Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal)

The Iraqi insurgency was initially a response by Iraqi groups to the United States (US) occupation of Iraq in 2003. The insurgency has reemerged since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December 2011, resulting in violent conflict with the central government, as well as sectarian violence between Iraq's religious groups. Since the U.S. military's withdrawal, the level of violence has risen, as Sunni militant groups have stepped up attacks targeting the country's majority Shia population to undermine confidence in the Shia-led government and its efforts to protect people without American backup. Armed groups inside Iraq have been supportive of the Syrian civil war against the Assad regime.

2011

 * 15 December – A martial closing ceremony is held in Baghdad putting a formal end to the U.S mission in Iraq. This ceased direct U.S. combat involvement in the war.
 * 18 December– The last 500 soldiers left Iraq under cover of darkness and under strict secrecy on early morning of 18 December 2011, ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq after nearly nine years.
 * 22 December– At least 72 were killed and more than 170 wounded in a series of bombings across the capital Baghdad, while 9 others died in various attacks in Baqubah, Mosul and Kirkuk.

January–June

 * 5 January– A number of bombings took place in Baghdad and Nasiriyah, killing 73 and leaving 149 injured. The bombing in the southern Iraqi city was targeted at crowds of Shi'ite Muslims and killed at least 44, injuring more than 80 others. It was the first major attack in Nasiriyah since a suicide attack against an Italian army base killed 28 in November 2003, including 19 Italians. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.
 * 14 January– A suicide bomber detonated his explosives amid a crowd of Shi'ite pilgrims in Basra, killing 53 and injuring 141. This was the deadliest attack in the city since car bombs in April 2004 killed at least 74.
 * 27 January– A suicide bomber attacked a funeral procession in Baghdad's Zaafaraniyah district, killing 32 and injuring more than 70 others.
 * 23 February– a series of attacks across 15 Iraqi cities left 83 killed and more than 250 injured. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility two days later.
 * 5 March– a gang of gunmen disguised in military-style uniforms and carrying forged arrest warrants killed 27 police and then hoisted the battle flag of al-Qaeda in a carefully planned early morning attack in Anbar province.
 * 20 March– a wave of attacks centered on Baghdad and Kerbala killed at least 52 and left more than 250 injured. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.
 * 19 April– more than 20 bombs exploded across Iraq, killing at least 36 people and wounding almost 170. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.
 * 4 June– A suicide bomber killed 26 people and wounded almost 200 at a Shiite foundation’s offices in Baghdad, sparking fears of sectarian strife at a time of political crisis. The attack in the center of the capital was followed later by an explosion near a Sunni religious foundation, causing no casualties.
 * 13 June– At least 93 people were killed and over 300 wounded in a series of highly coordinated attacks across Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.

July–December

 * July 3 – Explosions in Diwaniyah, Karbala, Taji and Tuz Khormato killed 40 and injured 122 others.
 * July 22 – Car bombs killed 23 and wounded 74 in Baghdad, Mahmoudiyah and Najaf.
 * July 23 – Coordinated attacks across Iraq killed 116 and left 299 injured. The Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.
 * July 31 – Attacks across Iraq killed 24 and injured 61, most of them in twin car bombings in Baghdad.
 * August 13 – At least 128 people were killed and more than 400 wounded in coordinated attacks across Iraq, making them the deadliest attacks in the country since October 2009, when 155 were killed in twin bombings near the Justice Ministry in Baghdad.
 * September 9 – A wave of attacks across the country killed at least 108 and left more than 370 others injured.
 * September 30 - A string of attacks occur in at least 10 Iraqi cities, killing 37 and injuring more than 90 others, most of them civilians.
 * October 27 - A wave of attacks during the Eid al-Adha holiday across Iraq killed at least 46 and left 123 injured. Most incidents occurred in Baghdad, Taji, Mosul and Muqdadiya.
 * October 28 - Car bombings during the last day of Eid left 15 people dead and 33 injured in Baghdad.
 * November 6 - A car bombing outside an army base in Taji killed 31 people and injured at least 50 others, most of them soldiers. The blast struck as troops were leaving the base and potential recruits were lining up for job interviews.
 * November 14 - Insurgents staged a number of attacks on the eve of the Islamic New Year, killing 29 and injuring at least 194 others. The deadliest incidents took place in Kirkuk and Hilla, where at least seven bombings killed 19 and left 129 wounded. Other attacks took place in Baghdad, Mosul, Kut, Fallujah and Baqubah.
 * November 27 - At least 29 people are killed and 126 wounded in eight car bombings across Iraq.
 * December 16–17 - Two days of consecutive attacks across northern and central Iraq killed at least 111 and injured 299 others. A significant part of the casualties were from a series of blasts in Kirkuk, Baghdad and Tuz Khormato, where at least 34 died and 154 others were injured. Other incidents took place in Mosul, Tarmiyah, Diwaniyah, Dujail, Tikrit and Baqubah, among others. Most of the attacks appeared to target police officers and members of the Iraqi Army.

Beginnings of Sunni protests

 * After a period of calm, renewed political tension within Iraq led to renewed protests, this time mostly centered around the country's Sunni minority. The main cause for upheaval was the ongoing standoff between Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and Prime Minister al-Maliki, but strained relationships with the Kurdish autonomous regions added to the scene. On December 23, 2012, several thousand Iraqis marched against al-Maliki, responding to his moves against al-Hashemi and other influential Sunni leaders.

January–June

 * January 3 - A car bombing in the central Iraqi city of Musayyib killed 28 Shi'ite pilgrims and injured 60 others as they were returning from Karbala. In the capital Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a minibus, killing 4 pilgrims and leaving 15 wounded.
 * January 15–16 - A suicide bomber killed a prominent Sunni MP and six others in Fallujah on January 15, two days after Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi survived an assassination attempt in the same city. The parliamentarian, Ayfan Sadoun al-Essawi, was an important member of the Sons of Iraq committee in Fallujah and part of the opposition to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. On January 16, a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives next to the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kirkuk, killing 26 and leaving 204 injured. A similar attack against another Kurdish office in Tuz Khormato killed 5 and wounded 40. Roadside bombings and shootings in other areas, including Baghdad, Tikrit and Baiji, left at least 24 dead and 44 injured.
 * January 22–23 - A wave of attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 26 and left 58 injured on January 22. Bombings and shootings took place in the capital, as well as Taji and Mahmoudiyah. On the next day, a suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral for a politician's relative in the city of Tuz Khormato, killing 42 and leaving 75 others wounded. Other attacks across central and northern Iraq killed 7 people and injured 8 others.
 * On 25 January 2013, ongoing protests by Sunni Muslims in Iraq against the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki turned deadly in Fallujah, as soldiers opened fire on a crowd of rock-throwing demonstrators, killing 7 and injuring more than 70 others. Three soldiers were later shot to death in retaliation for the incident, and clashes erupted in Askari, on the eastern outskirts of Fallujah. Security forces were placed on high alert as a curfew and vehicle ban were brought into effect. In a statement, Maliki urged both sides to show restraint and blamed the incident on unruly protesters. He also warned that it could lead to a "rise in tension that al-Qaida and terrorist groups are trying to take advantage of".
 * February 3 - A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle near the provincial police headquarters in Kirkuk, killing at least 36 and injuring 105 others. Among the wounded was Major General Jamal Tahir, the city's chief of police, who had survived a previous attack at almost the same spot 2 years earlier. Three additional attackers were killed after the initial blast, as they attempted to throw grenades at security forces. Several officers who survived the attack reported that the first bomber was driving a police car and wearing a uniform. When guards at the gate stopped him to check his credentials, he detonated his explosives.
 * March 4 - Unidentified gunmen ambushed a Syrian Army convoy escorted by Iraqi soldiers in the Battle of Akashat, killing 48 Syrians and 13 Iraqis. The assault took place near the desert border between the two nations in Iraq's Al Anbar Governorate. Authorities suspected the Free Iraqi Army, Jabhat al-Nusra or al-Qaeda in Iraq of being behind the attack. A week later, on March 11, the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that they had "annihilated" a "column of the Safavid army," a reference to the Shia Persian dynasty that ruled Iran from 1501 to 1736. The group also claimed that the presence of Syrian soldiers in Iraq showed "firm co-operation" between the Syrian and Iraqi governments.
 * March 19 - A series of coordinated attacks across the capital Baghdad and several major cities in the north and central parts of the country killed at least 98 people and left 240 others injured. The wave of violence was directed mostly at Shia civilians and took place on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. The Islamic State of Iraq later claimed responsibility for the attacks.
 * April 1 - A tanker bomb exploded at the police headquarters in Tikrit, killing at least 42 people and injuring 67 others. Insurgents attacked an oil field near Akaz in a remote part of Al Anbar Governorate, killing 2 engineers and kidnapping a third one. Other attacks across the country left a prison warden in Mosul dead and 11 others injured, including the mayor of Tuz Khormato and at least four journalists, who were stabbed by unknown assailants in a series of attacks on media offices in the capital Baghdad.
 * April 6 - A suicide bomber killed 22 and injured 55 at a political rally for a local Sunni candidate in Baqubah. Other attacks across the country killed 7 and injured 9 others, most of them members of the security forces.
 * April 15 - A series of coordinated attacks across more than 20 cities killed at least 75 people and left more than 350 others injured just days before the provincial elections.


 * April 23–26 - On April 23, Iraqi Army units moved against an encampment set up by protesters in Hawija, west of the city of Kirkuk, sparking deadly clashes and reprisal attacks across the country. According to army officers, the operation was aimed at Sunni militants from the Naqshbandi Army, who were reportedly involved in the protests. A total of 42 people were killed and 153 others injured, with most of them being protesters - only 3 soldiers were confirmed dead and 7 others wounded. The incident sparked a number of revenge attacks, that soon spread out across much of the country. Minister of Education Mohammed Tamim resigned from his post in response to the Army's operation, and was followed later by Science and Technology Minister Abd al-Karim al-Samarrai. Insurgents from the Naqshbandi Army completely captured the town of Sulaiman Bek, about 170 km north of Baghdad, after heavy fighting with security forces on April 25, only to relinquish control of it a day later, while escaping with weapons and vehicles. More than 340 were killed and 600 others injured in the four days of heaviest violence, while attacks continued after that at a pace higher than earlier in the year.   On May 3, the United Nations mission to Iraq released figures, showing that more people died in violent attacks in April than in any other month since June 2008. According to the numbers, at least 712 were killed during April, including 117 members of the security forces.


 * May 15–21 - In the latest round of violence, a series of deadly bombings and shootings struck the central and northern parts of Iraq, with a few incidents occurring in towns in the south and far west as well. The week of attacks killed at least 449 people and left 732 others injured in one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in years.
 * May 20 - The Iraqi government launches Operation al-Shabah (Phantom), with the stated aim of severing contact between al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Syrian al-Nusra Front by clearing militants from the border area with Syria and Jordan.
 * May 27 - A series of coordinated attacks took place in Baghdad, killing 71 people and injuring more than 220 others.
 * June 10 - A series of bombings and shootings struck the central and northern parts of Iraq, killing at least 94 people and injuring almost 300 others.
 * June 16 - A series of deadly attacks across Iraq killed at least 54 people and injured more than 170 others, with most of the major bombings taking place in the country's south.

July–December

 * September 21 - A series of car and suicide bombings struck a funeral in the predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City, in Iraq's capital Baghdad. The attacks left at least 78 dead and more than 200 others injured. A number of smaller incidents occurred in the country's north and central regions as well.

Iraq Body Count
An independent UK/US group, the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project compiles reported Iraqi civilian deaths from violence during the Iraq War, including those caused directly by coalition military action, the Iraqi insurgency, and those resulting from excess crime. The IBC maintains that the occupying authority has a responsibility to try and prevent these deaths under international law. It shows a total range of at least 112,804 to 123,437 civilian deaths in the whole conflict as of April 19, 2013.

Following are the yearly IBC Project civilian death totals, broken down by month from the beginning of 2003 until the US pullout in December 2011. The numbers were last updated on May 31, 2013:

Following are the monthly IBC Project civilian death totals, from the US pullout in December 2011 onwards.



The numbers include civilians, as well as members of the Iraqi Army and police forces. The IBC does a constant check on all its reports, and publishes weekly updates to its monthly casualty table. Consequently, the figures for the last few months in the table above should always be considered preliminary and will be marked in italic until confirmed by IBC.



Iraqi government figures
The Iraqi government releases its own figures, usually on the first day of each month. These are almost always significantly lower than other estimates and often even contradict with news reports, leading to an apparent "under-reporting" of casualty figures. Most news outlets still report on these, although JustPolicy.org has a running estimate based on the Lancet study with the rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count.

The Iraqi government also compiles the number of wounded from these three categories, as well as the number of killed and captured insurgents. From the beginning of December 2011 until the end of August 2013, at least 10,399 Iraqis have been injured according to these reports, including 2,026 police officers and 1,520 members of the Iraqi Army. During the same period, 705 insurgents were killed, while a total of 2,852 suspects were arrested.

A running tally of all the figures can be found at Google Docs, courtesy of Agence France-Presse. The numbers include civilians, as well as members of the Iraqi Army and police forces.

Month by month

 * This section includes both AFP and Iraqi government estimates, and as such, is intended as an addition to the tables above.

Several dozen were killed within the first few days after U.S. withdrawal on December 18, 2011. At least 337 casualties were inflicted by the wave of violence during December 20–26. About 200 died in January, with Al-Arabiya channel claiming mortal casualties to be at least 151 people. The Iraqi Body Count (IBC) claimed 451 casualties in January, including injuries. In February, the death toll across Iraq reached 278 according to IBC. 74 people were killed between March 1–8 according to IBC, and a total of 112 were killed in Iraq in March, according to government figures. At least 126 Iraqis were killed in April, while 132 Iraqis were killed in sectarian violence in Iraq in May 2012. June marked a significant spike in violence, with a major attack occurring on average every three days. At least 237 were killed during the month, with an additional 603 people left injured.

July 2012 was the deadliest month in Iraq since August 2010, with 325 deaths; 241 civilians, 40 police, and 44 soldiers. The month also saw 697 people being wounded by violence; 480 civilians, 122 police, and 95 soldiers. The rise in violence was linked to Sunni insurgents trying to undermine the Shia led government. According to government figures, at least 164 Iraqis were killed during August 2012 – 90 civilians, 39 soldiers and 35 policemen, with 260 others injured. September was a particularly bloody month, with government reports citing at least 365 deaths (182 civilians, 95 soldiers and 88 policemen) and 683 injuries (453 civilians, 120 soldiers and 110 police). Government casualty tolls released for the month of October showed a total of 144 people were killed (88 civilians, 31 policemen and 25 soldiers), and another 264 were wounded, including 110 civilians, 92 policemen and 62 soldiers. At least 166 people were killed throughout Iraq in November 2012 according to government casualty tolls, and 208 died in December, including 55 policemen and 28 soldiers. During January 2013, at least 246 people were killed nationwide (including 30 policemen and 18 soldiers), while 735 others were injured. Government figures remained low in February 2013, with a total of 136 killed (88 civilians, 22 soldiers and 26 policemen) and 228 injured. There was a slight increase in March, when according to government sources 163 were killed and 256 injured nationwide, though officials in Baghdad stressed that these numbers did not include the Kurdish regions.

According to figures released by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), April 2013 was the deadliest month in Iraq in over five years, with a total of 712 people were killed and 1,633 were wounded in acts of terrorism and violence. Conditions continued to deteriorate in May when UNAMI reported a total of 1,045 Iraqis were killed and another 2,397 wounded in acts of terrorism and acts of violence, making it one of the deadliest months on record. The figures include 963 civilians and 181 civilian police killed, while 2,191 civilians and 359 civilian police were wounded. An additional 82 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed and 206 were injured.

Other reports
The United Nations keeps its own statistics on casualties, and according to their reports, through the end of June, 2,101 Iraqis were killed in violent attacks in 2012, compared with 1,832 in the first half of 2011.