iraq. Insurgents demand that his transportation company stop working with U.S. forces.
A car bomb exploded near a Baghdad junior high school for girls, killing six people.
Iraq has suspended oil exports to the Turkish port of Ceyhan because of a production shortage in the northern fields of Kirkuk.
There are reports that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been wounded.
May 25, 2005: About 1,000 U.S. Marines, sailors and members of Iraq’s security forces encircle Haditha, in the second offensive against insurgents in the region this month.
In other violence around the country, seven Iraqis died and 15 people were injured, including two U.S. Marines.
Cholera is spreading in Baghdad’s impoverished al-Amil quarter where overcrowding and contaminated water are leading to fears of an epidemic. City officials blame repeated insurgent attacks on the infrastructure for the outbreak.
May 26, 2005: As part of Operation New Market, American troops killed at least 10 suspected militants in Haditha, a Euphrates River city of 90,000. One US soldier was killed.
Two Task Force Liberty helicopters were hit by ground fire while conducting operations in support of coalition forces near Baquba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. One landed safely at nearby base after sustaining damage. Two were killed when the other went down.
Iraq’s defense minister announced a massive security operation that will see more than 40,000 Iraqi troops deployed in the capital to hunt down insurgents and their weapons. Dubbed Operation Lightning, authorities planned to divide the capital into 22 sectors and establish 675 fixed points alongside an undetermined number of mobile roadblocks.
Syria’s United Nations ambassador reported that over 1,000 insurgents were prevented from crossing into Iraq during recent weeks.
Three civilian Iraqis traveling in a minibus were killed, reportedly shot dead by U.S. forces.
U.S. and Iraqi troops have arrested two top aides of Al-Qaid in Iraq’s front man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In other violence, at least 11 Iraqis were killed, including a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party, and a senior official in Iraq’s ministry of industry and minerals.
Iraqi insurgents attached explosives to a dog today in a bid to bomb a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk. There were no reports of casualties.
May 27, 2005: Iraq militants have attacked an oil pipeline outside Baghdad, destroying several parts of the structure.
A mortar attack was launched against a carpentry factory in northern Baghdad. A guard was killed and four others wounded.
Insurgents ambush a police patrol in Mosul, killing two.
May 28, 2005: Operation Lightning continued as Iraqi police fought with insurgents and thousands of security forces backed by American troops swept through Baghdad’s streets to flush out militants. Insurgents struck back – killing at least 30 people, including a British soldier. The operation led to the arrest of a former general in Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service.
U.S. Marines are taking part in the Operation New Market in Haditha to route out military groups that have infiltrated the town from Qaim, near the border with
Syria.
Two bombs exploded in quick succession near a military base in Sinjar, about 75 miles northwest of Mosul, killing seven and wounding more than 50, including two children.
Other violence claimed the life of a U.S. Marine, a former member of Kirkuk’s city council and four Iraqi soldiers.
The mutilated bodies of 10 Iraqi Shia Muslim pilgrims were found in the desert near the town of Qaim.
May 29, 2005: Operation Lightning continued as Iraqi forces arrested 500 in an unprecedented domestic sweep.
Engineers in Iraq marked their 1000th reconstruction project with the completion of work at a school in the northern-most province of Dahuk.
Four death sentences have been handed down in the past few days. Seven convicted Iraqi criminals and insurgents are currently on death row and although the sentences have yet to be carried out, the Interior Ministry has vowed that the first executions will occur as early as next month.
Bombs killed nine soldiers and two civilians.
In other violence, two U.S. soldiers and one British soldier were killed.
May 30, 2005: Operation Lightning set off a violent backlash across Baghdad. At least 20 people were killed in the capital, 14 of them in a battle lasting several hours when insurgents launched sustained attacks on several police stations and army barracks.
The chief of police in Basra admitted yesterday that he had effectively lost control of three-quarters of his officers and that sectarian militias had infiltrated the force and were using their position to assassinate opponents.
Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was seized at his house in Baghdad along with his three sons. His relatives said U.S. troops broke down the door of the family home and put a bag over Abdul-Hamid’s head before taking him away.
An Iraqi Air Force aircraft crashed Monday in eastern Diyala province during a mission killing all four Americans and one Iraqi onboard.
A man claiming to be Iraq’s most wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said he had been wounded in an audio message on the Internet. It was not possible to verify whether the voice was that of Zarqawi.
Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up in a crowd of ex-policemen protesting outside of Baghdad, killing 27 in one of the deadliest attacks in a month of escalating violence. More than 100 people were wounded.
In other violence across the country, 33 people were killed.
A roadside bomb killed a British soldier near the town of Kahla, ending a period of calm in the Shiite-dominated south.
In an interview with CNN’s Larry King, Vice President Dick Cheney says: “I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”
May 31, 2005: At least 27 policemen were killed and 118 wounded after two terrorists carrying explosives blew themselves up among a crowd of 500 commandos protesting a government move to disband their special forces unit in Hillah.
An Italian military helicopter crashed in Iraq, killing the four people aboard.
In other violence, 11 people died in Iraq, including the governor of Anbar province. 11 others, including eight U.S. troops were also wounded.
U.S. fighter jets destroyed insurgent strongholds near the border with Syria.
Basra International Airport opened for civil aircraft flights. There will be four flights between Baghdad and Basra every week.
Iraq will let the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, an outside watchdog, keep monitoring its oil production and the way it spends its oil money.
The U.S. military said there were about 143 car and suicide car bombings in May, a new record.
The death toll for American troops in Iraq in May rose to the highest level since January. The U.S. military says insurgents have doubled the number of daily attacks since April.
80 US soldiers died in May.
June 1, 2005: Operation Lightning continued, netting another 100 suspected insurgents in raids conducted by Iraq forces.
After one of the bloodiest months in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has left the door open for the authorities to talk with insurgents.
An Iraqi soldier died and 12 others were hospitalized after they ate poisonous watermelons given to them near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Other violence claimed four lives and injured at least another 24.
June 2, 2005: Insurgents killed 38 people in a series of rapid-fire attacks, including three suicide car bombings and a drive-by shooting at a busy Baghdad market.
300 Hawn missiles have been found in the holy Iraqi city of Karbala, a hundred kilometers south of the capital Baghdad. The insurgents in Iraq regularly use Hawn missiles.
Iraq’s interior minister claimed Operation Lightning had captured 700 suspected insurgents and killed 28 militants.
U.N. satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109 sites in Iraq.
June 3, 2005: A suicide car bomber rammed his car into a building north of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 12.
The Government of the Republic of Macedonia has decided to send a military contingent to Iraq, which will participate in peacekeeping operations there.
Sporadic attacks around Iraq killed another eight people.
According to Interior Minister B ayan Jabr, 12,000 Iraqi civilians-including more than 10,000 Shiites-have been kille din the past 18 months.
Three soldiers have been ordered to stand trial at Fort Carson on murder charges in the killing of an Iraqi general, who died while in custody.
A source at the sea shipment department said that Iraq resumed oil exports from Kirkuk oil fields in the north of the country via pipelines to Turkey.
A man has been arrested for allegedly targeting Iraqi security forces with poisoned watermelons.
June 4, 2005: Nine Iraqi soldiers have been killed in three separate bomb attacks in Iraq.
U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Mullah Mahdi-one of the leaders of the Kurdish group Jaish Ansar al-Sunna-in Mosul, following a brief battle.
In Irbil, the parliament has held its first session.
In other violence, six Iraqis were killed and nine others wounded.
June 5, 2005: Hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops searched fields and farms yesterday for insurgents in an area south of Baghdad. 50 weapon and ammunition caches and a huge underground bunker west of the capital fitted out with air conditioning, a kitchen and showers, was discovered. The „insurgent lair” contained high-tech military equipment including night vision goggles.
Operation Lightning netted another 108 suspected insurgents.
An Australian held hostage in Iraq for five weeks has been seen by an Australian mufti trying to negotiate his release.
Kurdish rebels have killed four Turkish soldiers in a clash near Tunceli, in southeastern Turkey.
The Iraqi government says it is going to double the salaries of university professors as part of a bid to stem the brain drain in the country.
In Mosul, a suicide car bomb killed two policemen and wounded at least seven others at a checkpoint.
10 soldiers, members of a force protecting the Green Zone, were injured when a bomb exploded near a bus they were riding in Latifiyah.
June 6, 2005: The Iraqi government announced it detained nearly 900 suspected militants and set up more than 800 checkpoints in a two-week sweep aimed at halting the insurgency.
The U.S. military announced that Iraqi and U.S. troops have completed Operation Woodstock. 59 suspected insurgents were detained in northern Babil province.
Violence across the country claimed two lives and injured nine.
June 7, 2005: Iraq militants threatened to kill a Turkish hostage unless Ankara agrees to end cooperation with the U.S. military within four days.
Four bombings within seven minutes killed at least 14 people, including at least three Iraqi soldiers, and injured at least 22 in northern Iraq. Rioting injured several Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
A roadside bomb outside Fallujah kills two U.S. Marines.
A Sunni cleric is killed in Basra.
General Wafiq al-Samarraey, security adviser to the Iraqi president, said insurgents were starting to target each other.
Insurgents ambush a convoy of trucks believed to be carrying supplies to a U.S. military base near Habaniyah, killing at least seven.
U.S. and Iraqi troops on Tuesday launched an offensive against insurgents in the city of Tal Afar — not far from the Syrian border. One American soldier and four insurgents have been killed in the operation. U.S. and Iraqi forces have detained 23 suspected insurgents. Some 4,000 U.S. troops have moved into the Tal Afar area in recent weeks.
According to the latest figures from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), Britain supplied over 90 per cent of major conventional weapons delivered to Iraq in 2004 following the lifting of the UN arms embargo last June.
June 8, 2005: A Sunni Arab politician says two insurgent groups are willing to negotiate with the government, possibly opening a new political front in embattled Iraq.
At least 32 lives were claimed in the day’s violence, which included four explosions within seven minutes in and around Hawija, 40 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and the killings of a Sunni cleric and a foreign ministry employee.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed in two separate attacks north of Baghdad.
Gunmen have kidnapped 22 Iraqi soldiers shortly after they left their base near Qaim on route to Rawa.
Iraq’s oil pipeline to Turkey was hit by a new sabotage blast overnight, with the causing substantial damage. The explosion came hours after an Iraqi oil official said it would take 10 more days to repair the pipeline following a sabotage blast last week.
A cache of guns, bugging devices and equipment that may have been used for torture has been discovered at Iraq’s abandoned embassy in Britain.
Thousands of people have been detained in Iraq without due process in apparent violation of international law, the United Nations said, adding that 6,000 of the country’s 10,000 prisoners were in the hands of the U.S. military.
Iraqi insurgents have increased the number of car bombs to an average of 30 per week.
June 9, 2005: In drafting Iraq’s new constitution, the Sunnis, who complained about their lack of representation, will be offered up to 25 seats.
June 10, 2005: A suicide car bomber killed 20 traffic policemen and wounded 100 more outside the unit’s headquarters in the city of Irbil.
At least 10 people died in a car bomb attack in a mainly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
The bodies of 16 people who were killed execution-style have been discovered in western Iraq.
Gunmen opened fire on a bus filled with laborers just south of Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding three.
June 11, 2005: The number of car bombings has dropped from 12-14 a day to one or two a day since Operation Lightning was launched in late May.
At least 34 Iraqis and two American Marines were killed in violence in central and western Iraq.
U.S. air strikes in the western desert killed 40 insurgents.
June 12, 2005: Iraqi police dug up the bodies of 20 men who were shot to death and left in shallow graves east of Baghdad. Eight other bodies were also found near the
Iraqi capital.
In northern Iraq, the Kurdish Parliament elected veteran guerrilla leader Massoud Barzani the first president of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.
June 13, 2005: Four suicide car bombings and other insurgent attacks killed 10 people.At least 16 Iraqis were wounded after militants opened fire on authorities trying to evacuate the injured.
Sunni leaders continued to reject an offer from the Shiite-dominated government that would see Sunnis receive 15 seats on the committee and 10 advisory positions.
June 14, 2005: At least 29 people were killed and 60 wounded in bombing attacks in northern Iraq.
10 Iraqis, including two children, were killed and seven wounded by a car bomb north of Baghdad.
More than 2000 Filipino workers have slipped into Iraq to work for U.S. military camps despite a Philippine government ban imposed last year.
June 15, 2005: A suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi Army uniform killed at least 23 people and wounded 29 at an army mess hall north of the capital.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfelde admits that Iraq is „statistically” no safer today than it was at the end of the war.
June 16, 2005: Senior members of a Shiite-dominated committee drafting Iraq’s new constitution reached a compromise with Sunni Arab groups on the number of representatives being allocated to the Sunnis. Under the deal, 15 Sunni Arabs would join two members of the minority already on the committee. Another 10 Sunni Arabs would join, but only in an advisory capacity.
Five U.S. marines were killed in Iraq when their vehicle struck a bomb near Ramadi.
Insurgents have taken over much of the Iraqi city of Ramadi and used it to launch attacks against U.S. forces while terrorizing the population with public beheadings.
The U.S. forces captured Muhammed Khalif Shaker, also known as Abu Talha, who is the leader of an al-Qaida affiliated group in Mosul and an aide to Zarqawi.
June 17, 2005: Operation Spear began in the early morning hours with the objective of rooting out insurgents and foreign fighters and disrupting insurgent support systems in and around Karabilah. U.S. tank and amphibious assault units were involved, in addition to 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops.
June 18, 2005: Nine Iraqis have been killed in two separate car bomb attacks in AlAnbar province.
A suicide car bomb attack in Iraq killed 14 soldiers and injured eight others.
Nine troops from U.S.-led multinational forces were killed in a mortar attack in Fallujah.
June 19, 2005: A suicide car bomb attack in Iraq killed 14 soldiers and injured eight others.
A suicide bomber killed up to 20 people including five policemen and several security guards at a Baghdad restaurant close to the Green Zone.
June 20, 2005: At least eight car bombs exploded across Iraq killing 29 people as insurgents defied a widespread U.S.-Iraqi security clampdown.
June 21, 2005: A Swedish hostage has been freed after 67 days in Iraq, the Foreign Ministry and local media announced.
10 people were killed in attacks north of Baghdad.
Around 70 insurgents including a suspected al-Qaida member were arrested in raids around Iraq.
June 22, 2005: U.S. and Iraqi forces have ended the four-day Operation Spear, aimed at clearing insurgent bases and training camps in western Iraq. Officials say U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 50 fighters and discovered more than a dozen car bombs in and around the town of Karabilah during the campaign.
Three car bombs, which went off almost simultaneously about a kilometer apart, killed 18 people and wounded 48 in a mainly Shiite district of west Baghdad.
A Filipino has been released in Iraq after nearly eight months in captivity.
Two million Baghdad residents have been without drinking water since 19 June after saboteurs targeted a major water main in the capital.
June 23, 2005: Four car bombs exploded at dusk, killing at least 23 people.
One of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted terror suspects was killed by an air strike during fighting with U.S. and Iraqi forces in northwest Iraq. Abdullah al-Rashoud had been No. 24 on a list of the top-26 most wanted terror leaders put out by Saudi Arabia three years ago, and was one of only three militants on the list still at large.
June 24, 2005: Washington has, for the first time, acknowledged to the United Nations that prisoners have been tortured at U.S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay, as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A suicide car bomber attacked a U.S. military vehicle in the city of Fallujah, killing six American troops in one of the deadliest single assaults on U.S. ground forces in Iraq.
Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi correspondent for Knight Ridder, is shot and killed by U.S. forces.
June 25, 2005: A suicide car bomb struck the house of a police commando officer in the Iraqi city of Samarra, killing nine people and wounding 16 others.
Saboteurs blew up a crucial oil pipeline leading from Kirkuk in the north to Turkey.
June 26, 2005: A suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath watermelons in a pickup truck slammed into a police station near a market in Mosul, the first of three bombings that killed at least 33 people and wounded 19 in the northwestern city.
The United States has asked Japan to extend its troop deployment in Iraq beyond the scheduled expiration of the current mandate in December.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says: “Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years. Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency. We’re going to create an environment that Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency.”
June 27, 2005: At least 25 people were killed in bombings targeting Iraqi security forces.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that pentagon officials had been in contact with insurgents in a bid to stem the violence.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed when their AH-64 Apache helicopter crashed northwest of Baghdad.
June 28, 2005: U.S. Marines launched Operation Saif (Sword) in western Iraq, sending 1,000 troops against suspected insurgents in the western Euphrates river valley.
An Iraqi Parliament member, his son and three bodyguards were among at least 12 people killed in attacks in Iraq.
June 29, 2005: Nine people were killed in Iraq’s western town of Hit as U.S. and Iraqi troops launched their latest offensive, Operation Sword, in western Iraq.
The Swiss cabinet announced that it has approved the sale of 180 tanks to the United Arab Emirates, who will present them to Iraq as a gift.
In Samarra, at least two police commandos are killed and six injured when gunmen attack.
June 30, 2005: Tanzim Qa’idat al-Jihad Fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Al-Qa’idah of Jihad
Organization in the Land of Two Rivers) attacks U.S. headquarters in AlKhalidiyah.
An attack on a police chief in Baquba kills two and injures five.
In Mosul, two Kurdish female employees of President Talabani’s party are killed.
Alaa Mahmoud al-Timimi-Baghdad’s mayor-threatened to resign over crumbling infrastructure in the city.
June is the 5th-deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq. According to the website Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 77 U.S. service members died in June.
Agence France Presse reported that deaths from insurgent attacks in Iraq fell from 672 in May to 430 in June.A total of 160 attacks (53 car bombs; 27 homemade bomb attacks; 17 mortar attacks; and, 63 armed assaults) were carried out during June, injuring 933 people. More than 1,500 insurgents were detained and 229 were killed during this period.
July 1, 2005: Sheik Kamaleddin al-Ghuraifi, a senior aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-
Sistani, is gunned down in Baghdad on his way to Friday prayer. Immediately following the attack, a suicide car bomb exploded near the office of a major Shiite political party.
An early morning attack shut down the Kharkh water treatment plant in Baghdad. Millions of Iraqis were left without access to water. Officials said the plant was expected to re-open within three days.
A suicide bomber drove a car into a U.S. military facility in Al-Khalidiyah in AlAnbar, western Iraq. There were no reports of casualties.
July 2, 2005: Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in two separate attacks in and around Baghdad, killing 20 and injuring 59.
In Hilla, six policemen died when a suicide bomber struck. A second suicide bomb explodes as paramedics tend to victims of the first attack. 20-six people were injured in the second attack.
Ihab al-Sharif, the top Egyptian diplomat in Iraq and future Ambassador to that country is kidnapped while driving alone in Jamia, a neighborhood of Baghdad.
Gunmen kill Adil al-Janabi, a Shiite cleric, and his bodyguard.
A bomb went off in a local market in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. The attack, which killed two and wounded 10, occurred minutes after the funeral procession of Sheik Kamaleddin had passed by.
A car bomb near a police station in the New Baghdad section of the capital injures
9.
The U.S. military announced the arrest of Dr. Safa Ali Chiad Mashul who is accused of having helped Samir Ammar Hamid Mahmoud (known as Abu Agil), a member of the group al-Qaida in Iraq.
The U.S. military launched an investigation into the June 24th death of Mohammed Sumaidaie, the cousin of Iraq’s U.N. ambassador Samir Sumaidaie.
July 3, 2005: Attorney-General Alberto R. Gonzales makes an unannounced visit to Iraq. The visit lasts only six hours.
A car bomb in Kirkuk kills two Iraqi police officers and wounds another.
Five shells are fired at Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces in the southern city of Samawah.
July 4, 2005: The Sunni Endowment, a major Sunni umbrella group, calls for clerics to issue fatwas ordering Sunnis to vote in elections.
In Kirkuk, 2,000 Arabs and Turkmens demonstrate against Kurdish rule.
In Baghdad, two roadside bombs kill three civilians and wound three.
July 5, 2005: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group issues a statement claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sharif on July 2nd.
July 6, 2005: Gunmen attack the diplomat representatives of Bahrain and Pakistan in Baghdad.
Pakistan announced it is withdrawing its ambassador from Iraq.
Shiite and Kurdish politicians accept 15 Sunni Arabs, known as the “List of 15”, chosen to increase Sunni representation on the constitutional committee.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group posts a message on the Internet declaring their intent to hand over Sharif to the mujahedeen to face punishment for collaborating with the United States.
Three police officers are killed in Baghdad.
Gunmen shoot and kill Ali Ghalib Ibrahim-the head of Salahuddin’s provincial council, outside Tikrit.
Twin car bombings near Hilla kill 11 and injure 19.
A demonstration near Kirkuk involving hundreds of Iraqis called for the release of Sheik Aref Nayef Hamid al-Obaidi, a local tribal leader arrested by the U.S. military last week. The Sheik had previously served as a chief of a military division under Saddam.
July 7, 2005: Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sharif is killed by the group al-Qaida in Iraq. In a statement issued by the group, they pledged to ‘capture as many ambassadors as we can.’
The Egyptian government announced it was temporarily closing its Baghdad mission and sending its staff home.
Jordan announced it is reconsidering an earlier decision to send an ambassador to Iraq following a series of insurgent attacks directed against diplomats in Baghdad.
Four civilians were injured when police in Tikrit opened fire on 1,000 demonstrators protesting the killing of a local official.
Gunmen killed 2 Shiite Muslim clerics in Baghdad.
Mortar attacks against police stations in Mosul kill 6 and injure 24.
Two U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad.
A joint military operation between U.S.-Iraqi forces, codenamed Operation Scimitar, is launched southeast of Fallujah.
July 8, 2005: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced that Italy would be withdrawing 300 of its 3,000-strong force from Iraq in September.
In comments delivered following the end of Operation Lightning, Maj. General William G. Webster Jr. told reporters that the coalition had ‘mostly eliminated’ the insurgents’ ability to conduct sustained, high-intensity attacks in Baghdad.
Prior to the May 22nd start of the operation, there had been anywhere between 14 to 21 car bombings per week. Since then, car bombings have declined to about 78 per week. More than 1,700 suspected insurgents were captured during the operation. The U.S. military believes 51 of the captured insurgents are foreigners.
A roadside bomb killed one U.S. soldier and wounded three others near Balad, north of Baghdad.
July 9, 2005: A roadside bomb in Fallujah destroyed a personnel carrier and injured an unknown number of people
A suicide car bomber struck a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol, destroying two personnel carriers (one Iraqi, one U.S.), killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding at least three others.
U.S. forces capture Khamis Abdul-Fahdawi (a.k.a. Abu Seba), a suspect in the recent attacks on Bahraini and Pakistani diplomats as well as the murder of an Egyptian diplomat.
July 10, 2005: A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of recruits at the army recruiting center at Muthana airfield in Baghdad. 20-five are killed and fifty wounded, mostly recruits.
A suicide car bomb exploded near a hospital in Kirkuk, killing four civilians and injuring 16. U.S. forces defuse a second car bomb.
Two suicide car bombs kill an Iraqi civilian and wound a U.S. marine near
Fallujah.
At least seven Iraqi customs officials are killed when two suicide car bombers detonate their bombs near the Walid border crossing into Syria.
A suicide car bomb drove into a police convoy near Mosul, killing five policemen.
Two U.S. marines were killed by mortar shells in Hit, in western Iraq.
An attack by three insurgents is foiled by an Iraqi military patrol. Two of the insurgents are killed and the third is wounded when their device exploded prematurely near Ba’qubah.
U.S. forces kill four insurgents in Tal Afar.
July 11, 2005: Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in Khalis, northeast of Baghdad, killing seven Iraqi soldiers and injuring three, including one civilian.
A car bomb exploded in Khalis as an Iraqi Army patrol drove by, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding another.
U.S. forces in Tal Afar kill 10 insurgents. Six civilians were killed and 22 wounded.
In response to an insurgent attack on July 10th, U.S. and Iraqi forces besiege Buhruz, south of Ba’qubah.
Two suicide car bombers struck Al-Tanaf Base near the border with Syria. The number of casualties was unknown.
July 12, 2005: A suicide bomber, identified as Abbas Ahmad al-Sumayda’i, detonated his bomb outside Jalawla Mosque in the Diyala Governorate in eastern Iraq, killing two civilians and wounding 16.
General Richard B. Myers, CJCS, announced that the U.S. had captured Abu Abd Aziz, a high-ranking aide to Zarqawi.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced for the first time that some Iraqi cities were now secure enough to warrant the departure of American troops.
Robert Zoellick, the deputy Secretary of State visits Iraq.
A car bomb outside Kirkuk intended for a U.S. convoy kills three Iraqi civilians and wounds at least 14.
Gunmen kill four Iraqi human rights activists and injure another in Baghdad.
Iraqi authorities announce they are reducing the curfew in Baghdad. The new curfew will now take affect at 12:00 a.m., not 11:00 p.m. as before, and last until 5:00 a.m.
July 13, 2005: A car bomb struck an American unit on patrol in eastern Baghdad handing out candy to children. One U.S. soldier was killed, along with 24 Iraqi children. Two U.S. soldiers and more than a dozen Iraqis are injured in the attack.
Gunmen attack and kill three Iraqi soldiers in two separate incidents in western Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb exploded near a U.S. checkpoint in Al-Sufiyah, a suburb of Al-Ramada in western Iraq.
A suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into an Iraqi Army column in AlSudayrah in northeastern Al-Sharqat, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding two.
An investigation is lunched into the deaths of 10 Sunni Arab men while in custody of the Iraqi police.
A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier south of Baghdad.
At least three are killed when a car bomb exploded in Kirkuk.
A senior police officer is gunned down in Baghdad.
July 14, 2005: Two suicide bombers struck near the Green Zone, killing two policemen and wounding at least nine others. A third attack was foiled and the attacker captured by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
In Kirkuk, gunmen kill three policemen.
Gunmen kill three policemen in western Baghdad.
Gunmen kill five Iraqi employees of an American base in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.
Gunmen attacked an Iraqi television crew in Baghdad, wounding three.
U.S. and Iraqi forces raid insurgent safe houses in Ghazaliyah and Abu Ghraib.
Two U.S. soldiers are killed in a blast in Trebil, near the Jordanian border.
The Associated Press reported that in the first six months of this year Iraqi civilian deaths exceeded those of soldiers or police. Between January 1st and June 30, 1,594 civilians were killed compared to only 895 security forces (275
Iraqi soldiers; 620 policemen). According to the Iraqi government, 781 insurgents were killed during this period. More than 1,600 Iraqi’s have been killed since the formation of Prime Minister Jaafari’s government in April.
July 15, 2005: Eight car bombs (seven of them suicide attacks) in Baghdad kill at least 30 (including 7 American soldiers) and injure more than a hundred:
A late-night suicide attack on a bridge near the home of President Talabani killed four security guards and injured nine others.
Eight Iraqis died when a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi Army base in the Shaab neighborhood of northern Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb exploded near a police commando patrol in western Baghdad killing six policemen and wounding more than forty.
A suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi patrol in central Baghdad killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding six.
Two U.S. soldiers are wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy in Rustamiyah in southeastern Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb near the former Defense Ministry building in northern Baghdad killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured 14.
A U.S. soldier and five Iraqis are injured when a suicide car bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad.
A roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military patrol passed by in Amiriyah, western Baghdad. The incident was followed by a gun battle between insurgents and U.S. troops.
Five Iraqi soldiers and one civilian are killed when a suicide car bomber detonated his car near Haswa, south of Baghdad. At least 17 civilians were wounded.
Gunmen kill three Iraqi policemen at a checkpoint near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb detonated prematurely in Kirkuk, killing the two insurgents inside along with one civilian.
July 16, 2005: Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari begins a 3-day trip to Iran.
A suicide bomb detonated near a gasoline tanker in Musayyib, south of Baghdad, kills 98 and wounds 160.
In Mosul, a suicide attack outside a police station kills 5 Iraqi police officers.
A roadside bomb in Maysan Province, near Amara, kills 3 British soldiers and injures 2.
Two attacks in Baghdad, one against a U.S. military convoy and the other against a commando unit, kill 2 and wound 11.
One U.S. soldier is killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk Province.
July 17, 2005: A total of six car bombings, four of them suicide attacks, struck Iraq:
A suicide car bomb killed 2 policemen and 1 civilian and injured 8 in the eastern part of New Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb near Bay’a bus station in southern Iraq killed 3 police commandos and 4 civilians and injured 3 more.
A suicide car bomb narrowly missed a U.S. convoy but struck two minibuses in Mahmoudiya, killing 6 civilians.
A bomb in southeast Baghdad kills five members of Iraq’s independent electoral commission and one policeman.
A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi checkpoint, killing three commandos and wounding 10 civilians.
One U.S. soldier is killed and two are wounded when a homemade bomb exploded near Balad, north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi Special Tribunal filed its first criminal case against Saddam Hussein.
At least 1,767 members of the U.S. military have died since March 2003, according to the Associated Press.
July 18, 2005: Gunmen kill eight police officers in three separate incidents in and around Baghdad.
At least 20 other police officers, soldiers and government workers are killed. In one incident, insurgents in Dora gunned down Maissa Jassim, a government employee of the Iraqi Trade Minister.
U.S. and Iraqi forces seize 1,000 mortar rounds, 450 rocket propelled grenades and 150 rockets in Mosul.
Iraqi and international officials gather in Aqaba, Jordan, to discuss reconstruction efforts. Iraq’s planning minister, Barham Salih, while acknowledging that they were needed, criticized American reconstruction ‘mega-projects’ for not providing basic needs like electricity, water and sanitation quickly enough.
July 19, 2005: Gunmen assassinate Shaykh Ahmad al-Juburi, the imam at Al-Taqwa Mosque in Al-Dawrah in southern Baghdad.
Insurgents attack an oil storage facility south of Baghdad.
A Sunni delegate and an advisor (Mijbil Issa and Dhamin Hussein al-Obeidi) to the committee responsible for drafting the constitution along with a bodyguard are gunned down outside a restaurant in Baghdad.
A roadside bomb in Kirkuk kills one police officer and one civilian.
In Tikrit, a police officer is killed when a roadside bomb detonated near his vehicle.
Gunmen attack a minibus carrying Iraqi workers to a U.S. air base near Baquba, killing 13.
July 20, 2005: A car bomb in Tuz Khormato, near Kirkuk, wounds two civilians.
Nine staff members of the Iraqi Special Tribunal are dismissed for having links to the Ba’ath Party.
Insurgents attack an oil pipeline south of Samarra.
A suicide attack at the recruiting center near the Muthanna airport in Baghdad kills 10, including a Sunni member of the constitutional drafting committee and wounds more than 20.
Gunmen kill seven Iraqi officers and wound one in an ambush in Mosul.
The 12 remaining members of the Sunni Arab delegation to the constitution committee-two had resigned earlier after being threatened by insurgents-suspend their membership in protest over the murder of a fellow Sunni delegate. A roadside bomb near Zaidon kills a U.S. marine.
July 21, 2005: A suicide car bomb exploded near an Iraqi Army checkpoint in Mahmoudiyah, killing six soldiers and injuring 13 (including five civilians) others.
A suicide car bomb killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded six in the Baghdad suburb of Bueitha.
Gunmen kill members of the Qadisiyah provincial council in Khadhra.
Gunmen kill Salman Lazim Shikara, an employee of the Ministry of Trade, in Sadr City, Baghdad.
A bomb near a British security firm in the western Yarmouk neighborhood kills one Iraqi guard and injures two.
A roadside bomb in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, kills three Iraqi soldiers and injures another three.
In Mansour-a district in Baghdad-gunmen kidnap two Algerian diplomats: Ali Belaroussi, Algeria’s charge d’affaires and chief of the Iraqi mission, and Azzedine Ben Kadi).
Gunmen kidnap and kill two policemen and one Sunni cleric (all brothers) in northern Baghdad.
July 22, 2005: In Baghdad, gunmen shoot a police officer and his wife.
A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier in Fallujah.
Gunmen kill two policemen and injure another two in eastern Baghdad.
Mortars struck Major-General Anwar Amin’s (commander of the Iraqi Army Fourth Brigade) house, killing one policeman and wounding three others.
A market bombing in Kirkuk kills six soldiers, four Iraqi and two American.
Mortal shells kill one Iraqi policeman and injure another in Dumiz.
A roadside bomb alongside the Kirkuk-Riyadh highway injures two U.S. soldiers.
Kurdish members of the committee drafting the new Iraqi constitution call for a referendum on secession to be held.
July 23, 2005: Iraqi police arrest thirty people in Al-Yusufiyah and AL-Musayyib, south of Baghdad.
A bomb in Al-Qal’lah, in western Samarra kills one Iraqi soldier and wounds three others.
A U.S. ordinance left behind from the March 2003 campaign injures five construction workers when it suddenly explodes.
The government of Iraq condemned the bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
A bombing near Rutbah in western Iraq kills one U.S. marine.
July 24, 2005: A suicide truck bomb exploded near Rashad police station in eastern
Baghdad killing at least thirty and wounding several dozen.
A roadside bomb in Haswa, south of Baghdad, kills one child and injures six other civilians.
In two separate incidents, roadside bombs destroyed two U.S. Humvees in Ramadi.
A roadside bomb kills four U.S. soldiers in southwestern Baghdad.
July 25, 2005: A roadside bomb near Samarra kills one U.S. soldier.
The Sunni Arab delegation involved in the drafting of the constitution ends its boycott and returns to the committee.
A truck bomb outside a Baghdad police station kills thirty-nine people.
Gunmen kill Subhi Thamir Hussein al-Badri, his wife and two sons in Samarra.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard visits Baghdad.
A car bomb near Harithiyah Bridge in western Baghdad kills two policemen and injures 11.
A suicide car bomb at Sadeer hotel in central Baghdad kills 12 and injures 18.
A suicide car bomb kills two commandoes and injures another 10 at a Ministry of Interior Police building.
A bomb exploded near the Iraqi-Syrian border killing two Iraq policemen.
An Iraqi soldier is killed in Ramadi. In response, U.S. forces closed Al-Warrar and Al-Jazeera bridges.
Two car bombs (one a suicide bomber) attack U.S. forces in Rawah, western Iraq.
July 26, 2005: Gunmen kill 16 Iraqi government employees and wound twentyseven in western Baghdad.
In two separate incidents, gunmen kill a policeman and a government employee in Baghdad.
In Basra, gunmen attack and kill two people (including a policeman). Several others are injured.
In Kirkuk, two roadside bombs injure five.
20 gunmen attack a water plant killing seven Iraqi soldiers in Tarmiyah , north of Baghdad.
A Pentagon report criticizing Iraqi police recruits for being ‘marginally literate…with criminal records or physical handicaps,’ is released.
July 27, 2005: The group al-Qaida in Iraq announced it had killed two Algerian diplomats, kidnapped on July 21st.
A bomb exploded near a U.S. Army patrol in Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and injuring five.
A roadside bomb kills two U.S. soldiers and wounds another in northern Baghdad.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visits Iraq.
Prime Minister Al-Jaafari said he wants U.S. troops “on their way out”. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey announced that a withdrawal of
U.S. troops could begin as early as Spring 2006.
In Mosul, the U.S. military captured Ammar Abu Bara (aka Amar Hussein Hasan), a cell leader of al-Qaida in Iraq.
A suicide car bomb kills six civilians and wounds eight soldiers in western Baghdad.
July 28, 2005: A roadside bomb kills two U.S. soldiers in southern Baghdad and sets a fuel train on fire.
Gunmen kill two U.S. Marines in western Iraq.
Gunmen attack Iraqi Army checkpoints in Ba’qubah and Khan Bani Sa’d, northeast of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi soldiers and wounding eight.
The Electricity Ministry announced a further reduction in electricity supplies to Baghdad, following a series of attacks on that city’s power grid. Baghdad now receives half-an-hour of electricity followed by a six-hour blackout period.
A bomb struck an oil pipeline belonging to the Beiji Oil Refinery, southwest of Kirkuk.
A roadside bomb in front of a police station in southern Baghdad kills an Iraqi policeman and wounds four others.
July 29, 2005: A suicide bomber struck an Iraqi Army recruiting center in Rabiah, near the Syrian border, killing at least forty and wounding several dozen.
The Philippine Embassy relocates its employees to Jordan.
A suicide bicycle bomber struck a busy carrying Iraqi Army trainees, killing two and wounding two others, outside of Balad.
A suicide bomb exploded near a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol in Samarra, killing one Iraqi soldier and wounding another.
A suicide bomb struck a convoy of military trucks in the Al-Tarmiyah area of northern Baghdad, killing the driver and injuring another.
A suicide car bomb in the Al-Sarafiyah district of Baghdad kills one and wounds 10.
More than a thousand Sunni Arabs gathered near the Green Zone in Baghdad to protest the recent killings of Sunnis.
The U.S. Justice Department announced that Wesam al-Delaema, a Dutch citizen would be charged with conspiring to kill Americans in Iraq. The case is the first of its kind.
July 30, 2005: A roadside bomb outside of Basra kills two contractors guarding a British convoy.
A car bomb exploded near the National Theater in Baghdad killing seven (including three policemen) and wounding twenty-five.
A bomb in Al-Saqlamiyah, near Fallujah, injured several U.S. soldiers.
A roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol in Al-Dawrah, south of Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding two.
In Tal-Afar, two bombs struck and destroyed two U.S. Army vehicles.
A car bomb destroyed a U.S. vehicle in the Al-Sarafiyah district of Baghdad.
U.S. gunfire kills four Iraqis and injures eight others at a checkpoint in northern Samarra.
A roadside bomb kills four U.S. soldiers in southwestern Baghdad.
July 31, 2005: Iraqi delegates drafting the new constitution said they would require more time (beyond the August 15 deadline) to finish their work.
A car bomb kills seven people and wounds another 10 (including several policemen) in Al-Haswah, south of Baghdad.
Gunmen attacked a Baghdad convoy carrying members of the Iraqi National Congress killing one and wounding three.
The U.S. military used tanks and aircraft against insurgents in Haditha, in western
Iraq.
August 1, 2005: A suicide car bomb near the Syrian border wounds several U.S. soldiers along with an embedded journalist.
Gunmen kill six U.S. soldiers in Haditha, western Iraq.
A car bomb kills a U.S. Marine in Hit, southeast of Haditha.
In Baghdad, gunmen storm the house of Haider Mohammed Ali al-Dujaili, an aide to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, killing him.
August 2, 2005: A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy in central Baghdad wounding twenty-nine civilians.
In Samarra, an explosion damaged a fuel pipeline.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called for the new Iraqi constitution to protect minority and women’s rights.
An Iraqi report detailing rampant corruption at the Defense Ministry is released.
A car bomb in Baqouba kills one civilian and injures nine others (mostly policemen).
Gunmen kill a U.S. soldier outside Baghdad.
The Defense Ministry announced that 1,413 civilians had been killed since April
1st.
Gunmen clashed with U.S. troops in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
In Mosul, a suicide car bomb struck a police checkpoint, killing four (including three policemen).
The Rapid Intervention Forces of the Iraqi Army launch a pre-emptive operation against insurgents in Fallujah, arresting eight.
August 3, 2005: In Haditha, an I.E.D. struck an amphibious assault vehicle killing 14 U.S. Marines and a civilian interpreter. The attack is the deadliest roadside bombing against U.S. troops in Iraq since the war began.
In Baghdad, gunmen kill General Abdel Salam Rauf Saleh, the head of the Interior Ministry’s commando unit.
Gunmen in Baghdad kill a police colonel and two finance ministry employees.
A car bomb in Baquba kills one civilian and wounds nine.
Saddam Hussein’s legal team announced it would be boycotting all proceedings until its concerns regarding an alleged attack on the former President last week were taken seriously.
An explosion near Abu Ghraib kills one civilian.
In Ramadi, gunmen kill a U.S. marine.
A bomb in Kirkuk wounds two civilians.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb kills three U.S. soldiers.
The U.S. military launched Operation Quick Strike in Al-Anbar province today in response to the killing of more than two-dozen marines. The operation is focused around Haditha, Haqlaniyah and Parwana in northwestern Iraq.
August 4, 2005: Gunmen kill four Iraqi soldiers in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
In Kirkuk, gunmen kill three policemen.
A car bomb between Tal Afar and Kirkuk kills four civilians and wounds three others.
Gunmen kill an Iraqi soldier and his family in Diyala. In a separate attack, gunmen also kill the director of planning for the region.
A car bomb kills two Iraqi soldiers from the elite Wolf Brigade in Daquq, south of Kirkuk. The soldiers were part of a unit escorting the Shiite cleric Muqtada alSadr and his aides back from Tal-Afar. Two clerics were also killed in the attack.
A suicide bomb in Ba’qubah kills four Iraqi soldiers and injures four more.
In Mosul, insurgents kill a U.S. soldier.
August 5, 2005: A roadside bomb kills four U.S. soldiers and wounds several civilians in the city of Al-Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad.
In southern Baghdad, U.S. forces working with the Iraqi Army kill six insurgents and capture another 12.
A suicide bomb kills an Iraqi soldier in southern Baghdad.
August 6, 2005: The Associated Press reported that at least 1,820 U.S. troops had died in Iraq since March 2003. The breakdown was as follows:
Accident 19.5 per cent
Bomb 31.9 per cent
Combat 48.5 per cent
A suicide car bomber struck a U.S. checkpoint on Rawah Bridge south of Fallujah in Al-Anbar province killing a Marine. Fighting between insurgents and soldiers broke out directly following the attack.
In eastern Baghdad, a suicide car bomb wounds three civilians.
A roadside bomb in Gzeiza, north of Basra, injures a British soldier.
A roadside bomb struck a U.S. patrol in Samarra killing two U.S. soldiers and inuring another three. Following the attack, U.S. forces allegedly fire on civilians, killing four.
August 7, 2005: In Baghdad, gunmen kill three Iraqi soldiers and wound another.
A suicide bomber struck an empty fuel tanker in Tikrit killing at least two policemen and injuring another nine.
A suicide car bomb struck a police recruitment center in Tikrit killing five and wounding more than a dozen.
Insurgents wielding grenades attack a U.S. patrol in Samarra killing two soldiers and wounding three.
In Al-Samawah, citizens protesting the lack of clean water and electricity clashed with security forces. One person is killed and eight are wounded.
A car bomb detonated in Ramadi.
British troops launched a campaign in southern city of Maysan.
August 8, 2005: U.S. forces discovered a car bomb factory in Haqlaniyah, in Al-Anbar province.
Clashes between Iraqi civilians and security forces in Al-Samawah kill one and injure more than two dozen.
In Baghdad, gunmen kill two members of the Oil Ministry and wound two others.
Gunmen kill two employees of the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk.
In Baghdad, gunmen kill an employee of the Al-Dawrah electricity station.
A suicide bomb struck a U.S. patrol in Fallujah. There are no reports of casualties.
In Mosul, U.S. forces uncover a chemical weapons lab and 1,500 gallons of chemicals in an abandoned warehouse.
August 9, 2005: In four separate incidents, gunmen kill 10 Iraqi policemen in Baghdad.
A suicide bomb in downtown Baghdad kills at least seven, including one U.S. soldier, and injures almost a hundred.
Alaa al-Timimi, the mayor of Baghdad, is fired.
The mayor of Samawah resigned under pressure.
In Ramadi, gunmen kill a U.S. Marine. In a separate incident, U.S. soldiers kill four insurgents.
In Mosul, U.S. forces kill two insurgents and arrest 22 others.
Gunmen assassinate Abbas Ibrahim Mohammed, an Iraqi Cabinet employee, in Baghdad.
In Beiji, north of Baghdad, insurgents kill four U.S. soldiers and wound another six.
August 10, 2005: Operation Quick Strike, involving 800 U.S. Marines and 180 Iraqi soldiers, ends. Thirty-six insurgents were captured; nine car bombs and more than twenty-eight I.E.D’s were defused.
In Kirkuk, gunmen kill a police officer.
Gunmen kidnap Brig. General Khudayer Abbas, head of administrative affairs for the Ministry of the Interior.
A car bomb struck a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol killing seven, including five Iraqi soldiers.
A car bomb in western Baghdad kills seven (including three policemen) and wounds seven (including five U.S. soldiers).
August 11, 2005: In Tikrit, a roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier.
August 12, 2005: Two roadside bombs south of Kirkuk kill two and injure five.
A roadside bomb struck a U.S. convoy in Nasaf, near Ramadi. U.S. forces allegedly responded by firing at a crowd outside a nearby mosque, killing at least four and injuring more than a dozen.
In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier is found shot dead.
In Mosul, Iraqi security forces kill Mohammed Salah Sultan, also known as Abu Zubair, a lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
August 13, 2005: A suicide car bomb kills one Iraqi and wounds another in southern Baghdad.
In eastern Baghdad, a bomb injures five Iraqi soldiers.
A roadside bombing near Tuz Khormato kills three U.S. soldiers.
A bombing in Baghdad kills one U.S. soldier.
August 14, 2005: Captured insurgents lead Iraqi police to a grave containing thirty bodies in southern Baghdad.
A roadside bomb in Rutbah kills a U.S. soldier.
In Bagdad, gunmen kidnap Husam Kazim Juwayid, general manager of the central bank.
Kurds in Arbil, Al-Sulaymaniyah and Dahuk protest demanding independence.
Gunmen kill an Iraqi soldier and a civilian north of Baghdad.
A car bomb struck a U.S. patrol in the Al-Amiriyah neighborhood, west of Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding six others.
Gunmen kill six (including three policemen) in Ba’qubah.
U.S. forces increase the curfew in Samarra and ban the use of bicycles and motorcycles.
A suicide bomber kills one civilian and wounded another four in Al-Mahawil, south of Baghdad.
August 15, 2005: After failing to meet the deadline for drafting a constitution, the Iraqi parliament votes to give delegates until August 22nd to come up with a draft. Outstanding issues are: federalism; oil wealth; women’s rights; and, the role of Islam.
In Abu Ghraib, Iraqi forces capture sixty-seven insurgents. In Taji, north of Baghdad, an additional eighty-two-including several foreigners-are arrested.
In Al-Amiriyah, gunmen kill one Iraq soldier and injure another.
A mortar attack on the Interior Ministry in Baghdad injures 20 (including five security officers).
Gunmen assassinate Muhammad Husayn, a member of the municipal council of
Al-Khalis.
In Ba’qubah, gunmen attack a checkpoint killing three Iraqi soldiers.
A failed assassination attempt is carried out on Iraqi Vice-President Adil Ab-alMahdi in Al-Azim.
In Mosul, gunmen kill a U.S. soldier.
In Baghdad, a vehicle overturned killing the three U.S. soldiers inside.
A suicide bomb at a restaurant in Al-Karradah injures 15, including six policemen.
In Ba’qubah, an explosion kills an Iraqi journalist and wounds two others.
August 16, 2005: The IMF issues its first report in twenty-five years on the state of the Iraqi economy. The group said it now expected this year’s GDP growth to be 4 per cent (not the previously estimated 17 per cent), blaming the fall on the heavy number of insurgent attacks targeting the country’s oil industry.
U.S. forces open fire on a group of Iraqis in the Allawi al-Hillah section of central Baghdad, wounding twenty-six, after being fired on by insurgents.
Gunmen attack the Baghdad-Al-Rusafah Civil Defense Center in Sadr city killing two policemen and wounding four others.
Gunmen attack and wound several bodyguards of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
Insurgents struck an oil pipeline in the Jurf al-Sakhr area of Al-Musayyab, south of Baghdad. In subsequent clashes one guard is killed and three are wounded.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier.
In Mosul, clashes between insurgents and police kill one civilian and injure another. In another attack, gunmen kill a policeman.
In Baghdad, gunmen kill one and wound two others.
August 17, 2005: Three car bombs kill at least forty-three and wound fifty-eight in Baghdad. Zarqawi’s al-Qaida organization claimed responsibility.
The first two attacks struck Baghdad’s al-Nahda bus station, with the third exploding near the al-Kindi hospital.
In Fallujah, a car bomb kills three civilians and injures another seven.
Gunmen assassinate Ali al-Shimmari, a local imam and a member of the Association of Muslim Scholars, in northeastern Baghdad.
Gunmen attack convoy of trucks near Beiji in northern Iraq, killing three.
Prime Minister al-Jaafari announced that three Iraqi criminals would be the first to be executed since the overthrow of the Saddam regime in 2003. The death penalty in Iraq was reinstated in August 2004.
August 18, 2005: A roadside bomb in Samarra kills four U.S. soldiers.
Iraq’s Electoral Commission ruled that Iraqis living abroad would not be allowed to vote in the October referendum on the constitution. Iraqis from all around the world participated in the January 30 elections.
Gunmen assassinate Jasim Waheeb, a Baghdad judge.
August 19, 2005: Major General David Rodriguez, commander of U.S. forces in northwestern Iraq, announced that U.S. forces had killed or captured 170 foreign fighters in recent months.
Three members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraq’s main Sunni party, are gunned down in Mosul.
Gunmen kill Aswad al-Ali, an Arab member of a local council near Kirkuk.
In Kirkuk, gunmen kill an Iraqi contractor working with the U.S. military.
In Tikrit, a roadside bomb kills two Iraqis and wounds a third.
Britain announced it was ruling out setting a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
August 20, 2005: A roadside bomb in Baghdad kills a U.S. soldier
Iraqi police and U.S. troops kill three insurgents in Mosul. Also in Mosul, a roadside bomb wounds six Kurdish militiamen. A second roadside bomb wounds six civilians.
Gunmen kill Yasser Abed Moussa, a retired brigadier general in Saddam’s army.
Insurgents attack a market in Fallujah with grenades, injuring 20 civilians.
August 21, 2005: Iraq accuses Jordan of sheltering members of Saddam Hussein’s family as well as those responsible for terrorist attacks in Iraq.
A roadside bomb in Dwar, near Tikrit, kills a U.S. soldier In Basra, a roadside bomb wounds a British soldier.
Sunni Arabs appeal to the U.S. and UN to prevent Shiites and Kurds from pushing a draft of the new constitution through parliament without their consent.
A car bomb in a Shiite district of Baghdad kills four civilians.
Residents flee Rawah following clashes between U.S. and Iraqi forces and insurgents.
The U.S. military announced it has ordered a criminal investigation into the death of Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, the cousin of Iraq’s UN ambassador.
U.S. fighter jets and tanks attack a group wedding in H it, killing one civilian and wounding 15 others.
A roadside bomb kills three people, including a policeman, and injures five others, in southern Baghdad.
In Fallujah, a roadside bomb kills three people, including one civilian, and wounds two others.
Gunmen kill two Iraqi policemen in western Baghdad.
A number of Shiite and Kurdish militias are being formed to combat increasing levels of violence.
An explosion near Karmah kills a U.S Marine.
August 22, 2005: Insurgents attack power stations in central Iraq, causing blackouts and costing the country $60 million in lost oil revenues.
For a second time in as many weeks, Iraqi leaders fail to reach consensus on a draft constitution. Delegates ask for three more days to complete negotiations. According to U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the three major outstanding issues are: federalism, purging Saddam’s Baath Party, and election laws.
A roadside bomb in northern Baghdad, south west of Samarra, kills two U.S. soldiers.
In Fallujah, a roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier.
11 Pakistani construction workers kidnapped near Nasiriya in early August are released.
Iraq’s government asks Japan to formally extend its mission beyond the December deadline in order to help with the reconstruction process.
August 23, 2005: A suicide attack against Diyala Police Directorate in Baghdad kills five, including an Iraqi colonel, and wounds five Iraqi policemen. A number of multinational forces are also injured.
August 24, 2005: Insurgents attack Iraqi police patrols in western Baghdad. In a tactic the U.S. military calls ‘swarming’, three car bombs (two of them suicide car bombs) are immediately followed by gunfire. The attack kills forty (including 13 policemen, and one U.S. soldier) and wounds several dozen.
Fighting breaks out between rival Shiite groups in southern Iraq after supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr try to re-open his office Najaf, killing four.
August 25, 2005: A third deadline for completion of the new Iraqi constitution comes and goes, with little progress apparent.
Gunmen attack a bus near Al-Khalis, killing four and wounding seven.
In Baqouba, seven Iraqis (mostly new recruits) are wounded in a mortar attack on a police station.
A roadside bomb in Al-Hawijah kills an Iraqi soldier and wounds two.
A mortar attack kills one Iraqi soldier and wounds another in Al-Musayyib.
Gunmen attack the convoy of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani south of Tuz Khormato killing two bodyguards and wounding three others.
A roadside bomb in Basra wounds two Danish soldiers.
Iraqi police discover thirty-six bodies in southeastern Baghdad.
A bomb detonated near a U.S. patrol in Samarra.
There are reports that Saddam Hussein’s Baath party are making a political comeback as the New Baath Party.
August 26, 2005: The U.S. military carries out air strikes against a suspected Al-Zarqawi safe house in western Anbar.
In Samarra, insurgents battle U.S forces. One Iraqi is killed and three others are wounded.
Two bombs strike an Iraqi supply convoy, killing two drivers and wounding a security guard.
Gunmen assassinate an Iraqi police officer and a civilian in northeast Baghdad. Fighting between residents of Al-Qa’im and foreign and Iraqi gunmen erupts in western Iraq.
Thousands of Sunni Arabs demonstrate against the proposed draft constitution in central and northern Iraq.
Gunmen kill one Iraqi soldier in the Dawra neighborhood of Baghdad. Also in Dawra, a roadside bomb kills one police officer and wounds two others.
In Mosul, gunmen kill Jiyah Hussein-a leader of the local Reform Prty-and his son.
August 27, 2005: Gunmen kill Lt. Col. Mohammed Salih near Kirkuk. Also in Kirkuk, an insurgent is killed when his bomb detonated prematurely.
A bomb kills two Iraqi soldiers and wounds eight others in northern Baghdad, near Tikrit.
U.S. planes bomb insurgent locations in Al-Qa’im.
U.S. forces announce they have released nearly 1,000 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison in the past few days. The largest prisoner release to date comes in response to requests by Iraqi officials.
In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol, wounding eight officers.
Also in Kirkuk, gunmen kill Lt. Col. Muhammad Fakhri Abdullah.
Gunmen kill an Iraqi police officer in Baghdad.
Clashes among Sunni tribes erupt in western and northern Iraq. In Qa’im, thirtyfive are killed in mortar, rocket and gunfire attacks between rival tribes.
August 28, 2005: A suicide car bomb in Mosul kills three, including one U.S. soldier, and wounds four others.
Iraqi Shiites announce they are ending negotiations on the constitution although they have yet to receive an endorsement of the draft from Iraq’s Sunni Arabs. Iraq’s parliament approves the draft constitution.
August 29, 2005: Thousands of Sunnis protest against the new constitution in Tikrit.
A rocket attack on the Oil Ministry in Baghdad wounds one.
Gunmen kill Brig. Gen. Numan Salman Faris, director of rapid response for Baghdad’s Azamiyah district.
Iraq’s electoral commission extends the registration period in Anbar province by one week. Stations across Iraq have been registering Iraqis for the October 15 referendum since August 3.
A U.S. Army helicopter is forced to land in Tal Afar, after coming under fire, killing a U.S. soldier.
Jordan announced Iraq had accepted its nominee for ambassador, but that the diplomat would not be going to Baghdad until the city was safe. Jordan also announced plans to spend $85 million on border security with Iraq.
Members of the Iraqi National Dialogue Council reject the draft constitution, calling it ‘illegal’.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari says there is no place for the Baath party in the new Iraq.
An explosion damages an oil pipeline north of Baghdad.
Insurgents set fire to an oil pipeline in Kirkuk.
A poll by the Iraqi Centre for Development and International Dialogue shows 88% of polled Iraqis plan on participating in the October referendum.
August 30, 2005: U.S. air strikes on insurgent safe houses outside Husaybh, in western Iraq, kill an unknown number of insurgents.
The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq says the Iraqi draft constitution could still change. Washington is pushing for a draft that will be accepted by Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis.
A roadside bomb in Iskandariyah, central Iraq, kills one U.S. soldier.
The number of U.S. fatalities in August is the highest of any month since November 2004 and the third highest since the war started. Only November 2004 (with 125 deaths) and April 2004 (with 126 deaths) exceeded August’s total of 74.
August 31, 2005: A stampede caused by a rumor of a nearby suicide bomber kills at least
953 Shia pilgrims and wounds hundreds more in a religious progression in Baghdad. The Iraqi government declared three days of official mourning in response to what was the single deadliest incident in Iraq since the war began.
A roadside bomb kills one U.S. soldier and wounds three others in Samarra.
September 1, 2005: Tribal groups clash in Baghdad, near the site of Wednesday’s deadly stampede.
Iraq’s air force carried out its first military mission, transporting two battalions of Iraqi troops from Irbil to Tal Afar, in northern Iraq.
A U.S. raid south of Baghdad kills two gunmen and wounds four others.
Two consecutive roadside bombs wound seven in Kirkuk.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb kills two U.S. soldiers.
Gunmen kill a U.S. soldier in Iskandariyah.
September 2, 2005: In Basra, thousands of Shiites rally in support of Iraq’s new constitution.
A bomb struck an Iraqi convoy traveling near Beiji, killing five Iraqi soldiers and wounding nine.
In Tikrit, 2,000 Sunni Arabs meet and urge Iraq’s Sunni population to reject the new constitution. Sunni led protests also occurred in Ramadi.
In Baghdad, two bombs explode, injuring one person. Also in Baghdad,gunmen kill two Sunnis and injure four others outside a mosque following Friday prayers.
A roadside bomb in central Baghdad kills a foreign security contractor and injures another.
Kuwait sends emergency first aid to Iraq in response to Wednesday’s deadly stampede.
In Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi forces kill one insurgent and arrest 10 others.
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of SCIRI-the largest Shiite party in the countrysays there is a ‘conspiracy to annihilate the Shiite sect in Iraq.’
September 3, 2005: Gunmen attack three checkpoints in Diyala Governorate in central Iraq, killing 19: in Al-Uzaym, insurgents kill four soldiers; in Baquba, insurgents kill six policemen; and in Al-Abbarah, insurgents kill seven policemen and two soldiers.
A rocket attack on Samarra kills three civilians and wounds 14.
Insurgents bomb an oil pipeline in Kirkuk, disrupting all oil exports to the Turkish port of Cheyhan.
In the largest urban assault since Fallujah in November 2004, five thousand U.S. and Iraqi soldiers move into the insurgent stronghold of Tal Afar.
A mortar attack in Samarra kills four civilians and wounds 11.
Gunmen abduct three Iraqi contractors near Taji air base in northern Baghdad.
Officials in Ramada select 21 new members, including two women, for the city council.
Police discover three bodies in the Tigris River north of Baghdad.
Gunmen set fire to stalls in a market in a Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.
September 4, 2005: Saddam Hussein’s defense team announced it requires more time to prepare before trial is set to begin on October 19.
In Tal Afar, U.S. troops kill seven insurgents.
In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb exploded near an oil pipeline killing one civilian and wounding another.
Drive-by shootings in Baghdad kill four.
A suicide car bomb struck an Iraqi checkpoint in Iskandariyah killing one policeman and injuring two.
Insurgents blow up a pipeline carrying oil from Beiji to Baghdad.
One U.S. soldier is killed near Ramadi.
September 5, 2005: A roadside bomb kills two British soldiers in Zubeir, west of Basra.
Insurgents attack Baghdad’s Interior Ministry with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire in daylight, killing two police officers and wounding several others. Also in Baghdad, a car bomb kills four civilians and wounds four others.
The bodies of three district leaders who refused to cooperate with local insurgents are found in Tal Afar. Also in Tal Afar, insurgents kill eight civilians, most of them children.
The U.S. conducts air strikes on insurgent targets near Balad, north of Baghdad.
A car bomb in Hit kills eight civilians and three Iraqi soldiers. 16 others are wounded.
In Baqouba, a mortar attack kills four civilians and wounds four others.
15 hundred Sunni Arabs protest against the constitution in Ramadi.
President Jalal Talabani announced a compromise over wording in the new constitution had been reached. In addition to being described as an Islamic country, the constitution now also makes reference to Iraq as an Arab country. That designation had previously been left out in order to avoid antagonizing the country’s Kurdish population.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says Iraq is now a bigger ‘center for terrorist activities’ than Afghanistan was under the Taliban.
In Tal Afar, a roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier.
A roadside bombing in Baghdad kills two U.S. soldiers.
Zarqawi’s forces capture the city of Qaim, near the Syrian border, and kill those suspected of collaborating with the U.S.
September 6, 2005: U.S. jets bomb two bridges outside Karabilah, near the Syrian Border, in order to block off an insurgent escape route.
U.S. forces handover control of the city of Najaf to the Iraqi Army.
A suicide bomb struck a checkpoint in Haditha, in western Iraq. There are no reports of casualties.
A roadside bomb kills two U.S. soldiers and injures two others in Baghdad.
A rocket fired by insurgents misses a U.S. target and kills a 12-year old boy, and wounds eight other children in Faris, south of Fallujah.
September 7, 2005: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says Saddam Hussein has confessed to ordering the murder of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s. In his remarks to the press, President Talabani also said Saddam should be executed ‘20 times a day’ for his crimes against the Iraqi people.
Gunmen kill Maj. Gen. Hadi Hassan Omran, the director general of the Iraqi Defense Ministry in Baghdad. Also in Baghdad, insurgents attack an Interior Ministry commando patrol, killing Col. Ammar Ismail Arkan and wounding four bodyguards.
In Basra, a roadside bombing kills Lt. Col. Karim Al-Zaidi. Also in Basra, a roadside bomb kills four U.S. contractors.
Coalition forces rescue U.S. hostage Roy Hallums south of Baghdad. Hallums was kidnapped in November 2004.
Insurgents bomb a pipeline carrying oil from Khanaqin-near the Iranian borderdisrupting the flow of oil to Baghdad’s Dora refinery.
A suicide car bomb kills 15 and wounds 10 outside a restaurant in Basra’s Hayaniyah market.
Congress reports that the insurgency has severely hampered efforts to rebuild Iraq’s water and sanitation systems. Since 2003, Congress has authorized the spending of $24 billion for reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
In an effort to ration gasoline, the Iraqi government orders cars in Baghdad to alternate driving days based on the first letter of their license plates.
U.S.-Iraqi forces arrest two hundred suspected insurgents in Tal Afar; two-thirds of them are foreign fighters from Syria, Sudan, Yemen or Jordan.
In Baghdad, a car bomb detonated near a convoy of vehicles being driven by foreigners, wounding five.
September 8, 2005: A bomb exploded next to Sadir hotel in downtown Baghdad. The hotel is frequented by foreigners and western security contractors.
Police find 14 bodies near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
An official of Iraq’s Special Tribunal charged with trying Saddam Hussein disputes President Talabani’s claims that the former dictator has confessed.
A bomb detonated near Umm al-Tubal Mosque in western Baghdad killing a police officer.
Sunnis are registering in large numbers to vote in October’s referendum in many parts of Iraq. Sunnis are mobilizing in an effort to reject the constitution.
September 9, 2005: A car bombing near Sadir hotel in central Baghdad killed one and injured two.
Baghdad International Airport is shut down following a dispute over non-payment between the Iraqi government and the British security firm, Global Strategies Group.
Two simultaneous car bombs in Tal Afar kill five Iraqi soldiers. Also in Tal Afar, the bodies of 10 decapitated Iraqis are found.
A car bomb struck a U.S. patrol near Ramadi.
September 10, 2005: U.S.-Iraqi forces (totaling 8,500) enter Tal Afar in a new offensive designed to root out insurgents. The operation is expected to last several weeks. Tal Afar is home to roughly 500 insurgents.
Baghdad’s International Airport reopens.
A roadside bomb struck a police convoy south of Baghdad, killing two policemen and three civilians.
In Baghdad, two mortars are fired at the American compound in the Green Zone. There are no reports of casualties.
In a symbolic gesture toward the new Iraqi government, Jordan’s prime minister visits Baghdad.
Iraqi police discover a large cache of explosives near Karbala, days before thousands of Shiites were to converge on the city for a religious festival.
At a human rights conference in Malaysia, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad accused the U.S and Britain of murdering Iraqis. The British high commissioner and two other foreign diplomats walked out of the conference in protest.
Incidents of shootings of Iraqi civilians by security contractors are on the rise. According to the Interior Ministry, there are at least 36 (mostly American and British) foreign and 16 Iraqi security companies operating in Iraq.
September 11, 2005: In Baghdad, gunmen assassinate Maj. Gen. Adnan Abdul Rihmandirector of police training at the Interior Ministry.
A roadside bomb near Samarra kills one U.S. soldier and wounds two others.
A roadside bomb in Basra kills one British soldier and wounds two others.
U.S. authorities confirm a Swiss citizen was shot and killed by American forces in a “tragic accident” on June 28th in Baghdad.
The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is conducting war-gaming exercises for a post-occupation Iraq.
September 12, 2005: U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad says U.S. patience with Syrian collaboration in the insurgency in Iraq is “running out”. Washington is pressuring Damascus to “get serious” about border security.
Ignoring al-Qaida’s threats to unleash chemical weapons on the city, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari tours Tal Afar to congratulate Iraqi forces on a job well done. In response to the operation in Tal Afar, insurgents place a $200,000 bounty on the heads of several Iraqi officials (including al-Jaafari). Many insurgents had fled the city in the days before the U.S.-Iraqi operation.
A car bomb detonated outside a restaurant in the Mansour neighborhood of Baghdad killing at least two and wounding 17.
Gunmen fire on crowds in Baghdad, killing six and wounding two. Elsewhere in Baghdad, police discover the bodies of 10 Iraqi men who appear to have been executed.
In Kirkuk, gunmen fire on the headquarters of the provincial government, killing two policemen. Also in Kirkuk, a Kurdish militiaman is killed.
In Mosul, gunmen kill two security guards and wound three others.
Air strikes are increasingly being used by Coalition forces in counter-insurgency operations, as are UAVS, which are used to locate insurgent targets and gather information.
In an interview, President Jalal Talabani says the U.S. could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year. At that time, Talabani said, there would be enough Iraqi troops to begin replacing the Americans.
September 13, 2005: In Samarra, U.S. soldiers kill two insurgents attempting to detonate a roadside bomb.
In Hilla, a bomb on a minibus kills two and wounds six.
The body of a former judge, a member of Saddam’s regime, is found in Sadr City.
Insurgents fire mortars at the Green Zone in Baghdad. There are no reports of casualties. Also in Baghdad, gunmen kill two truck drivers delivering supplies to government buildings.
In Baqouba, gunmen kill two Sunni clerics.
U.S. forces attack the insurgent stronghold of Haditha in western Iraq, capturing a militant linked to al-Qaida in Iraq and killing four others.
A roadside bomb struck a convoy of Iraqi security guards and foreign contract workers near Basra, killing four (possibly Americans).
In an interview with USA Today, U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte says Iraqi insurgents-mostly former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath Party-have been tougher to hunt down: The “former regime elements…seem to have very good operational secrecy…And thus far it’s not been that easy to make a dent in that part of the insurgency.”
The Shiite dominated National Assembly approved a final, amended version of the constitutional draft.
In comments contradicting a statement made the previous day, President Jalal Talabani says no timetable will be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops: “A timetable will help the terrorists…We don’t want to do anything without the agreement with the Americans because we don’t want to give any signal to the terrorists that our will to defeat them is weakened.”
According to British Defense Secretary John Reid, previous plans to reduce the number of British troops in southern Iraq from 8,500 to 3,000 early next year have been abandoned.
In an attempt to crack down on terrorists and rising violence, the Iraqi National Assembly is considering expanding the list of crimes punishable by the death penalty.
September 14, 2005: A dozen bombings in nine hours rocked the Baghdad, killing more than 150 Iraqis and wounding several hundred. It was Baghdad’s worst day of bloodshed since the war began.
The deadliest attack occurred in the Khadamiya district, a Shiite neighborhood in northern Baghdad, when an insurgent detonated his van near a crowd of day laborers, killing 112 and wounding scores more.
A breakdown of the attacks:
(Source: The Associated Press)
- 6:30 a.m., suicide car bomber struck a group of day laborers killing at least 112 and wounding more than 200.
- 7:30 a.m., roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, wounds three policemen. – 9:30 a.m., suicide car bomb in northern Baghdad kills two civilians and wounds six. – 10:10 a.m., U.S. troops foil attempted suicide car bombing.
- 10:25 a.m., a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. military convoy in southeast Baghdad. – 11:10 a.m., a car bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol in northern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding one civilian.
- 12:25 m., .S. troops foil a suicide car bomb attack.
- 1 p.m., gunmen open fire on an Iraqi police convoy in western Baghdad, killing two high-ranking Iraqi police officers; an Iraqi Army patrol responding to the attack is hit by a suicide car bomber, killing three soldiers and four police.
- 1:05 p.m., two car bombs explode near a U.S. military convoy in western Baghdad. – 1:10 p.m., a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi special police patrol, wounding 14 officers.
- 2 p.m., a roadside bomb exploded near an American military convoy in southern Baghdad, killing one civilian.
- 3:15 p.m., suicide car bomb in western Baghdad struck an Iraqi-U.S. security checkpoint, wounding at least three security guards at a nearby gasoline station. – 3:45 p.m., a suicide car bomber targets a U.S. military convoy in northern Baghdad.
In Taji, north of Baghdad, insurgents dressed as soldiers kill 17 Shiite men.
A roadside bomb in Basra kills four U.S. contract workers and injures five others.
The number of attacks on the Baghdad road to the International Airport, known as “Route Irish”, have dropped by 41% since May. The last suicide car bombing there occurred in April. The seven-mile highway had previously been considered the most dangerous road in Iraq.
The Iraqi government asks Japan to extend its troop deployment in Iraq beyond the December deadline.
September 15, 2005: In a statement posted on a website, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi announced: “The al-Qaeda organization of Mesopotamia is declaring all-out war on the Rafidha [Shia]…in Iraq.” The statement also claimed responsibility for the recent upsurge in violence in Baghdad. According to some estimates, Zarqawi’s followers now number 16,000; of those, 6,700 are considered to be ‘hard-core’ Islamic fundamentalists. A further 4,000 members of the Jaysh Muhammad-an insurgent group loyal to Saddam’s Baath Party-recently joined forces with Zarqawi. Experts believe the insurgent leader is trying to start a civil war.
A bomb exploded at Rawdat al-Wadi mosque in Mosul killing the Shayk Hikmat Husayn Ali, the imam of the mosque. U.S. forces battled insurgents in Ramadi.
In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol killing two policemen and wounding four others.
A roadside bomb struck a Ministry of Industry bus in eastern Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 13.
A suicide car bombing in southern Baghdad killed 16 policemen and five civilians. Hours later, two suicide car bombs only minutes apart, killed seven policemen in the same neighborhood.
More and more Iraqi nationals, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, are joining Zarqawi’s al-qaida affiliated group. One U.S. official said Iraqis now account for “more than half his organization”.
The U.S. military announced that 145 insurgents had been killed and 361 captured in the operation in Tal Afar. Iraqi and U.S. forces continue to battle insurgents for control of the western border with Syria, near Qaim.
Lt. Gen. Walter Buchanan, the top U.S. air commander in the Middle East, says the U.S. will continue to fly missions against insurgents in Iraq until the Iraqi Air Force is able to takeover. Buchanan said the ‘nearest horizon’ was three years away, but admitted that in all likelihood the U.S. could be flying these types of missions for five more years.
U.S. military officers returning from Iraq are worried that large numbers of Iraqi soldiers will desert once U.S. forces leave.
Iraq’s National Security Adviser-Muaffak al-Rubbaie-says U.S. forces will hand over control of the Shia cities of Karbala, Samawa and Nasiriyah to Iraqi forces by the end of the year.
September 16, 2005: In Tuz Khormato, a suicide car bomb detonated near a Shiite mosque, killing 12. Police foiled a second suicide bomber later in the day.
In Baghdad, gunmen kill three laborers and wound 12 others.
A car bomb in Haswa killed three policemen and wounded four others.
In Iskandariya, gunmen assassinated the mayor of the town along with his four bodyguards.
A U.S. Marine is killed in Ramadi. Two U.S. soldiers are reported killed elsewhere in Iraq.
In Sadr City, gunmen assassinated Sheik Fadil al-Lami, a cleric at Imam Ali mosque.
Coalition forces launched air strikes against insurgent targets in Karabilah, near the Syrian border.
The totally number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq is now 1,893. 1,475 have died from hostile action and 423 from non-combat-related accidents. Five Defense Department civilians have also been killed.
September 17, 2005: Gunmen kill Faris Nasir Hussein, a Kurdish (PUK) member of Iraq’s parliament, along with his three bodyguards, near Dujail, north of Baghdad.
A car bomb killed at least 30 and wounded 38 in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan.
Two Sudanese truck drivers are killed in western Baghdad while on route to deliver supplies to the U.S. military.
A total of 11 bodies, handcuffed and blindfolded, are found around the country.
In Baqubah, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol kills one civilian and wounds 17, including three soldiers.
A roadside bomb in Al Asad, western Iraq, killed a U.S. solider.
Sheik Mohammed Ali al-Khatab, a Shiite cleric, is killed in Baiji.
The U.S. military announces the capture of two al-Qaeda leaders in Mosul on September 5.
September 18, 2005: Iraq’s National Assembly approves the final draft of the new Constitution.
In Basra, gunmen kidnap and kill Fakher Haider, an Iraqi journalist working for the New York Times. Also in Basra, 200 militiamen set fire to tires in a protest demanding the release of Sheikh Ahmed Fartosi. The Sheikh is a follower of alSadr’s and was arrested on September 16 and accused of planning attacks against the security forces in the city
Syria offers to help U.S. efforts aimed at stopping violence in Iraq and calls for Washington to resume relations with Damascus.
20 bodies are found in the Tigris River, north of Baghdad.
Police discover and defuse a car bomb in the Al-Riyadh neighborhood of southeast Baghdad.
Explosions targeting a passing train in Dawrah set fire to a tanker wagon.
An explosion in the Al-Sina’i neighborhood of Kirkuk killed five Iraqi soldiers.
In Al-Dulu’iyah, north of Baghdad, an explosion killed three soldiers.
One Iraqi soldier was killed and three soldiers wounded by armed gunmen in AlIshaqi City, north of Baghdad.
A bomb targeting the North Oil company pipelines killed two security officers and wounded three others.
September 19, 2005: Ayman Sabawi, a nephew of Saddam Hussein, is sentenced to life in prison for his role in funding Iraq’s insurgency. In November, Sabawi is due to stand trial for other crimes. He is the first member of the former Iraqi dictator’s family to be found guilty and sentenced to jail.
France’s counterterrorism police arrest six French-Muslims on charges of trying to join the Iraq insurgency.
The trial of seven militants accused of recruiting jihadists in Jordan for Iraq begins.
Two British soldiers are arrested in Basra for allegedly shooting two Iraqi police officers. There were two conflicting reports of what happened next: Iraqi witnesses claim that British forces stormed the jail, freeing the two soldiers and enabling the escape of 150 Iraqi prisoners. British authorities said the two soldiers were released following successful negotiations. In a separate incident in Basra, a crowd of angry Iraqis throwing stones and petrol bombs attacked British troops.
Three million pilgrims descend on Karbala for a Shiite festival. Some carry signs reading: “We welcome martyrdom.”
Eight Iraqis, including Police Commandos, were killed by a suicide car bomb in Al-Mahmudiyah, west of Baghdad.
A suicide car bomber targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Al-Latifiyah area of southern Baghdad killed one soldier and one child and wounded ten civilians.
All together, attacks across the country killed 24 policemen and civilians and wounded 28.
September 20, 2005: Nine U.S. soldiers are killed in Iraq:
-In two separate bombings in Al-Ramadi, four U.S. soldiers are killed.
-A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier in western Baghdad.
-In Mosul, four U.S. security personnel working for the U.S. military are killed by a suicide car bomb. One of the victims is Stephen Eric Sullivan, an assistant for national security affairs at the State Department.
September 21, 2005: A bomb struck an oil pipeline belonging to the North Oil Company outside Kirkuk, setting fire to the pipeline.
September 22, 2005: A bomb in Baghdad kills one U.S. soldier. Another is killed in a traffic accident near Kirkuk.
Gunmen assassinate Col. Fadil Mahmud Muhammad, head of Diyala’s Police Command and his driver. Other assassinations took place in Baqubah, Al-Ramadi, Al-Latifiyah and Mosul.
In Baghdad, insurgents killed two workers from the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, along with two policemen. Several others were injured.
In Mosul, the bodies of ten, three of whom are believed to be members of the Turkmen Front party.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urges his supporters to vote yes in Iraq’s constitutional referendum to be held in October.
September 23, 2005: A roadside bomb on a road between Fallujah and Ramadi kills a U.S. soldier. Another is killed by small arms fire in Ramadi. A roadside bomb in Baghdad kills a third U.S. soldier.
In Baghdad, gunmen killed a member of the Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification. Also in Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his bomb on a mini-bus, killing at least five people and wounding eight.
September 24, 2005: A suicide car bomber targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad killed three Iraqi soldiers and one civilian and wounds two soldiers and two civilians.
An Iraqi judge issues an arrest warrant for two British soldiers arrested last week but freed by British forces on September 19.
September 25, 2005: U.S. forces kill Abdallah Najim Abdallah Muhammad Juwari
(a.k.a. Abu Azzam), Zarqawi’s top lieutenant and the commander of the insurgency in Baghdad. An army spokesman (Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch) described the action in the following way: “By taking Abu Azzam off the street, another close associate of Zarqawi, we have dealt another serious blow to Zarqawi’s
terrorist organization.”
Reports surface that insurgents have been in control of at least five key western Iraqi towns along the Syrian border for a month. The U.S. military confirms that insurgents, loyal to Zarqawi have taken over several towns and are ordering Iraqi civilians to leave. The towns in question are: al Qaim, Dulaym al Husayba, Karabilha, Sada and Al Ubaydi.
A suicide car bomb struck an Interior Ministry convoy in Baghdad, killing seven police commanders and two civilians and wounding 19.
In Hillah, a bicycle bomb killed five and injured 49. South of Baghdad, a suicide motorcycle bomb killed at least six people and wounded 19.
U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with al-Sadr’s militia in eastern Baghdad. Al-Sadr opposes the country’s new constitution, scheduled to be voted on in October.
One U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded when their vehicle rolled over in Trebil, near the Jordanian border.
In Samarra, a mortar attack killed seven civilians, including many of them children. Also in Samarra, a gunmen killed five Iraqi security guards.
In Baghdad, gunmen robbed an armored car of $850,000, killing two guards.
Thousands of Iraqis demonstrate against the constitution in Ramadi.
September 26, 2005: U.S. and Iraqi authorities freed 500 prisoners from Abu Ghraib prison as part of a gesture aimed at Sunnis. Another 500 prisoners are due to be released before the holy month of Ramadan begins.
Insurgents kill six, including five Shiite teachers, in Muelha, south of Baghdad.
A suicide car bomb struck a police checkpoint guarding several ministries in Baghdad. At least seven policemen and three civilians were killed. 14 policemen and 22 civilians were wounded.
A roadside bomb kills two U.S. soldiers in western Baghdad. Another roadside bomb kills a third U.S. soldier southeast of the capital.
September 27, 2005: Pfc. Lynndie R. England is sentenced to three years for her role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
A bomb in Khalidiyah kills a U.S. Marine.
In Baqubah, a suicide bomber struck a crowd of police recruits, killing at least ten and wounding 28 others.
In Kirkuk, gunmen assassinated Maj. Fakhir Hussein, a counterterrorism police officer and wounded another officer. Also in Kirkuk, gunmen killed one Iraqi solider and wounded another. A roadside bomb also killed one police officer.
In a failed attack, a suicide car bomber is caught and apprehended near a U.S. checkpoint inside the Green Zone, prior to detonating his weapon. Also in Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy, wounding five civilians.
A new poll by the International Republican Institute shows 85% of Iraqis intend to vote in the October 15 referendum on the Constitution.
September 28, 2005:
The LA Times reports that between August 29 and September 16, “there were 26 attacks daily on average in Baghdad, ranging from shootings to complex, coordinated suicide attacks”.