Timeline Iraq 2008-2012
Iraq A thru 1999
Iraq B 2000-2005
Iraq C 2006-2007
Return to home
2008 Jan 1,
Iraq began curbing its food ration system. By June it planned to end
the program altogether for many of the country’s citizens. A suicide
attacker detonated an explosives-rigged vest at a Shiite funeral in
Baghdad, killing 36 people gathered to mourn the death of an Iraqi
army officer killed in a car bombing. In Jalula the bodies of a
Sunni policeman and four of his relatives were found hours after
gunman abducted them from their home. Also in Diyala province, a
Shiite man and his 16-year-old son where killed in a drive-by
shooting as they stood outside their home.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AP, 1/2/08)(WSJ, 2/26/08, p.A5)
2008 Jan 2, In Iraq a suicide
bombing in Baqouba killed seven people, including Abu Sadjat, a
local tribal chief, and wounded 22 others.
(AP, 1/2/08)(SFC, 1/3/08, p.A11)
2008 Jan 3, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki held talks with PM Gordon Brown, notably discussing the
plight of five Britons seized in Baghdad last year. Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim, a top Shiite politician, acknowledged the contribution of
US-backed Sunni Arab groups to the decline in violence across Iraq
and called for their use in the continuing fight against al-Qaida.
The Samarra dam bridge, one of the entrances into Samarra,
reopened. For the past 8 months, the entrances to the city were
essentially closed due to the levels of violence. At least 5 people
were killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad, one targeting a
local member of the prime minister's party. One woman was killed and
another civilian wounded when a rocket slammed into the primarily
Shiite neighborhood of Washash in northwest Baghdad. Iraqi
authorities ordered a one-day vehicle ban in Baqouba in response to
a series of deadly suicide bombings and other attacks by al-Qaida in
Iraq against predominantly Sunni fighters that have allied with the
United States. The US military killed two insurgents and detained 12
in the Diyala region. But the operations also resulted in the deaths
of two American soldiers the wounding of another in a small arms
attack.
(AFP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/3/08)(AP, 1/4/08)(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 5, In Iraq a roadside
bomb struck a passing minibus north of the town of Muqdadiyah,
killing six people. In Baqouba another roadside bomb wounded three
civilians.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 6, Two Iraqi soldiers
threw themselves on a suicide bomber who slipped into a crowd
celebrating Iraq's Army Day, but the attacker detonated an
explosives vest, killing both soldiers and nine other people. A
series of attacks across Baghdad that left as many as 16 people
dead. Near Muqdadiyah a joint Iraqi-US patrol discovered five
severed heads. Near the city of Khalis in Diyala province suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the house of a local sheik and
kidnapped him and 13 members of his family.
(AP, 1/6/08)
2008 Jan 7, In Iraq a double
suicide attack outside an agency that cares for Sunni mosques and
shrines killed a prominent leader of a US-backed group fighting
al-Qaida and at least five others. 12 people died in the twin
bombing. In eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb detonated near a
technology university, killing four people, including a student, and
wounding 11 others. In Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood, two roadside
bombs went off minutes apart, killing one civilian and wounding four
other people, including three policeman. Gunmen kidnapped 8 members
of a newly-formed US-backed Shiite armed group in northern Baghdad's
Shaab neighborhood.
(AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 8, The US military
said US and Iraqi forces have launched operation Phantom Phoenix to
strike against al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremists, hoping to
build on a recent reduction of violence and push militants from
their strongholds. The head of the municipality of Baghdad's
primarily Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk was killed when a bomb
attached to his car exploded. A suicide bomber detonated his
explosives at a checkpoint manned by police special forces in the
Madain area, about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two
members of the special forces and wounding five people. 3 US
soldiers were killed and two wounded in an attack in Salahuddin
province.
(AP, 1/8/08)(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 9, The WHO, based on
door-to-door surveys of nearly 10,000 households, estimated that
151,000 Iraqis had died from the start of war in March, 2003, to
June, 2006. 2 policemen were found dead inside their vehicle in the
al-Azizyah area, 35 miles southeast of Baghdad. 4 bodies were
retrieved from the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of
Baghdad. 6 US soldiers were killed and four were wounded in a
booby-trapped house in Diyala.
(SFC, 1/10/08, p.A9)(AP, 1/9/08)(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 10, In central
Baghdad, two bombs exploded almost simultaneously near a military
checkpoint, killing two policemen and one soldier. 11 others were
wounded, including four civilians. US bombers and jet fighters
unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives during a 10-minute airstrike,
flattening what the military called safe havens for al-Qaida in Iraq
on the southern outskirts Baghdad. Al-Jibouri, leader of Arab
Jabour's Awakening Council, said the airstrikes killed at least 21
al-Qaida militants including a group leader.
(AP, 1/10/08)(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 11, In Iraq an
influential Shiite leader called for Sunnis and secular parties to
rejoin the government and help break months of deadlock. In Baghdad
a car bomb exploded near a bakery killing 4 people.
(SFC, 1/12/08, p.A6)
2008 Jan 12, Iraq's parliament
voted to allow some former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party
to reclaim government jobs and said others could receive pensions
but could not return to work. A US soldier died after a bomb struck
his vehicle in northern Iraq.
(AP, 1/12/08)(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A19)
2008 Jan 13, In Iraq several
Shiite and Sunni political factions united to pressure Kurds over
control of oil and the future of Kirkuk, which the Kurds wished to
annex.
(SFC, 1/14/08, p.A19)
2008 Jan 14, In Iraq gunmen
assassinated Sunni Judge Amir Jawdat al-Naeib as he headed to work
in Baghdad. Gunmen who apparently followed two Iraqi soldiers from a
military camp opened fire on them, killing both. To the north in
Buhriz, a booby-trapped house exploded as Iraqi police searched the
building. A police officer and 2 members of the local Awakening
Council were killed. Haji Uday, a senior member of the Awakening
Council in Baquba was killed in a collision with a dump truck. In
Kut 4 people were killed when US troops opened fire in an
intersection. Alternately the US military said a suspected criminal
was killed when 2 vehicles failed to stop as they approached a
US-Iraqi patrol in Kut.
(AP, 1/14/08)(SFC, 1/15/08, p.A15)
2008 Jan 15, In Iraq 5 school
children were killed after being struck by a car in the convoy of a
top judicial official during a chaotic gunbattle with checkpoint
guards in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 15, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in the latest in a
series of cross-border air strikes.
(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 16, In Iraq a woman
wearing a vest lined with explosives blew herself up near a popular
market and Shiite mosque in turbulent Diyala province, killing eight
civilians. Small arms fire killed 3 US soldiers conducting
operations in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of
Baqouba, killing at least 11 and wounded 15.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 18, In Iraq heavy
security was set up in Karbala, where some 30,000 troops watched
over hundreds of thousands of pilgrims performing the culmination of
Ashoura rites. Militant Sunnis look upon Ashoura with contempt. They
believe some of its rituals, like self flagellation and the use of
images, amount to pagan worship and violate Islamic teachings. In
Basra at least 44 people were killed, including seven officers, two
civilians and 35 gunmen, after the fighting with members of the
Soldiers of Heaven cult. Cult leader Ahmed Hassan Yamani was among
the dead along with 4 police officers. About 60 gunmen were
arrested. Aziz Khazim Alwan, the governor of Dhi Qar, of which
Nasariyah is the capital, said at least 28 people were killed in
that city, including 10 police.
(AP, 1/18/08)(AP, 1/19/08)(SFC, 1/19/08, p.A7)
2008 Jan 19, Hundreds of
thousands of Shiites beat their heads and chests and whipped
themselves with chains across much of Iraq to honor the martyrdom of
one of their most revered saints. Two bombs hidden under trash
struck an Ashoura procession in the city of Kirkuk, killing at least
two. A rocket attack also struck a busy market in the northern city
of Tal Afar, killing at least 7 people and wounding 17. Three
suicide bombers targeted a police station in Ramadi, the capital of
Anbar and a former Sunni insurgent stronghold. Guards killed one
attacker, but two others detonated their explosives at the entrance,
killing at least five officers. A US Marine was killed during
fighting in Anbar. A roadside bomb killed another soldier in the
rural al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold of Arab Jabour. The soldier who
died was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. The V-shaped
hull of the huge Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) truck is
designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs. Three crew members
tucked inside the cabin were wounded.
(AP, 1/19/08)(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)(AP,
1/22/08)
2008 Jan 20, In western Iraq a
suicide bombing killed six people near Fallujah. The attacker (18)
was a relative carrying a box of candy at a gathering of tribal
members to celebrate the recent release of a relative, Hadi Hussein,
who had been released after more than a week in US custody. Hussein
and five other people were killed in the blast.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, In Iraq a suicide
bomber apparently targeting a senior security official blew himself
up inside a funeral tent, killing 18 people in Hajaj. US troops
killed two al-Qaida-linked militants and detained 18 during raids in
central and northern Iraq. A parked car bomb exploded as an Iraqi
army patrol passed by south of Mosul, killing two civilians.
(AP, 1/21/08)(AP, 1/22/08)
2008 Jan 22, Iraq's parliament
passed a law to change the Saddam Hussein-era flag, meeting the
demands of Iraq's Kurdish minority who threatened not to fly the
banner during a pan-Arab meeting in the Kurdish-run north next
month. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in front of a high
school in Baqouba. One 25-year-old male bystander was killed and 21
people were wounded, including 12 students and eight teachers.
Gunmen broke into a house and killed six men in a family for
cooperating with the Iraqi army. The men had given information on
al-Qaida movements to local Awakening Council members. A US soldier
was killed and another was injured when their vehicle rolled over in
the northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/22/08)(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 23, In Iraq an
explosion struck an apartment building in Mosul shortly after police
arrived to investigate a tip about a weapons cache inside, killing
at least 38 people and injuring 225. The huge blast destroyed about
50 buildings in the Mosul slum. It was later blamed on the Seifaddin
Regiment, some 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who entered Iraq from
Syria a few months earlier. A relief organization later said more
than 60 people were killed and 280 wounded based on estimates from
relatives who buried victims without officially registering them.
Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint in central Baghdad,
killing 8 soldiers and wounding two.
(AP, 1/23/08)(AP, 1/24/08)(SSFC, 1/27/08,
p.A7)(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 24, A suicide bomber
killed Brig. Gen. Salah Mohammed al-Jubouri, the director of police
for Ninevah province, and two other officers after they toured the
site of the wreckage of a blast a day earlier that devastated a
predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the northern city of Mosul. A
roadside bomb also struck a police patrol in central Baghdad,
killing two officers and injuring two, along with 3 civilians. In
Karbala a roadside bomb targeted a senior aide of Iraq's Shiite
spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The aide,
Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalai, escaped with a wound to the arm, but two of
his bodyguards were killed and two were wounded.
(AP, 1/24/08)(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 25, Iraq’s PM
al-Maliki announced that the government was preparing to strike back
against al-Qaida in the northern city of Mosul after two days of
deadly bombings killed nearly 40 people. He promised the fight "will
be decisive." The US military said that American and Iraqi killed an
estimated 41 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 26, A security chief
for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qaida in Iraq said the
Jan 23 explosion in northern Iraq was spearheaded by foreign
fighters under the sponsorship of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of the
Libyan leader. A former city official was stabbed to death along
with his wife and daughter in their home in a predominantly Shiite
neighborhood in Baghdad. An American soldier was killed by a bomb
while on foot patrol in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/26/08)(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Jan 27, In Iraq an
American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing.
(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Jan 28, In Iraq a roadside
bomb struck a minibus carrying a coffin and mourners to a funeral in
the predominantly Shiite southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad,
killing three passengers. Insurgents attacked 4 policemen heading
home from work south of Mosul, killing two and wounding the other
two. US troops detained 18 al-Qaida-linked militants in two days of
operations ending today north of Baghdad. 5 American soldiers were
killed in a complex attack in Mosul, described as one of al-Qaida in
Iraq's last strongholds.
(AP, 1/28/08)(AP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 29, A suicide car
bomber targeted a US patrol in Mosul, killing at least one Iraqi and
wounding as many as 15. Iraqi police north of Baghdad found 19
bullet-riddled bodies near the former insurgent stronghold of
Muqdadiyah. In Baghdad a bombing at a checkpoint wounded five
American soldiers and three civilians. Iraqi officials claimed it
was a suicide bombing and said two people were killed. An Iraqi
television cameraman and his driver were killed in a roadside
bombing north of Baghdad. The female correspondent and camera
assistant traveling with them were wounded.
(AP, 1/29/08)(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 31, In Iraq militants
fired 20 rockets at Britain’s airport base in Basra. British gunners
responded with artillery fire and 10 Iraqi civilians were killed or
wounded. A bomb-rigged car blew up in Baghdad killing at least 5
people in a Shiite enclave. 2 US soldiers were killed, one by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad and another by a rocket or mortar attack on
a convoy support center south of the capital.
(AP, 2/1/08)(SFC, 2/1/08, p.A13)
2008 Feb 1, In Iraq 2 female
suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks on Baghdad
pet bazaars, killing at least 68 people and wounding dozens. The
attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since 30,000 more
American troops flooded into the center of the country last spring.
The next day officials raised the death toll to at least 99,
including 62 people killed at the central al-Ghazl market and 37
others killed about 20 minutes later across town. PM al-Maliki said
the suicide bombers were both mentally disabled and that their
suicide vests were remotely controlled.
(AP, 2/1/08)(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 2, Iraqi forces raided
two villages north of the capital, killing seven suspected militants
and arresting four others. Near Samarra, Iraqi police killed four
men and captured a senior aide to an al-Qaida in Iraq leader. Near
Tal Afar Iraqi commandos killed three wanted men and arrested three
others. The US military accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians
near Iskandariyah during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq,
the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.
(AP, 2/2/08)(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 2, An Iraqi government
official said Iraq has halted oil exports to Austria's OMV, the
leading oil and gas group in central Europe, to protest a deal with
the self-ruled Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 3, Iraq's presidency
council issued a controversial law that allows lower-ranking former
Baath party members to reclaim government jobs, the final step for
the first US-backed benchmark approved by parliament. A senior
Interior Ministry official and his bodyguard were wounded and his
driver was killed by a bomb planted on his car. A mortar round
slammed into a street in a northeastern section of the capital,
killing an Iraqi soldier on foot patrol. An Iraqi policeman was
killed in a drive-by shooting near Kut.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, At least 3 Iraqis
were killed and one child was injured after American soldiers
stormed a tiny one-room house in the village of Adwar, 10 miles
south of Tikrit, and opened fire. Iraqi police, relatives and
neighbors said a couple and their son (19) were shot to death in
their beds. Iraqi police said two young girls were wounded and one
died the next day at a hospital.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 4, Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said the UN has transferred $161 million from the
defunct oil-for-food program to a development program for Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, Turkey’s warplanes
bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, A new Iraqi flag,
stripped of the three green stars of Saddam Hussein's toppled Baath
party, was hoisted over the Iraqi Cabinet building in a symbolic
break with the past nearly five years after the US-led invasion. In
Taji, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives
near the convoy of a sheik working with US forces, killing two of
his followers. Those killed were members of the Taji Awakening
Council.
(AP, 2/5/08)
2008 Feb 6, Iraqi and US
officials said videotapes seized during US raids on suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq hide-outs show the terror group training young boys
to kidnap and assassinate civilians. A roadside bomb exploded near a
police convoy transporting suspected Shiite militia fighters south
of Baghdad, killing four passers-by and wounding nine other people.
At least 19 people were killed or found dead across the country. The
US military said that its troops, along with Iraqi forces, had
killed seven suspected insurgents and detained 45 others in five
days of raids across Iraq. The US military said videos seized from
suspected al-Qaida in Iraq hideouts show militants training children
who appear as young as 10 to kidnap and kill. A US soldier killed by
a roadside bomb in western Baghdad.
(AP, 2/6/08)(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 7, In Iraq gunmen
stormed a house near Baqouba, separated out the women and children
inside and killed three brothers, all members of a US-backed
neighborhood watch group. A roadside bomb killed three awakening
council members and wounded eight others south of Baghdad. A
truckload of weapons, ammunition and explosives were seized at an
Iraqi police checkpoint at the entrance to Karbala. US troops
captured an alleged Shiite militia leader and three other suspects
in a raid south of Baghdad. 15 suspected militants were detained in
sweeps through Sadr City, and one person was killed.
(AP, 2/7/08)(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 8, Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani welcomed an expected Russian decision to write off 91
percent of Iraq's estimated $13 billion debt, calling it a "historic
turning point" in relations between the two countries. 5 American
soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings, 4 in Baghdad and one
in Tamim province.
(AP, 2/8/08)(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 9, Iraqi police killed
Abu Omar al-Dori, a local al-Qaida in Iraq leader, in his home in
Samarra. 12 decomposed bodies were discovered in a mass grave near
Baqouba. Iraqi police arrested 31 Shiite activists in early morning
raids south of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 10, In northern Iraq
car bombs and gunmen struck new US allies, police and civilians. At
least 80 people were reported killed or found dead in a spasm of
violence that coincided with a visit by US Defense Secretary Robert
Gates to Baghdad. A US soldier was killed in a roadside bombing. 8
masked gunmen wielding machine guns stormed the Sultan Palace Hotel
in Basra and seized a British reporter and his Iraqi interpreter.
Richard Butler was seized in Basra with his translator and held
hostage for two months. Butler was rescued on April 14. In 2011 the
Iraqi central criminal court issued a 15-year prison sentence
against a defendant for kidnapping the British journalist Richard
Butler.
(AP, 2/11/08)(SFC, 2/11/08, p.A14)(AP,
2/12/08)(AFP, 7/2/11)
2008 Feb 11, Twin car bombs
struck near the compound of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most
powerful Shiite politicians, killing at least six civilians and
wounding 20.
(AP, 2/11/08)
2008 Feb 12, Hisham Michwit
Hamdan (27), an Iraqi journalist who disappeared after leaving his
offices two days ago to buy some supplies, was found shot to death
in central Baghdad. A police officer was killed and two others
wounded when gunmen in a speeding car attacked their patrol just
south of Basra. Gunmen opened fire on a school bus in Diyala
province, killing two girls and a boy and wounding the driver and
two other pupils. The attack happened as the bus traveled between
the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan and the mainly Shiite town of
Balad Ruz. Iraqi police and forensics officials said a mass grave
with 13 decomposed bodies was uncovered in an orchard near
Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 13, Iraq's parliament
passed three key pieces of legislation that set a date for
provincial elections, allot $48 billion for 2008 spending, and
provide limited amnesty to detainees in Iraqi custody. Following the
session the parliament began a five-week holiday.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 14, An Iraqi police
officer in Salahuddin province said that a house in Zab belonging to
a Sunni Arab and tribal leader was bombarded in a US air strike, and
that six family members died. A US military account said troops
returned fire from insurgents, killing two and then called in air
support, which killed another four militants.
(AP, 2/15/08)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers, one apparently armed with a grenade as well as an explosive
vest, killed at least three people and wounded 17 as worshippers
left a Shiite mosque after prayers in the northwestern city of Tal
Afar. 3 neighborhood security guards were killed and 2 others
injured when US attack helicopters fired at their checkpoint south
of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/08)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 17, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber struck in a predominantly Shiite area of central
Baghdad, killing at least three people in an attack that occurred as
officials have been stressing the capital's increased security. In
Mosul a police officer and two civilians were killed when a bomb in
a parked car detonated. Two US soldiers were killed by small-arms
fire in the volatile Diyala province.
(AP, 2/17/08)(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 21, In Iraq 4 British
soldiers were wounded near their base outside the southern city of
Basra, an attack the Iraqi police described as a roadside bomb
explosion that targeted a British patrol.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 21, Australia's new
government confirmed that it would withdraw its combat troops from
Iraq by mid-year but pledged strong ties with the United States
ahead of landmark talks this week.
(AP, 2/21/08)
2008 Feb 21, Turkish troops
launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit
of separatist Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 22, Muqtada al-Sadr
announced that he has extended a cease-fire order to his Shiite
Mahdi Army by another six months. A bomb hidden under a horse-drawn
cart exploded in downtown Baghdad, killing three civilians. 2
policemen died when a booby-trapped car exploded in Tikrit.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 23, In Iraq rockets or
mortars hit the US-protected Green Zone. Shihab al-Timimi, the head
of the Iraqi Journalists Union, was shot and wounded. A boat
carrying 11 Shiites to the holy city of Karbala overturned in the
Tigris river and six people drowned. a suicide bomb attack killed
Sheik Ibrahim Mutayri al-Mohamaday, the leader of one Awakening
Council in Saqlawiyah, in Anbar province. A group of gunmen first
opened fire on a checkpoint, killing one police officer. Then three
of the attackers armed with explosives belts stormed the checkpoint,
two blowing themselves up.
(AP, 2/23/08)(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck Shiite pilgrims as they were resting in Iskandariyah
during a days-long walk to a Shiite shrine in Karbala, killing at
least 56 people and wounding 68. Earlier, extremists attacked
another group of pilgrims in the predominantly Sunni Baghdad
neighborhood of Dora, killing three and wounding 36. In Hawija,
about 30 miles southwest of Kirkuk, a parked car bomb went off next
to a patrol of Sunni tribesmen who aligned with US forces to fight
al-Qaida in Iraq. One civilian bystander was killed and 10 people
were wounded.
(AP, 2/24/08)(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, A roadside bomb
killed four Shiite pilgrims and wounded 15 south of Baghdad in at
least the third fatal attack on people traveling to one of their
sect's most sacred gatherings. A suicide bomber in a wheelchair
talked his way into Samarra’s operations center and blew himself up,
killing the deputy commander, Abdul Jabbar Rabeia. Gunmen opened
fire on a police convoy in Mosul. Four officers were killed in the
attack.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 25, Turkey's military
said it had killed 41 more separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in
northern Iraq, raising the reported guerrilla death toll in a
cross-border operation to 153.
(AP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 26, The Iraqi
government demanded for the first time that Turkey immediately
withdraw from northern Iraq, warning it feared the ongoing incursion
could lead to clashes with the official forces of the semiautonomous
Kurdish region.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 26, A suicide bomber
attacked a bus outside the city of Mosul. The Iraqi army said 9 were
killed and 9 injured. The US military put the toll at 8 dead and 8
injured. Gunmen in civilian clothes stopped two buses at a fake
checkpoint on a highway in volatile Diyala province and kidnapped 21
men. They later released three women. 15 gunmen broke into a house
in the village of Tuz Khormato, killing an Iraqi soldier and
wounding his brother. In Hawija two members of the local awakening
council, Sunni fighters who have turned against al-Qaida, were
killed after gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, Shihab al-Timimi
(74), the chief of the Iraqi Journalists' Union died of wounds
suffered in an ambush on Feb 23. Shiite pilgrims headed to a major
religious gathering were again targeted by extremists when a
roadside bomb detonated near a bus in Baghdad, killing one traveler.
US soldiers killed an Iraqi civilian who raised suspicion and failed
to heed warnings to stop as he approached their foot patrol north of
Baghdad. A young Iraqi man that may have been mentally disabled was
shot and wounded after he ran toward a patrol in Tahrir. Jar Allah,
also known as Abu Yasir al-Saudi, and another Saudi known only as
Hamdan, were both killed in Mosul by a guided missile fired from a
military helicopter. The wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader was
responsible for numerous attacks and including the bombing deaths of
five American soldiers on Jan 28.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/28/08)(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Feb 27, Turkey said the
death toll for rebels reached 230 during the operation in northern
Iraq that began last week. The death toll for soldiers stood at 24.
Troops killed 77 Kurdish rebels in night-long clashes with 5 Turkish
soldiers killed.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Iraq the US
military captured an insurgent leader who was recruiting and
training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives
and blow themselves up, the latest sign that al-Qaida in Iraq plans
to keep using women to carry out suicide attacks.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb 29, In Iraq gunmen
killed 3 people and abducted Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho
(65) soon after he left Mass in Mosul, the latest in what church
members called a series of attacks against Iraq's small Christian
community. A British serviceman was killed in a rocket attack in
southern Iraq, taking the Britain’s death toll since the start of
the conflict to 175.
(AP, 3/1/08)(AFP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb 29, Turkey's military
said it has ended a ground offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq,
but said that foreign influence did not play a role in its decision.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 1, In Iraq 2 separate
attacks on buses of Shiites killed five people and wounded 11. The
US military said it had killed six insurgents and detained 13
suspects in the last 24 hours during operations against al-Qaida in
Iraq in central and northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Mar 2, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new
chapter in "brotherly" relations between the two countries, which
were once bitter enemies. 13 gunmen were killed and eight were
injured in clashes with American and Iraqi forces in the town of Tal
Afar. 2 police officers were also killed and four were injured. In
two other separate attacks in Diyala, police reported that five
people were killed when a roadside bomb hit a bus, while another
assault killed a patrolling police officer. The US military found a
grave in Samarra with 14 bodies, believed to be members of the Iraqi
security forces executed by al-Qaida in Iraq. A car bomb in Samarra
had killed four people, including one child. Police in Samarra,
however, reported that at least seven people were killed and 10
people were injured. In central and northern Iraq US and Iraqi
forces killed 9 suspected insurgents and detained 44 others in raids
targeting al-Qaida. 3 Iraqi troops were killed in one of the
operations. During the operation, the SWAT teams found bomb-making
materials, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, rifles, grenades, a
landmine and ammunition.
(AP, 3/2/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 3, In Iraq Pres.
Talabani and Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad signed 7 memorandums of
understanding on issues including industrial development, trade and
customs. At least 23 people were killed and dozens were wounded when
two suicide car bombs exploded in different parts of Baghdad. 3
police officers were killed by a parked car bomb in the town of
Shikaat, north of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 5, Iraq's cabinet gave
the green light to the Oil Ministry to sign agreements with
international oil companies to help increase the nation's crude
output. An Iraqi official said Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish
separatist rebels in northern Iraq less than a week after the end of
a large-scale ground operation. The US military freed two former
Health Ministry officials after an Iraqi court dropped charges of
kidnapping, murder, and corruption stemming from Shiite militia
activity.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 6, In Iraq an attack
killed 68 people in a Baghdad shopping district. 120 were wounded.
Many of the victims were teens or young adults.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 7, Bombings in the
northern city of Mosul killed at least 4 people and wounded 46. Twin
bombings in the central part of the city killed one person and
injured 14 others. An American soldier was killed during an
operation in Diyala province.
(AP, 3/7/08)(AP, 3/8/08)
2008 Mar 8, In Turkey Iraq's
Pres. Jalal Talabani, on the 2nd day of his visit, said he wants a
"strategic" partnership with Turkey, including getting the
neighboring nation's businesses to invest in his oil-rich but
war-torn country.
(AP, 3/8/08)
2008 Mar 8, As many as 5,000
people took to the streets in Basra, protesting deteriorating
security in the southern city where Iraqi forces assumed
responsibility for safety last December. Two separate bombings in
Diyala province left six people dead. The US military said that
Iraqi security forces had discovered a mass grave near Khalis in
Diyala province containing perhaps 100 bodies. Police also reported
that the bullet-ridden bodies of 13 men were found near the same
town.
(AP, 3/8/08)
2008 Mar 10, A female suicide
bomber in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, 13 miles east of
Baqouba. killed the head of a local group of Sunni fighters in who
had turned against al-Qaida insurgents. A suicide bomber killed five
American soldiers on a foot patrol after detonating his explosives
vest in central Baghdad. 3 more American soldiers killed by a
roadside bomb north of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/10/08)(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 11, At least 42 people
were killed across Iraq. A roadside bomb hit a bus traveling in
southern Iraq, killing at least 16 civilians, while gunmen opened
fire on another bus in the capital, leaving one person dead. The
Pentagon said up to 90% of the foreign fighters in Iraq cross from
Syria.
(AFP, 3/11/08)(AP, 3/12/08)(WSJ, 3/12/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 12, In Iraq coalition
soldiers killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a
woman who "appeared to be signaling to someone" along a road where
several bombs had recently been found. Chaldean Catholic Archbishop
Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead near the city of Mosul, where he
was kidnapped last month. 3 US soldiers died in a rocket attack on
Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 12, An Austrian weekly
magazine reported that severed fingers of 5 Western contractors were
sent to the US military in Iraq. 4 had been abducted on Nov 16,
2006. The 5th was abducted Jan 5, 2007.
(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A15)
2008 Mar 13, A parked car bomb
exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad, killing 18
people and wounding 57. 5 members of an Awakening Council were
killed when gunmen attacked two separate checkpoints near Tikrit. A
female suicide bomber attacked an Awakening Council gathering in the
village of Zab outside Kirkuk and 3 people were killed with seven
others wounded.
(AP, 3/13/08)(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 13, Chile said it has
agreed to receive 117 Palestine refugees from Iraq who have spent
months living in tents along the desert border with Syria.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 15, Iraqi security
forces clashed with a breakaway faction of Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Kut, leaving five dead and 15 wounded.
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 16, Sen. John McCain,
the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president who has
linked his political future to US success in Iraq, was in Baghdad
for meetings with Iraqi and US diplomatic and military officials.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 17, In Iraq police
said they found the bodies of three members of a US-allied group
fighting al-Qaida in Udaim. Sen. John McCain stressed the importance
of a US commitment to Iraq during talks with Iraq's prime minister.
Explosions struck Baghdad during twin visits by the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee and Vice President Dick Cheney. A
female suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers in Karbala, killing
at least 32 people with 51 wounded. The blast was the deadliest in a
series of attacks that left at least 78 Iraqis dead.
(AP, 3/17/08)(AP, 3/18/08)(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 18, Iraq's main Sunni
bloc boycotted a conference aimed at reconciling the nation's
sectarian groups. A roadside bomb near a gas station in northern
Baghdad killed three people, including two police officers. Vice
President Dick Cheney, delving into internal Iraqi politics, pushed
a Kurdish leader to play a helpful role in passing legislation to
foster national reconciliation and forge a new agreement for US-Iraq
relations in years to come.
(AP, 3/18/08)
2008 Mar 19, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest packed with ball
bearings near a bus terminal northeast of Baghdad, killing at least
three people. US troops accidentally killed three Iraqi policemen
and wounded another, the latest in a series of friendly fire
incidents.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 21, Iraqi security
forces clashed with Shiite militia fighters southeast of Baghdad for
a second day. At least two police officers and two gunmen had died
in the fighting in the city of Kut when factions of the Mahdi Army
militia attacked security checkpoints.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 22, A US airstrike
struck two checkpoints manned by US-allied Sunni fighters in
Samarra, killing six and injuring two. A suicide bomber drove a
truck laden with explosives into the home of the mayor in Samarra. 3
security guards were killed and four others injured. A bomb exploded
on a minibus in a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad,
killing at least one passenger and injuring 8. An awakening council
member in western Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood was killed and four
others were injured in a mortar blast. A roadside bomb targeting a
police patrol killed one passer-by and injured 7, in the northern
city of Kirkuk. A roadside bombing northwest of Baghdad killed 3 US
soldiers and two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 3/22/08)(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 23, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber killed at least 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded dozens more
people in Mosul. At least 10 civilians were killed and 20 more were
wounded in rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern
Baghdad. The US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under fire from
either mortars or rockets, and a round that fell short injured two
bystanders. An American financial analyst working for the US Embassy
in Baghdad was severely wounded in the rocket attack and died soon
after. The overall US death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four
soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/23/08)(AP, 3/24/08)(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 23, Iranian artillery
shelled three border towns in northern Iraq where Iranian Kurdish
rebels are believed to be operating.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 24, In Iraq PM
al-Maliki announced that Operation Charge of the Knights would begin
the next day in Basra. He sent over 30,000 Iraqi troops into Basra,
mentored by US Marines, to clean out the Shia militias.
(www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10635)(Econ,
5/2/09, p.47)
2008 Mar 25, Iraqi forces
clashed with Shiite militiamen in the southern oil port of Basra and
least 22 people were killed. 5 suspected militants were killed in
Basra while attempting to place a roadside bomb. Gunmen patrolled
several Baghdad neighborhoods as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr ordered a nationwide civil disobedience campaign to demand
an end to the crackdown on their movement. 2 bombs exploded in
central Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding eight others. A
US-allied Sunni fighter was killed in a drive-by shooting northeast
of the capital. In August it was reported that a secret deal with an
Iran-backed militia kept British forces out of the battle, leaving
US and Iraqi forces to fight alone. The Ministry of Defense denied
any deal was struck and said it held back to ensure that the
operation was seen as Iraqi-led. The effect was that 4,000 British
soldiers were kept out of action for six days until a deal brokered
in Iran ended heavy fighting.
(AP, 3/25/08)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Mar 26, Iraq's prime
minister gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra three days to
surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between
security forces and Shiite militia fighters erupted for a second
day. Officials said at least 40 people were killed and 200 wounded
in the fighting in Basra. 3 Americans were seriously injured by
rockets or mortars fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone. A mortar shell
or rocket that apparently fell short struck a minibus in the mainly
Shiite district of Karradah, killing at least 3 passengers and
wounding 9 others. Two rounds also slammed into another area of
Karradah, killing 3 civilians and wounding six. Two other Iraqis
were killed and 4 wounded when another round struck a residential
area in a Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad. Gunmen killed a
US-allied Sunni fighter and wounded his wife and daughter after
storming his house in Samarra. Several Iraqi civilians were killed
or injured in separate fighting between US troops and suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents in the northern town of Tikrit. A US
airstrike there left 7 bodies in the rubble of houses and a local
judge who owned one of the houses was among the dead. Two American
soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/26/08)(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Mar 27, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki promised to pursue his fight against Shiite militias in
Basra to "the end." Al-Sadr called for a political solution to the
burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." Tens
of thousands of Shiites took to Baghdad's streets to protest the
government crackdown on militias in Basra as heavy fighting between
Iraqi security forces and gunmen erupted for a third day in the
southern oil port and the capital. The death toll in the Shiite city
of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, rose to at least 60.
Tahseen Sheikhly, the Sunni civilian spokesman for the Baghdad
security operation, was kidnapped and three bodyguards killed. A
booby-trapped car exploded near the Iraqi Red Crescent Society's
offices in Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding five.
(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 27, Turkey's armed
forces killed 15 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) in northern Iraq using long-range land weapons.
(Reuters, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 28, PM Nouri
al-Maliki's office says the Iraqi government has given residents of
Basra until April 8 to turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" in
return for a reward. US warplanes carried out at least two
airstrikes overnight in Basra for the first time since clashes
between Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces erupted this week.
A US warplane strafed snipers in the southern city of Basra, killing
at least 16 suspected militants after Iraqi troops came under heavy
fire. Shiite militants also clashed with government forces for a
fourth day in Iraq's oil-rich south and sporadic fighting broke out
in Baghdad. A US helicopter also fired a Hellfire missile during
fighting in the Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City, killing
four gunmen. Iraqi police and hospital officials in Sadr City said 5
civilians were killed and 4 others wounded in the attack. A US air
assault in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killed 10
militants. At least 12 militia fighters were killed and 7 others
wounded in fighting in Mahmoudiya. Fierce fighting in the Mahdi Army
stronghold of Nasiriyah killed at least 4 people. 2 Iraqi security
forces were killed and 3 wounded in Kut.
(AP, 3/28/08)(AP, 3/29/08)(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 28, Turkish warplanes
hit Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 29, Al-Sadr called on
his followers to defy government orders to surrender their weapons,
saying arms of the Mahdi Army should only be turned over to a
national leadership "that can get the occupier," meaning the
Americans their coalition allies, out of Iraq. Iraq's Health
Ministry reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at
least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and airstrikes in Sadr
City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods. US jets widened the
bombing of Basra, dropping two precision-guided bombs on a suspected
militia stronghold north of the city. Iraqi police said a US
warplane strafed a house and killed eight civilians, including two
women and one child. Mortars landed in Shiite areas of eastern
Baghdad, killing at least one person and injuring 12. American
troops and Iraqis unearthed 14 significantly decomposed bodies in a
mass grave northeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/29/08)(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 30, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr offered to pull his fighters off the streets of
Basra and other cities if the government halts raids against his
followers and releases prisoners held without charge.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 30, In Syria Iraq
refused to endorse the final declaration of the Arab summit because
it did not condemn terrorism in the country, a divisive end to a
gathering marred by disputes and boycotts.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 31, In Iraq the
fortified Green Zone came under fresh attack, less than 24 hours
after anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr told his fighters
to stand down following a week of clashes with government forces.
Near Buhriz unknown gunmen in a car attacked a checkpoint manned by
US-backed Sunni fighters. Four of the fighters were killed.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 1, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said in a statement that his office will recruit 10,000
more police and army forces and will move to enhance public services
Basra. His comments came after a peace deal between radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi government brought a tense calm
following a week of clashes. Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said that 200 people had been killed, 600
wounded and 170 suspects detained during operations in Basra.
Britain froze plans to withdraw about 1,500 soldiers from its
4,000-strong military force this spring and hand over more security
responsibility to the Iraqis.
(AP, 4/1/08)(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 2, In northern Iraq, a
suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi checkpoint west of Mosul, killing
seven people, including a woman and a 5-year-old child. A US
airstrike destroyed a house in the southern city of Basra, killing a
militant, the US military said, and Iraqi witnesses and hospital
officials said at least three civilians were among the dead. A
roadside bomb targeting a US convoy exploded near a restaurant in
Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, killing at least 3
Iraqi civilians and wounding 13. 4 US-allied fighters were killed
and 4 others abducted at a fake checkpoint near Duluiyah.
(AP, 4/2/08)(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 3, Iraqi troops killed
7 militants and detained 16 in three separate incidents in the Basra
area. A coalition air strike there killed two militants. A parked
car bomb targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad killed at
least one civilian and wounded 10 other people, including three
officers. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol elsewhere in
the predominantly Sunni Yarmouk neighborhood in the capital, killing
one soldier and wounding three others. The office of Muqtada al-Sadr
called for a "million-strong" turnout for an anti-American
demonstration next week to mark the fifth anniversary of the capture
of Baghdad by invading US troops. A US airman was killed by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/3/08)(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 4, Iraq's prime
minister ordered a nationwide freeze on raids against suspected
Shiite militants after the leader of the biggest militia complained
that arrests were continuing even after he ordered fighters off the
streets. A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded 8
when he blew himself up during a policeman's funeral in Sadiyah.
Military and police officials in Basra said a number of Iraqi
soldiers and police were reported to have mutinied or refused to
engage al-Sadr's militants during last week's fighting. A roadside
bomb killed four policeman and wounded one in Hillah. In the
Hayaniyah area of Basra a house was destroyed in an airstrike.
Police said five people were killed, acknowledging they included an
unspecified number of militants who had fired a mortar at Iraqi
security forces.
(AP, 4/4/08)(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 5, Youssef Adel, an
Assyrian Orthodox priest, was killed in a drive-by shooting in
Baghdad. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb exploded on a minibus carrying
morning commuters on the busy Palestine Street, killing at least
four passengers and wounding 15.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, Iraqi troops backed
by US forces battled Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City in
clashes that killed 20 people and wounded more than 50 despite a
cease-fire between the government and the militia. 3 US service
members were killed and dozens wounded in rocket attacks on the
fortified Green Zone. 2 more US soldiers died in roadside bombings.
(AP, 4/6/08)(AP, 4/7/08)(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A17)
2008 Apr 7, Iraq’s prime
minister issued his strongest warning yet to radical Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or face political
isolation. The Sadrists said a move to ban them from elections would
be unconstitutional. Hospital officials said nine more people were
killed, including five children and two women, and dozens wounded as
gunbattles continued. That pushed the two-day death toll to at least
25.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to lift a seven-month freeze on his Mahdi
Army militia if the Iraqi government does not halt attacks on his
followers or set a timetable for a US withdrawal. military spokesman
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said a total of 82 militants, 36
civilians and 37 soldiers had been killed since March 16 in fighting
in Baghdad, mostly in Sadr City.
(AP, 4/8/08)(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 8, Iran's Foreign
Ministry condemned for the first time rocket and mortar attacks
against the US-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad by supporters of
anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A US soldier died from
wounds sustained when his vehicle was destroyed in a roadside
bombing the previous evening.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Washington US
commander Gen. David Petraeus called for an open-ended suspension of
US troop withdrawals this summer because of concern over the renewed
fighting.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 9, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki told Pres. Bush during a 20-minute telephone conversation
that Iraqi security forces are capable of carrying out their duties
and US troops should be pulled out as the situation permits. 23
people, including 3 children, died in Baghdad's Sadr City as clashes
between security forces and Shiite militiamen continued on the fifth
anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. 2 US soldiers died from
non-combat related injuries. 3 US soldiers died in a roadside
bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AP, 4/10/08)(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 10, A US airstrike
targeted a building in Baghdad's Sadr City, hours after American
soldiers clashed with Shiite militants in fighting that left 15
people dead. Police said the four killed in the air strike were
civilians, including two brothers who were under 10 years old.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 11, Riyadh al-Nouri, a
senior aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was
assassinated in Najaf. A roadside bomb destroyed an armored vehicle
in eastern Baghdad, killing an Iraqi. An unmanned drone fired on a
group of gunmen carrying grenades and mortars overnight in Sadr
City, killing six of them. A helicopter hit a group of gunmen in the
Hayaniyah district of central Basra overnight, killing six of them.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, Shiite militants
fought US and Iraqi forces around Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr
City despite a call for calm by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
following the assassination of one of his top aides. At least 13
Shiite militants died in the clashes, which erupted the previous
evening and tapered. Iraqi soldiers acting on tips from detained
Shiite militiamen found 14 bodies that had been buried in a field
south of Baghdad. The bodies were found after members of al-Sadr's
Mahdi Army militia were detained and confessed to killing and
burying dozens of Sunnis as well as some Shiites killed for criminal
purposes. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/12/08)(SSFC, 4/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 13, Officials said the
Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen
who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive
against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra. Gunmen in Basra
assassinated police Maj. Ali Haider, a commander in the department's
serious crimes directorate. Militants firing rocket-propelled
grenades ambushed an American patrol in eastern Baghdad. Fire from
armed helicopters and an Abrams tank repulsed the attack, killing
six of the gunmen. US soldiers discovered a mass grave near
Muqdadiyah, which contained 20 to 30 badly decomposed bodies that
appeared to have been buried nearly eight months. 2 US Marines were
killed by a roadside bomb in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/13/08)(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 14, Richard Butler, a
kidnapped British journalist, was rescued by Iraqi troops after two
months in captivity in Basra. A roadside bomb in downtown Baghdad
killed five people and wounded nine. In northern Iraq 18 people were
killed in two car bombings and a suicide attack. The US military
said it will release Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein,
more than two years after he was detained by US Marines on
suspicions of links to insurgents. The military said it has
determined Hussein is not a threat and plans to free him Apr 16.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, A parked car bomb
targeting a police patrol in central Baghdad, killed four civilians
who were passing by and wounding 15 other people. In Baqouba a car
parked in front of a restaurant exploded killing at least 35 people.
In Ramadi a parked car bomb exploded near a kebab restaurant killing
at least 13 people. US soldiers backed by an airstrike killed six
militants during clashes in the Sudayrah area near Baghdad's Sadr
City. American troops killed four militants who fired
rocket-propelled grenades at a tank elsewhere in the area. More
clashes in Sadr City left four militiamen killed and 15 others
wounded.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 16, The Iraqi
government said 33,121 detainees have been released since a general
amnesty went into effect in February. The US military released
Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein after holding him for
more than two years without filing formal charges. An unmanned US
drone fired two Hellfire missiles at militants attacking Iraqi
soldiers in a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra, killing four of
the gunmen. In Baghdad, clashes between US-backed Iraqi troops and
Shiite militiamen in the Sadr City district killed two men and
wounded 18 others. A mortar shell slammed into a house in eastern
Baghdad, killing at least three civilians and wounding three others.
Gunmen opened fire on a minibus near Muqdadiyah, killing two women
and wounding three men.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, Turkish warplanes
hit a group of Kurdish rebels reportedly trying to infiltrate Turkey
from the Avasin-Basyan region of northern Iraq. A clash between
Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels near Turkey's southeastern border
with Iraq left a Turkish soldier dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 17,
A suicide bomber struck the funeral of two anti-al-Qaida Sunni
tribesmen in a town north of Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and
wounding dozens. An unmanned drone killed two gunmen in Baghdad's
Sadr City district.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 18, Iraqi police said
a company of government troops in Sadr City retreated when they came
under attack from Shiite militiamen who used the cover of a
sandstorm. Overnight clashed killed two people and injured nine.
Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaida's No. 2, said in a new audiotape that the
US will lose whether it stays in Iraq or withdraws, and he sneered
that President Bush just wants to pass the problem on to his
successor. It was reported that US commanders have begun releasing
Iraqi detainees. 8,000 have been released since September with plans
to release half of the 23,000 currently held.
(AP, 4/18/08)(WSJ, 4/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 19,
Twelve people died in overnight clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City
district. The US military said one of its attack helicopters located
and hit a mortar crew in Sadr City at 3:30 a.m., killing two gunmen
and destroying the weapon. In the town of Suq al-Shiyoukh a
firefight killed one militant and left six policemen injured. The US
military said an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb
while on patrol in Salahuddin province.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 20,
US troops killed 12 militants during an "uptick" in fighting,
as fierce clashes broke out in Baghdad's Sadr City district after
radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned he will declare war if a
crackdown against his followers persists. 6 civilians, four men and
two boys ages 8 and 10, were killed in fighting in Sadr City after
midnight. An armed drone fired a Hellfire missile at a group of
gunmen killing all three. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
arrived in Baghdad for a trip she said was intended to promote fresh
political gains she sees to be flowing from the government-led
assaults on radical militias.
(AP, 4/20/08)(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki urged other Arab
countries to reopen their embassies in the capital as a show of
support for his government as it cracks down on Shiite militias in
Iraq. 6 people died in clashes in Baghdad's embattled Shiite enclave
of Sadr City. They included 3 policemen and 3 civilians. In Baqouba
a woman wearing an explosive vest blew herself up at the
headquarters of group of US-allied Sunni fighters. The blast killed
3 people and wounded 4. An unmanned drone killed two gunmen in
Baghdad's embattled Sadr City district. US troops were hit by a
roadside bomb and then attacked with small-arms fire. They returned
fire and killed 3 attackers. 2 US soldiers were killed by a bomb in
Salahuddin province.
(AP, 4/21/08)(AP, 4/22/08)(SFC, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21, The 6-member Gulf
Cooperation Council met in Bahrain, along with representatives from
Egypt, Jordan and Condoleeza Rice for the US, to discuss diplomatic
support for Iraq as well as other issues. Rice failed to secure firm
commitments on debt relief for Iraq.
(SFC, 4/22/08, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 22, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki, at a meeting in Kuwait, urged neighboring countries to
help dry up "the springs of terrorism" by preventing militants from
obtaining weapons and financing from abroad.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Iraq a Shadow
reconnaissance crashed south of Baghdad. A female suicide bombing in
Diyala province killed 18 people including 10 Iraqi civilians, a
Kurd and 7 Iraqi policemen. In Baghdad 21 suspected gunmen were
killed in Shiite militia strongholds. Officials said 15 civilians
were among the dead, including two women.
(AP, 4/22/08)(AP, 4/23/08)
2008 Apr 23, Two US soldiers
were killed in an accident in Salahuddin province when their vehicle
rolled onto its side. Another American soldier died in a
single-vehicle accident on a highway in neighboring Kuwait.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 23, Syria handed over
a trove of some 700 looted artifacts to Iraq after seizing the items
from traffickers since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam
Hussein.
(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, Britain's foreign
secretary held talks with Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki. PM al-Maliki
said all political blocs have agreed to return to the government. At
least 13 people were reported killed in the ongoing fighting between
Shiite militiamen and Iraqi and US-led forces. A US soldier was
killed in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AP, 4/25/08)(WSJ, 4/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 25, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr called for an end to clashes between his militia
fighters and Iraqi troops, saying that his threat of an "open war"
applied only to US-led foreign forces. The US military said American
and Iraqi forces killed 10 militants in overnight clashes in
northeastern Baghdad. Local hospital officials said 7 people,
including two women, were killed and 45 others were wounded in the
clashes.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 25, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units struck Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq who were
preparing to cross the border to carry out attacks. The strikes
continued the next day.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, Clashes continued
in the Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a sprawling district in
northeastern Baghdad, although they did not appear as fierce in
recent days. Hospital officials said 8 bodies were received of
people killed in overnight fighting. 12 other people, including a
schoolboy, were wounded early in the day. 3 suicide car bombers also
targeted Iraqi security forces, killing at least 7 people in Mosul.
Another suicide car bomber struck a police patrol elsewhere in the
city, killing 4 people and wounding 7.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 27, Iraq's PM
al-Maliki met with the Sunni Arab vice president to discuss
reintegrating Sunni political parties into the Shiite-dominated
government. Police said five people died in violence in Baghdad.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a
security checkpoint in the eastern neighborhood of Zayouna killing
three people and injuring nine. Shiite extremists lobbed rockets or
mortar shells at the US protected Green Zone as American and Iraqi
troops engaged militants in the most violent clashes in weeks in
Baghdad. Abrams tanks were used to repel attacks on two army
checkpoints, killing 22 militants in one clash. 16 other militants
were killed in separate firefights. A US military statement said an
unmanned drone had killed a total of five militants using Hellfire
missiles in three separate engagements.
(AP, 4/27/08)(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 28, Shiite extremists
lobbed more rockets or mortar shells at the US protected Green Zone.
A suicide attacker on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint manned by
US-allied Sunni fighters in eastern Baghdad, killing at least one
and wounding four other members of the awakening council. Gunmen
killed a local commander of al-Sadr, Ali Ghalib, in Basra. US
soldiers killed 7 extremists in Sadr City after coming under small
arms fire. 4 US soldiers were killed in Baghdad by rocket or mortar
fire.
(AP, 4/28/08)(SFC, 4/29/08, p.A5)
2008 Apr 29, In Iraq a roadside
bomb hit Dhia Jodi Jaber, director general at the Ministry of Labor
and Social Affairs, as he left his Baghdad home in his car.
Militants killed the nephew of Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, an
Interior Ministry spokesman, and hanged the body from an electric
pole in Baghdad. The attack was in apparent retaliation for the
spokesman's role in a government crackdown against Shiite militias.
US soldiers killed 28 militants during a four-hour firefight in
Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City. 2 US were killed
soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/29/08)(AP, 4/30/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A2)
2008 Apr 30, Baghdad sent a
delegation to Tehran with "evidence, confessions and pictures"
indicating that Iran is supplying weapons and training fighters who
are locked in a violent standoff with US and Iraqi troops. PM
al-Maliki accused the Mahdi Army of using civilians as human
shields, and vowed to continue the crackdown against militias. 2
people were killed and 16 wounded overnight in Sadr City. Clashes in
Baghdad killed at least 25 people. 3 US soldiers were killed in
Baghdad. A US soldier was killed by an explosion in Ninevah
province.
(AP, 4/30/08)(AP, 5/1/08)(SFC, 5/1/08, p.A2)
2008 May 1, A double suicide
bombing killed at least 36 people during a wedding procession as
people cheered the bride and groom in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of
Baghdad. A car bomb aimed at a US patrol in Baghdad killed at least
nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi
patrol car, killing two Iraqi soldiers in Mosul. 3 al-Qaida
insurgents fired on US soldiers as they tried to stop a vehicle near
Mosul. The soldiers returned fire, killing all three as well as the
driver of the vehicle. The US military said it killed 18 militants
overnight amid escalating fighting in the Shiite slum Sadr City.
Around Iraq, at least 1,080 Iraqi civilians and security forces were
killed nationwide last month, average of 36 a day, according to an
AP tally, down from March's total of 1,269, or an average of 41 per
day.
(AP, 5/1/08)(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 2, Shiite clerics
offered sharply different visions in the showdown between government
forces and Shiite militias, one predicting that armed groups will be
crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be
prosecuted for crimes against his people. Al-Qaida insurgents,
mostly Sunnis, raked a police car with automatic weapons, killing 8
Iraqi policemen in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border. 2
civilians were killed and 7 others wounded in Baghdad's central
Salihiyah district after a mortar round apparently fired by Shiite
extremists toward the US-protected Green Zone fell short. According
to US military 10 militants were killed in fighting, including a
sniper and a triggerman accused of planting armor-piercing roadside
bombs in Sadr City and the adjacent Ubaydi area. A roadside bomb
attack in eastern Baghdad killed a US soldier. A roadside explosion
killed 4 Marines in western Anbar province.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 2, A rebel spokesman
said Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq
for three hours overnight. The Turkish military said the raid in
northern Iraq killed more than 150 Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 5/2/08)(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 3, The US military
fired missiles at a target about 50 yards away from the general
hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City district, wounding more than 20
people and destroying ambulances. US soldiers killed four militants
elsewhere in Baghdad. A US soldier died of wounds sustained in a
roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat
patrol in eastern Baghdad a day earlier.
(AP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 4, A bomb hit a
motorcade carrying Iraq's first lady through Baghdad. Iraqi health
officials said at least 10 people, including two children, were
killed in the past 24 hours in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr
City. 2 Iraqi civilians were wounded in a Hellfire missile attack in
Baghdad's southwestern Aamel neighborhood and were evacuated to a
military hospital.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)
2008 May 5, Iraqi health
officials said 41 that people, including women and children, have
been wounded in the last 24 hours in the militia stronghold of Sadr
City. At least 6 people were killed by US air strikes in Sadr City.
An attack in Mosul killed three prostitutes and wounded two others.
2 policemen were killed in clashes with unidentified gunmen in
Mosul. In eastern Mosul 2 gunmen were killed by police. In Tikrit a
car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in the central part of
the city killed four people and wounded 8 others. US and Iraqi
forces raided two police stations and arrested 48 policemen
suspected of having links to Shiite militias. A US Air Force gunship
strafed Shiite extremists who attacked US soldiers in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/6/08)(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A3)
2008 May 6, At least four
civilians were killed overnight in the Baghdad Shiite neighborhood
of Sadr City. The US military announced that about 3,500 American
soldiers are scheduled to leave Iraq in the coming weeks. US
Hellfire missiles killed 3 militants planting a roadside bomb in the
Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/6/08)(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A3)
2008 May 7, In Iraq 7 militants
were killed in clashes around Baghdad. 5 suspected al-Qaida members,
including a Moroccan national, were killed in an operation in
Samarra. 4 Sunni insurgents were killed in the province of
Salahuddin when they attacked a checkpoint manned by Awakening
Council fighters.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 8, A rocket hit a
downtown Baghdad park, killing two people as American and Iraqi
forces battled Shiite militants believed responsible for many such
attacks. A bomb went off on a minibus in Baghdad's eastern Zayona
neighborhoods, killing two passengers and injuring five. 9 militants
were killed in two American missile attacks in the New Baghdad
neighborhood. US soldiers killed six Shiite extremists, who attacked
US forces with shoulder fired rockets and small arms, in several
clashes in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City.
(AP, 5/8/08)(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 10, Shiite militants
agreed on a ceasefire in Baghdad's embattled neighborhood of Sadr
City, holding out hope that weeks of clashes in the capital could be
at an end. In Mosul an Iraqi army commander announced the start of a
long anticipated offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq's last urban
stronghold. 4 people, including a woman and a child, were killed in
an operation against al-Qaida near Mosul. One US soldier was killed
when the vehicle he was traveling in rolled over near al-Asad.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 10, Turkish warplanes
and artillery units destroyed key Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq, including a communications center, in a second day of
raids on rebel positions.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 11, A Quran, with 14
bullet holes and graffiti marked on its paged, was found by Iraqis
near a former base outside the town of Radwaniyah, west of Baghdad.
An American sniper had used a Quran for target practice. On May 17
an apology was made by the US military. The unidentified soldier was
disciplined and removed from Iraq.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 12, Representatives of
firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main
Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire in an effort to
end seven weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. The fragile
cease-fire failed to stop fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City where
clashes between Shiite extremists and US-backed Iraqi forces killed
11 men and wounded 19. The latest cease-fire came as the US military
largely finished the building of a barrier to isolate extremists
from using the southern section of Sadr City and disrupt supply and
escape routes for militants.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish
officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel
targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 13, In Iraq a Sunni
grammar school principal who was shot and killed in Abu Minasir, a
village west of Baghdad. A US soldier was killed when a roadside
bomb exploded next to his vehicle in northwest Baghdad.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 14, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki visited the northern city of Mosul to supervise a military
offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq in its last major stronghold. In
Sadr City skirmishes left five dead and 22 wounded. In western
Baghdad a car bomb detonated next to a convoy carrying a lawmaker
from the mostly-Sunni Islamic Party, Ayad al-Samarrie, but he was
not hurt. One civilian was killed and 6 others wounded, including
four guards. A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded at least
35 at the funeral of a Sunni school principal west of Baghdad. A
girl strapped with explosives killed an Iraqi officer. 2 militants
were killed and a third was wounded by an air-to-ground Hellfire
missile as they placed a roadside bomb on a road between Sadr City
and the northern Sunni district of Azamiyah. In Sadr City one person
was killed when another Hellfire missile hit a group of militants
also attempting to plant a bomb.
(AP, 5/14/08)(AP, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 15, Government troops
began house-to-house searches for al-Qaida in Iraq militants in
Mosul, part of a major security operation to cleanse Iraq's third
largest city from cells of the terror network. An Iranian Embassy
convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding four people, including
three Iranians and an Iraqi. Overnight and early morning clashes
between US-backed Iraqi forces and militiamen loyal to al-Sadr left
eight men killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 5/15/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 16, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in
exchange for surrendering their weapons. Ali Mansour Mohammed, an
Iraqi detainee, was shot and killed by US soldiers at or near their
forward operating base, Summerall, near Beiji. 1st Lt. Michael C.
Behenna and Staff Sgt. Hal M. Warner were later charged with the
shooting.
(AP, 5/16/08)(AP, 9/21/08)
2008 May 17, Iraq’s PM al
Maliki met with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Baghdad. Her
visit came amid complaints the Iraqi government is not contributing
enough financially to the reconstruction of the oil-rich country.
Mortar shells slammed into a residential area north of the Iraqi
capital, killing at least four people, a man and 3 children, and
wounding 30. US airstrikes killed six militants and destroyed a
weapons cache after troops were attacked by rocket-propelled
grenades and small-arms fire near Khan Bani Saad, north of Baghdad.
American soldiers killed two other militants after coming under
attack by a roadside bomb and small-arms fire in Baghdad’s northern
Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
(AP, 5/17/08)(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 18, A parked car bomb
struck an Iraqi army patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing two soldiers
and wounding six other people.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 19, The Iraqi Interior
Ministry reported the arrest of Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, a top
al-Qaida in Iraq figure in the northern city of Mosul, where
security forces have been carrying out an intensified crackdown to
root out the terror network. Lt. Col. Farhan Qassim, the police
chief of the southern town of Suq al-Shiyoukh, was killed by a bomb
that exploded in his office.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, Thousands of Iraqi
troops moved unchallenged into Baghdad's Sadr City to seize the
Shiite militia stronghold. Four anti-al-Qaida fighters were killed
by gunmen in an ambush near Duluiyah, north of Baghdad. A boy (7)
was killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of
the head of the so-called awakening council in Mandali, east of the
capital. Shells slammed into the center of Balad Ruz, 45 miles
northeast of Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding nine
others.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 19, The Iraqi Interior
Ministry reported the arrest of Abdul-Khaliq al-Sabawi, a top
al-Qaida in Iraq figure in the northern city of Mosul, where
security forces have been carrying out an intensified crackdown to
root out the terror network. Lt. Col. Farhan Qassim, the police
chief of the southern town of Suq al-Shiyoukh, was killed by a bomb
that exploded in his office. Suspected Sunni insurgents near the
Syrian border ambushed a minibus carrying Iraqi recruits killing all
11 passengers.
(AP, 5/19/08)(SFC, 5/20/08, p.A8)
2008 May 21, At least 11 people
were killed when gunfire broke out after a roadside bombing in a
Shiite militia stronghold in eastern Baghdad near Sadr City, scene
of a major military clampdown. The shooting occurred in the Obeidi
neighborhood after three roadside bombs targeted joint US-Iraqi
troops. An Iraqi television cameraman, Wissam Ali Auda, of Afaq TV,
was killed in the fighting. A second journalist was killed north of
Baghdad. The bullet-riddled body of Hashim al-Hussein (35), a
correspondent for the Sharq newspaper kidnapped a day earlier, was
found dumped near the city of Baqouba. A US helicopter strike north
of Baghdad killed 8 civilians, including several children. The US
military said the assault targeted al-Qaida fighters but
acknowledged that children died.
(AP, 5/21/08)(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, Pres. al-Maliki
met with the Iraq’s most influential Shiite spiritual leader, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to discuss his government crackdowns.
Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing
religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against US-led
foreign troops is permissible.
(AP, 5/22/08)(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, Lawmakers loyal to
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government of
trying to crush the movement and warned of "black clouds" on the
horizon for truces that have eased fighting between al-Sadr's
militia and security forces. Clashes broke out before midnight
between Shiite gunmen and US-Iraqi troops in the Amin area in
eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding three others,
including a 4-year-old boy.
(AP, 5/24/08)(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeted a patrol of US-allied Sunni Arab fighters near a
mosque in northern Baghdad, killing one of the so-called Awakening
Council members and wounding three others. An American soldier was
killed and two others were wounded in a roadside bombing in
Qadisiyah province.
(AP, 5/25/08)(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 26, In Iraq 6 teenage
boys who said they were being trained as suicide bombers were
detained in Mosul. Initial investigations showed they were being
trained by a Saudi militant who was killed in military operations. A
suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a checkpoint manned by Iraqi
police and US-allied Sunni fighters north of Baghdad, killing four
people. Suspected al-Qaida fighters kidnapped an awakening council
leader, Sheik Saleh al-Karkhi, and his brother after blowing up his
house in the village of Busaleh in Diyala province. A US soldier was
killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in the northern
Salahuddin province.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 27, An al-Qaida in
Iraq front group warned that insurgents were waiting for the right
moment to retaliate against a US-Iraqi security crackdown in the
northern city of Mosul. Gunmen killed a policeman near his station
in Mosul, when attackers opened fire with machine guns shortly
before noon. A car bomb in northern Iraq killed 4 civilians. A
US-allied fighter was killed and two others were wounded when a bomb
under their vehicle exploded near a market in northern Baghdad's
predominantly Sunni area of Azamiyah.
(AP, 5/27/08)(WSJ, 5/27/08, p.A1)
2008 May 28, Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab political bloc said it has suspended talks on ending its
boycott of the Shiite-led government due to a dispute over which
positions it would assume. The Sunni National Accordance Front held
44 of 275 parliamentary seats. Sporadic gunbattles broke out in a
Shiite stronghold in southeastern Baghdad as detentions and raids
against al-Sadr's followers continue to strain a truce. 3 civilians
were killed and five others wounded in the fighting. A roadside bomb
struck a car in the Qara Taba district, northeast of Baghdad,
killing a farmer and his son. US troops captured eight suspected
insurgents, including a man believed to be a longtime al-Qaida in
Iraq leader who was involved in a June 30, 2007, attack on American
forces in a remote area in Anbar province known as Donkey Island.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in the
northwestern town of Sinjar, killing at least 16 men and wounding 14
others. Iraq's PM al-Maliki, at a UN conference in Sweden, called
for neighboring countries to forgive debts and war reparations that
he said hindered his nation's recovery despite a reduction in
violence. Iraq has at least $67 billion in foreign debt, most
incurred during the rule of Saddam Hussein and owed to Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
(AP, 5/29/08)
2008 May 30, Tens of thousands
of Shiites, meanwhile, took to the streets in Baghdad and other
cities to protest plans for a long-term security agreement with the
United States. The rallies after Friday prayer services were the
first to follow a call by anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for weekly
protests against the deal. The US military removed a trooper from
duty for handed out coins promoting Christianity to Muslims in
Fallujah.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 31, In Iraq 10 people
were killed when a suicide bomber struck a police checkpoint in Hit,
a town west of Baghdad. The dead included six policemen and four
civilians.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 1, In Baghdad a car
bomb exploded near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad during morning
rush hour, killing at least two civilians and wounding five. A
senior police official was wounded when a bomb that was stuck to his
car exploded in a busy Baghdad intersection. A traffic officer was
killed and four other people were wounded in the attack. Ten
al-Qaida linked insurgents were captured in US-led operations in
Mosul and north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 1, Australia, a
staunch US ally and one of the first countries to commit troops to
the Iraq war five years ago, ended combat operations there.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Iraq US troops
killed two suspects in Tikrit. The military said it had captured 31
others and destroyed bomb-making materials over the past two days in
raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq in central and northern swaths of
the country. In Mosul a suicide car bomber killed 9 people including
5 police officers.
(AP, 6/2/08)(SFC, 6/3/08, p.A6)
2008 Jun 3, In Iraq the US
military captured two al-Qaida in Iraq bombing suspects and a Shiite
militia leader in separate raids north and south of Baghdad. The
bodies of at least 23 Iraqis were discovered in a shallow grave and
a sewer shaft at separate sites near Baghdad.
(AP, 6/3/08)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 4, Iraq’s parliament
approved a bill to combat oil smuggling. To become a law, the
measure needs the signature of Iraq's three-member presidential
council. A suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an
Iraqi police general, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack
on the capital in months. A 2nd car bomb killed 7 people, including
3 police commandos, in the Jadriya neighborhood of Baghdad. Iraqi
police said they uncovered a large weapons cache near Samarra. The
US military said it detained nine suspects and destroyed two
"terrorist safe houses" in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq across
central and northern parts of the country. 3 US soldiers were shot
dead in northern Tamim province.
(AP, 6/4/08)(AP, 6/5/08)(SFC, 6/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 5, The US military
captured two Shiite militia suspects south of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, In Iraq two
suspected Shiite militia leaders surrendered during raids by US
forces, while tens of thousands of Shiite faithful streamed out of
mosques to join protests against a security agreement with the
United States. The arrests and demonstrations came on the eve of PM
Nouri al-Maliki's trip to Iran, the second such visit in a year. A
suicide bomber, believed to be a woman, exploded herself near a
checkpoint in a village outside Ramadi, wounding two policemen.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Baghdad 4 police
recruits were killed in a blast at the National Police headquarters.
US soldiers captured a Basra-based "special groups" leader at a
hideout in eastern Baghdad. The US military killed four suspected
militants, captured five others and destroyed two safehouses in
northern Iraq. An American soldier died when his vehicle was struck
by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 6/7/08)(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, A blast just
outside Baghdad's Green Zone killed three civilians and wounded 10.
6 shepherds were killed execution-style before dawn by suspected
militants linked to al-Qaida masquerading as fellow herders east of
Baghdad. The US military captured six more suspected Sunni
extremists in Mosul, including an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq leader
and another man who is a wiring expert in charge of a bombing cell
there. In northern Tamim province a suicide truck bomber, with
explosives concealed under tanned animal hides, struck a US patrol
base killing one US soldier and wounding 18 other Americans.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 9, Iran's supreme
leader told the visiting Iraqi prime minister that the US military
presence is the main cause of Iraq's problems. A parked car packed
with munitions exploded near a passing Iraqi army patrol in eastern
Baghdad, killing three civilians and an army lieutenant. An alleged
al-Qaida in Iraq bomber was captured with another suspect in Mosul,
and another five men were arrested south of the city. Gunmen broke
into three gold shops in west Baghdad killing 3 goldsmiths and
wounding another. US soldiers under heavy fire during a raid in
northwestern Iraq called in airstrikes and killed five suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq militants.
(AP, 6/9/08)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 10, Sheik Ali al-Nida,
the head of Saddam's tribal clan, and one of his guards died in an
explosion that Iraqi police blamed on a bomb that had been glued to
the undercarriage of their car in Ouja.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 11, A bomb planted
near a bridge in northern Baghdad killed 6 people on passing
minibuses during rush hour. 2 mortar rounds hit a busy street in the
central Baghdad area of Karrada, killing a civilian and wounding
five others. The US military said it captured an Iranian-trained
bomb expert southeast of Baghdad during a raid on the man's home.
Elsewhere a Marine died in a non-combat related incident.
(AP, 6/11/08)(AP, 6/12/08)(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 12, In Iraq US
airstrikes destroyed a booby-trapped house believed to be an
al-Qaida in Iraq hideout, killing four suspected insurgents
northeast of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded as a police convoy passed
through a commercial area in central Baghdad. Two people, one a
policeman, were killed and 15 others were wounded. An American
soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(AP, 6/12/08)(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 13, Iraq's PM
Al-Maliki said that talks with the US on proposals for a long-term
security pact have reached an impasse over objections that Iraq's
sovereignty is at stake. Al-Maliki told reporters in Amman, Jordan,
that Iraqi negotiators had rejected US proposals because they would
infringe on Iraqi sovereignty. US troops killed five suspected
Shiite gunmen and detained two others during a raid near Hillah,
about 60 miles south of Baghdad. An Iraqi police spokesman said two
civilians, including a woman, also were killed and three others
wounded after they were caught in the crossfire. American jets fired
on militants who were trying to launch rockets at Iraqi security
forces and coalition troops in Amarah.
(AP, 6/13/08)(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 14, US helicopters
blanketed the southern city of Amarah with pamphlets urging
residents to cooperate with Iraqi security forces as they prepare
for a new operation against Shiite militia fighters. A bomb hidden
on a bus exploded in a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad,
killing two people and wounding eight.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 17, Iraq's deputy
speaker said parliament will start holding sessions outside the
US-protected Green Zone in the fall. Muhieddin Abdul-Hamid (50), an
Iraqi state TV reporter, was shot to death near his apartment in
Mosul. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a Baghdad checkpoint
manned by US-allied fighters, killing one and wounding four. A
deadly truck bombing in a Baghdad Shiite neighborhood killed at
least 65 people. A US spokesman believed the attack was carried out
by a Shiite special group led by Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi,
described as a "murderous thug" seeking to incite violence "for his
individual profit and gain."
(AP, 6/17/08)(AP, 6/18/08)(SFC, 6/19/08, p.A2)
2008 Jun 19, Iraqi troops
arrested Rafia Abdul-Jabbar, the top official in Amarah, a Muqtada
al-Sadr loyalist, drawing swift condemnations from followers of the
anti-US cleric as a military operation against Shiite militias got
under way. Iraqi troops arrested 11 people on the wanted list who
were believed be members of armed groups and seized an unspecified
number of weapons during overnight raids in Basra. US troops
captured six suspected insurgents, including a wanted man believed
to have ties to local al-Qaida in Iraq leaders. 15 others were
captured during operations targeting al-Qaida elsewhere in northern
Iraq.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Iraq hundreds
of followers of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets
after prayers in Shiite areas to protest plans for a long term
security pact between Iraq and the US.
(AP, 6/20/08)
2008 Jun 20, In Iraq hundreds
of followers of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets
after prayers in Shiite areas to protest plans for a long term
security pact between Iraq and the US. An American soldier was
killed and five others wounded by roadside bombs northeast of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/20/08)(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 21, In Iraq two Shiite
brothers, kidnapped just weeks after their family returned to a
mainly Sunni area outside Baqouba, were found shot to death.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jun 22, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber struck near a government compound in Baqouba, killing
at least 15 people and wounding 40. At least 21 suicide attacks have
been carried out this year by women. A roadside bomb apparently
targeting a police patrol struck a civilian car instead, killing
four people, including two women, near the northern city of Kirkuk.
A mortar attack in Udaim, 70 miles north of Baghdad, killed 10
members of a US-allied Sunni group that has joined forces with the
Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 6/22/08)(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 23, In Iraq a gunman
opened fire on US soldiers attending a municipal council meeting in
Madain, southeast of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding three
soldiers. An interpreter was also killed.
(AP, 6/23/08)(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, A bomb struck a
municipal council building in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City district,
killing four Americans, including two soldiers and two US government
civilian employees. At least six Iraqi civilians also died. US
troops captured a suspect who tested positive for explosive residue
after fleeing the scene. Gunmen killed the head of the local council
in Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the mainly Sunni area of Dora in
southern Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers and
an interpreter north of Baghdad. Abu Khalaf, Al-Qaida in Iraq's top
leader in Mosul, was killed along with two other extremists in a
gunbattle.
(AP, 6/24/08)(AP, 6/25/08)(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 25, Iraqi police
reported 14 Shiite gunmen were arrested after fighting south of the
capital. US soldiers in Baghdad killed 3 alleged gunmen who had
reportedly fired on an American convoy that had stopped along the
side of the road just west of the city's airport. Hospital officials
identified the 3 people as a manager and 2 female bank employees. On
July 27 the US military acknowledged that soldiers had killed 3 law
abiding citizens. Outside Tikrit 6 people were killed in a farmhouse
that was destroyed by a US airstrike.
(AP, 6/25/08)(SFC, 6/26/08, p.A10)(SFC, 7/28/08,
p.A3)
2008 Jun 26, The Iraqi Football
Association said it has dissolved the national soccer team and
dismissed the Iraqi coach four days after the team's loss to Qatar
ended the country's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. A
suicide bomber struck inside a municipal building in Garma (Karma),
west of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people at a meeting of tribal
sheiks opposed to al-Qaida. The dead included the mayor and tribal
chief of the town as well as 3 US Marines. Another 18 people were
killed and about 60 wounded in a car bombing near a government
headquarters in Mosul. Judge Kamil al-Showaili, head of one of
Baghdad's two appeals courts, was assassinated by drive-by shooters
while traveling in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 6/26/08)(AFP, 6/26/08)(AP, 6/27/08)(SFC,
6/27/08, p.A3)
2008 Jun 27, A relative of
Iraq’s PM al-Maliki was killed in Hindiyah, about 12 miles east of
Karbala, in a raid conducted by 60 US soldiers supported by four
helicopters and a fighter jet. Karbala is one of 9 Iraqi provinces
where the US has handed over security to local officials.
(AP, 6/29/08)(SSFC, 6/29/08, p.A9)
2008 Jun 28, In Iraq 2
militants were killed in a gunfight in Sharqat, about 170 miles
north of Baghdad. One of the dead was identified as a wanted member
of a network that carries out bombings. A suspected militant was
killed in Kirkuk during a raid on a cell believed to have carried
out kidnappings. Gunmen killed the head of Basra's intelligence
department in a night time drive-by shooting in eastern Baghdad. The
US military detained a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq member in Udaim in
an operation that destroyed two structures rigged with explosives.
(AP, 6/28/08)(AP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 29, A truck bomb, in
Duluiyah 45 miles north of Baghdad, detonated by remote control
killing six policemen and a member of a local group of Sunni
volunteers who have turned against the insurgents. Awakening council
members opened fire on a would-be female suicide bomber, triggering
her explosives belt, as she approached their headquarters 25 miles
northeast of Baqouba. In separate violence near Baqouba, mortars
killed two women and a child 40 miles north of the city in al-Udaim.
(AP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 30, Iraq announced
that it was opening six major oil fields and two natural gas fields
to development by foreign firms.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jun 30, President Bush
signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the
$162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.
(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Iraq militants
killed seven people in a series of attacks in Iraq's eastern Diyala
province, and a local official said government crackdowns against
Sunni extremists elsewhere in the country were driving them back to
the area. Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy to Iraq, said it was
unlikely that the country would be able to hold provincial elections
by the beginning of October as planned because lawmakers had failed
to approve a new election law.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, Iraqi security
forces arrested two locally prominent supporters of radical Shiite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as part of their crackdown against Shiite
militias in the southern city of Amarah. Police said Abdul-Jabar
Wahid Humaidi, head of the provincial council in Maysan, where
Amarah is the capital, and Fadhil Niama, head of the council's
security committee, were suspected of supporting Shiite militias. A
string of mortar shells hit the residential area of al-Amil in
western Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding eight others. In
eastern Diyala province, US-allied Sunnis killed two al-Qaida
terrorists south of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, In Basra, Iraq,
gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated Sheik Salim al-Dirraji, an
official of Iraq's biggest Shiite party.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 5, The last major
remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of
concentrated natural uranium, reached a Canadian port to complete a
secret US operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad
and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. In Iraq one American soldier
died of a non-combat cause.
(AP, 7/6/08)(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Iraq a car bomb
in northern Baghdad killed six people and injured 14 others,
including three policemen. Ali Abdul Ridha al-Badri, the head of an
awakening council in Iskandariyah, and was killed by a bomb attached
to his car after meeting with US forces. A roadside bomb in Diyala
province killed a high-ranking member of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan along with 7 others. 2 civilians were killed in Baquba
when police clashed with members of the Awakening Councils.
(AP, 7/6/08)(SFC, 7/7/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 7, PM al-Maliki said
Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of understanding with the
US rather than trying to hammer through a formal agreement on the
presence of US forces. A roadside bomb near a dress shop in Baqouba
killed a woman and injured 14 others.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 8, Iraq's national
security adviser said his country will not accept any security deal
with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the
withdrawal of US-led forces.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 8 civilians in an attack on a military convoy in
Mosul. A bomb in Fallujah killed four police officers and one
civilian. A bomb killed a US soldier in Samarra. In total bombs and
bullets killed 20 Iraqis.
(AP, 7/9/08)(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Jul 10, Iraq's Oil
Ministry said that it is close to signing contracts to build two new
oil refineries in southern Iraq. Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan
became the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, In Iraq the US
military detained nine people suspected of involvement in the
al-Qaida in Iraq group in raids in Baghdad and the cities of Beiji
and Mosul.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 13, In Iraq gunmen
attacked a soccer game near Duluiya killing a police officer and a
Sunni Muslim allied with the US against al-Qaida. A roadside bomb in
Fallujah killed 4 police officers. A bomb hit a truck near Baquba.
The driver and his assistant died of their wounds at a nearby
hospital. Some 70 women graduated in the first Daughters of Iraq, a
group of female security volunteers.
(SFC, 7/14/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of army recruits at the Saad
military camp in Baqouba, where devastating attacks persist despite
security improvements elsewhere. At least 28 people died. In western
Mosul, a bomb near an Iraqi police station killed four Iraqi
civilians. Half an hour later, one Iraqi police officer and seven
civilians died in a suicide car bombing in the east of the city.
Three other bombs in Mosul wounded 15 people. The US military said
it had captured the Iranian-trained leader of an explosives cell in
Baghdad.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, Coalition forces
handed the Iraqi government control of a province south of Baghdad,
reflecting security improvements across the country. US and Polish
forces operated in the mostly Shiite province of Qadisiyah, the
tenth of 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi authority. A car bomb
killed at least 7 children and 11 other people in the northern city
of Tal Afar. 90 people also were injured in the blast at a popular
outdoor market. A car bomb killed two civilians in Mosul.
(AP, 7/16/08)
2008 Jul 17, Kuwait's official
news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to
Iraq for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Iraq two
suspected insurgents, linked to the June 26 suicide attack, were
captured in a near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080801/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq)
2008 Jul 19, Iraq's largest
Sunni Arab political bloc ended a nearly yearlong boycott of the
Shiite-led government in another step toward healing the sectarian
rifts that once brought almost daily bloodshed. In Baghdad British
PM Gordon Brown said plans are being made to scale back troops, but
refused to consider an "artificial timetable" for withdrawing
Britain's remaining 4,000 soldiers.
(AP, 7/19/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Iraq a new
airport opened in Najaf in what the prime minister said was a key
step in the reconstruction of a country devastated by war. The
government said an oil refinery in Iraq's western desert has resumed
production. American soldiers killed two armed relatives of a
provincial governor during a raid in Salahuddin province against
al-Qaida in Iraq. 2 private security contractors were killed in a
car bombing in Mosul. 8 Iraqis were injured in the blast.
(AP, 7/20/08)(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Barack Obama began
his first on-the-ground inspection of Iraq since launching his bid
for the White House, with US commanders ready to brief him on
progress in a war he long opposed and Iraqi leaders wanting more
details of his proposals for troop withdrawals. The US military in
Iraq arrested a suspected propaganda expert in Baghdad linked to a
militant group that receives training from Iran. Soran Mama Hama
(23), a reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot
and killed near Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 22, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks aimed
at strengthening economic ties between the two countries.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 23, Iraq's Kurdish
government has denounced a draft law paving the way for US-backed
provincial elections and urged the presidential council to reject
it. The 18-year-old son of the chief editor of a US-sponsored
newspaper was shot to death as an American patrol passed nearby in
the northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 7/23/08)(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 23, Turkish warplanes
bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in the Zab region of northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, In northern
Baghdad gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on two different
awakening council checkpoints in the Azamiyah neighborhood killing
three of its guards and leaving another wounded. A female suicide
bomber blew herself up near US-allied Sunni Arab fighters walking in
a crowded area of Baqouba, killing at least eight of the guards and
wounding 24 other people.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 24, Iraq was told it's
not welcome to the Beijing Olympics because of a political feud in
Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that
arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Iraq gunmen
hiding in reeds in Madain, a Sunni town south of Baghdad, killed
seven Shiite pilgrims as they were marching to a shrine in the
capital for a major holiday.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 27, In Istanbul,
Turkey, bomb blasts killed 17 people in a crowded square in the
residential neighborhood of Gungoren. 5 of the dead were children.
Turkish warplanes bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets on Mount Qandil in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 28, In Iraq 3 female
suicide bombers blew their explosive vests in the middle of pilgrims
in Baghdad, moments after a roadside bomb attack, killing at least
32 people and wounding 102. In Kirkuk 25 people were killed and 185
wounded when a blast tore through a crowd of Kurds protesting a
draft provincial elections law. A roadside bomb attack killed four
civilians near Balad Ruz.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul 29, US and Iraqi
forces launched a new operation aimed at clearing al-Qaida in Iraq
from the volatile Diyala province, considered the last major
insurgent safe haven near the capital.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 29, The International
Olympic Committee agreed to allow Iraq to participate in the Beijing
games, reversing itself after Baghdad pledged to ensure the
independence of its national Olympics.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north, killing a group of
guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 30, Nearly 50,000
Iraqi police and soldiers were involved in a US-backed operation
against al-Qaida in Iraq in one of its last major strongholds near
the capital. A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in
eastern Baghdad, killing at least one Iraqi soldier and wounding
seven other people.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 31, In Iraq a
suicide car bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall
of a police station near the northern city of Mosul, killing three
policemen and wounding four. A judge died of wounds suffered in an
attack the day before in Mosul. Insurgents clashed with US-allied
Sunni Arab fighters and killed one of them near the village of
al-Waib, south of Baqouba.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul, Kadisiya became the
10th of 18 Iraqi provinces to come under Iraqi command.
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.48)
2008 Aug 1, In Iraq a roadside
bomb attack has killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded two others in
northern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 2, More than 1,000
Sunni Arabs and Turkomen staged a demonstration to protest calls by
Kurds to annex the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to their autonomous
region as Iraqi officials met in Baghdad to defuse tension over the
disputed city. The U.S. military said it has released more than
10,000 detainees in Iraq so far this year, more than in all of 2007,
as it continues to try phase out its running of Iraqi prisons. A
roadside bomb in Baghdad killed one member of the US-allied Sunni
fighters and wounded two others. An American soldier died and
another was injured in a vehicle accident southwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Iraq a truck
bomb exploded during rush hour on a busy street in northern Baghdad,
killing at least 12 people and wounding about two dozen. A roadside
bomb killed six people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded
13 others south of Baghdad. In Tarmiyah a clash between US-allied
fighters and civilians killed one civilian and wounded 10 others.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, Iraqi officials
reported that at least nine Iraqis died in a separate series of
bombings. 2 American soldiers were killed and one was wounded by a
roadside bomb in Baghdad that also killed 2 Iraqis.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, It was reported
that Muqtada al-Sadr planned to reorganize his Mahdi Army militia
into a social services organization. Gunmen killed Sheik Ibrahim
al-Karbouli, a senior leader of a US-allied Sunni group, and six of
his guards in an ambush in Youssifiyah. Police also discovered the
bodies of three awakening council members who were abducted several
days ago. Roadside bombings also killed another person and wounded a
dozen, in a second consecutive day of bombings in the capital.
(WSJ, 8/4/08, p.A1)(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, The US General
Accounting Office predicted Iraq could finish the year with as much
as a $79 billion cumulative budget surplus due to the influx of oil
revenues. The GAO estimated that Iraqi oil revenues from 2005
through the end of this year will amount to at least $156 billion.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Sheik Salah
al-Obeidi said Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will call on his
fighters to maintain a cease-fire against American troops but may
lift the order if a planned Iraq-US security agreement lacks a
timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. A roadside bomb
killed eight Bedouins, including three women and two children, on a
remote desert highway west of Nasiriyah frequently used by US and
Iraqi troops. Gunmen killed a senior member of the Sunni Iraqi
Islamic Party, Mahmoud Younis Fathi, and a colleague as they were
driving to work in the northern city of Mosul. Elsewhere in Mosul,
three Iraqi policemen were killed when a booby-trapped wooden cart
exploded after they arrived to collect a body that had been left on
the street beside it.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 8, Anti-US cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his followers to disarm but said he
will maintain an elite fighting unit to resist the Americans in
Iraq. Ashraf al-Yas (19) talked his way through a police checkpoint,
drove his vehicle into a crowded farmers market and detonated his
explosives. He killed 28 people and injured 72 in Tal Afar. A
roadside bombing in Baghdad killed an American soldier and wounded 2
others.
(AP, 8/8/08)(AP, 8/9/08)(SSFC, 8/10/08,
p.A19)(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 9, In Iraq a bodyguard
who works for Youth and Sports minister Jassim Mohammed Ja'afar was
gunned down outside his home near the city of Kirkuk. Unidentified
gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old woman outside her home in the
al-Maamoun district in Mosul.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 9, Georgia, the third
largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, said it's
pulling out its 2,000-strong contingent from Iraq to join the
fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2008 Aug 10, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the US must provide a "very clear
timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement
allowing them to stay beyond this year. A series of bombs struck
Iraqi security forces and commuters in the Baghdad area, killing at
least seven people and wounding 25 others. A female suicide bomber
killed a US soldier and at least four Iraqis in a complex attack in
Tarmiyah. An Iraqi police official said 17 Iraqis were killed in the
Tarmiyah attack, including 3 members of the Awakening Council.
(Reuters, 8/10/08)(AP, 8/10/08)(AP, 8/11/08)(SFC,
8/11/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 11, The Iraqi
government said it has halted military operations in Diyala province
for a week to give insurgents time to surrender. A female suicide
bomber (15) struck a market checkpoint in the provincial capital of
Baqouba, killing at least one policeman and wounding 14 other
people. Another bomb exploded in the Wijaihiyah area, about 12 miles
east of Baqouba, killing 5 Iraqi women. A bomb stuck under a car
exploded in eastern Baghdad, killing the driver and wounding two
other people.
(AP, 8/11/08)(SFC, 8/12/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 12, A male suicide
bomber, dressed as a woman, struck an Iraqi army convoy carrying
senior officials in Baqouba, killing at least two people. US
soldiers over the last 24 hours captured nine suspected militants
linked to what the military called an Iranian-backed group known as
the Hezbollah Brigades in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/12/08)(SFC, 8/13/08, p.A6)
2008 Aug 13, A suicide truck
bomber targeted the mayor of a town near the oil-rich city of
Kirkuk, while another car bomb struck civilians elsewhere in
northern Iraq. A bomb in a parked car struck a local market in the
Qayara area south of the northern city of Mosul, killing at least
two people and wounding five.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, In Iraq 2 roadside
bombs went off in separate Baghdad locations, killing one policeman
and wounding 17 people, including 14 Shiite pilgrims headed on foot
to the holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival. Gunmen
shot dead an off-duty policeman and army soldier in separate
incidents in the northern city of Mosul. A female suicide bomber
blew herself up in Iskandariyah. The US military said 18 people were
killed in the attack, but Iraqi police in the area gave a higher
death toll of 26.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 14, A senior US
military intelligence officer said Iraqi Shiite assassination teams
are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's
elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return
to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as
well as US and Iraqi troops.
(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 15, Iraqi security
forces began taking over checkpoints near the Iranian border
previously manned by Georgian troops before they redeployed home
following recent fighting with Russia. A roadside bomb struck a
minibus beginning the trip in eastern Baghdad morning, killing at
least one passenger and wounding 10 others. A passenger van packed
with explosives blew up at a bus station in Balad, north of Baghdad.
9 people were killed and 40 wounded.
(AP, 8/15/08)(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded as Shiite pilgrims were boarding minibuses in Baghdad,
killing at least 3 people, in a third straight day of attacks on
travelers heading to a religious ceremony in Karbala. Iraqi police
and hospital employees said six people were killed and 11 injured.
The US military put the toll at three dead and eight injured.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 17, In Iraq Farooq
al-Obeidi, deputy head of a group of US-allied Sunni fighters, was
killed by a suicide bomber, dressed in a woman’s robe, along with at
least 9 other people in the Azamiyah neighborhood of northern
Baghdad.
(SFC, 8/18/08, p.A6)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 18, In southern Iraq
masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying electoral officials south of
Basra, killing two and seriously wounding a third. A suicide bombing
killed 7 policemen in Ramadi.
(AP, 8/18/08)(WSJ, 8/19/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 19, Iraqi troops
raided local government offices in the volatile Diyala province,
arresting two people, including a university president. They then
advanced to the provincial governor's office where exchanged fire
with the government forces, prompting a gunfight that killed the
governor's secretary, Abbas al-Tamimi, and injured four guards.
Iraqi troops detained the son of a prominent Sunni leader during a
raid in Baghdad.
(AP, 8/19/08)(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 21, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
said they agree that timetables should be set for the withdrawal of
US troops. A key part of the US-Iraqi draft agreement envisions the
withdrawal of American forces from Iraq's cities by next June 30.
The US military released an Iraqi television cameraman for the
Reuters news agency and other news organizations without charges
after 26 days in detention.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Supporters of
Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Iraqi troops have raided an
al-Sadr stronghold, killing one of his guards and arresting another.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, The US military
released Ahmed Nouri Raziak (38), a cameraman for Associated Press
Television News, without charges after detaining him for nearly
three months. Gunmen in Basra killed Haider al-Saymari (38), a
Shiite cleric and outspoken critic of sectarian militias, in an
ambush on a car that also carried his wife, mother and sister, who
were not harmed.
(AP, 8/23/08)(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 24, In Baghdad,
back-to-back roadside bombs targeting a police patrol killed three
Iraqi civilians and wounded 20, including six police officers. A
bomb in a pile of hay killed 3 farmers southeast of Baghdad. Three
separate attacks in Diyala province killed 9 people. A suicide
bomber struck west of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people. A teenage
Iraqi girl wearing a vest packed with explosives turned herself in
rather than go through with a suicide bombing in a violence-torn
city north of Baghdad. The US military announced the arrest of Salim
Abdallah Ashur Shujayri (aka Abu Uthman), a Baghdad leader of
al-Qaida in Iraq believed to have planned the 2006 abduction of US
journalist Jill Carroll.
(AP, 8/24/08)(Reuters, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/25/08,
p.A8)
2008 Aug 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber attacked police recruits in Jalula in Diyala province killing
28 people and wounding 25. A bomb planted in a parked car killed 5
people and wounded 8, including three policemen, in the city of
Tikrit.
(AP, 8/26/08)(SFC, 8/27/08, p.A7)
2008 Aug 27, American forces
arrested Ali al-Lami, a top Iraqi Shiite government official, as he
stepped off a plane at Baghdad's airport. The US said the man
arrested was a leader of Iranian-backed militias and was behind a
bombing that killed 10 people on June 24, including four Americans.
An American soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bombing a
day earlier in northeast Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 27, China and Iraq
signed a $3 billion deal revising a prewar agreement for China's
biggest oil company to help develop the Ahdab oil field. On Sep 2
Iraq’s Cabinet approved the deal with China National Petroleum Corp.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 9/2/08)
2008 Aug 28, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr released a statement saying his largely disbanded
Mahdi Army militia would extend its cease-fire "until further
notice." An American soldier died of wounds he received after coming
under fire while patrolling northern Baghdad a day earlier.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 29, A gunmen killed a
member of a local US-allied Sunni group and his family in the
village of Withah, Diyala province. His father, mother and an infant
were also killed in the attack, which was in coordination with an
assault on a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint that wounded one Iraqi
soldier.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, The US military
said more than 11,000 Iraqis have been released from American
detention centers this year, leaving some 19,700 still in custody.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Sep 1, The US military
handed over control of once brutally violent Anbar province to Iraqi
forces, marking a major milestone in America's plan to eventually
send its troops home.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 1, Most of the Muslim
Mideast began the first day of Ramadan, but Iraqi Shiites, some
Lebanese Shiites and Iran will start observing the holy month of
fasting on Sep 2.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 2, Iraq’s Cabinet
approved an oil deal, signed August 27, with China National
Petroleum Corp. An American soldier died of non-combat related
causes in Baghdad. Ibrahim Jassam, an Iraqi freelance photographer
working for Reuters, was detained during a raid on his home in the
town of Mahmoudiya. A US military spokesman said Jassam was detained
because he was "assessed to be a threat" to Iraq and coalition
forces. Jassam was released after 17 months in detention.
(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 9/3/08)(AP, 2/10/10)
2008 Sep 3, A friendly fire
shootout between Iraqi security forces and American soldiers killed
six Iraqis in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad.
(AP, 9/3/08)
2008 Sep 4, The US military
arrested an Iraqi cameraman and three of his family members during a
raid on their home in Baghdad. Omar Husham (28) was arrested in the
predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 5, The Iraqi
government reacted sharply to published allegations that the US
spied on Iraq's PM Maliki, warning that future ties with the United
States could be in jeopardy if the report were true. An explosion in
the western Baghdad neighborhood of Mansour killed six bodyguards of
ex-Iraqi deputy prime minister and former Pentagon favorite, Ahmad
Chalabi, who escaped the suicide car bomb attack on his convoy.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 6, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber blasted an outdoor market in northern Tal Afar city,
killing six people and wounding 54. Kurdish security forces raided a
house in Irbil province, killed a suspected member of an al-Qaida
front group and captured a 17-year-old girl wearing an explosives
vest.
(AP, 9/6/08)
2008 Sep 9, The Iraqi oil
ministry said Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed
to a gas joint venture with Iraq worth up to four billion dollars,
becoming the first Western oil major to gain access to the
violence-wracked country's vast energy reserves.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 10, Two bombs exploded
an hour apart in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least
two people and wounding 15 others, including women and children.
Health officials said cholera has killed two people in a province
south of Baghdad, indicating that water quality and sanitation
remain poor in a country that has endured years of war.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 11, Japan said it was
ending an air mission in Iraq, wrapping up a military deployment
which was historic for the pacifist nation but deeply unpopular
among the public.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 13, Bombs and
shootings killed at least 16 people in Iraq, including four
employees of an Iraqi television station. They were abducted in
Mosul while filming a program about the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan. At night in western Baghdad a bomb exploded in the car of
Fuad Ali Hussein, killing him and his deputy and two bodyguards.
Hussein was head of a neighborhood awakening council.
(AP, 9/13/08)(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 14, Roadside bombs
killed five Iraqi policemen and injured eight others north of
Baghdad. An American soldier in Iraq died of causes unrelated to
combat.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 15, A suicide bomber
blew herself up among police officers who were celebrating the
release of a comrade from US custody, killing at least 22 people.
Separate bombings in Iraq killed 13 other people. A member of
a Sunni group allied with US forces was killed by a bomb stuck to
his car in a mainly Sunni neighborhood in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 9/15/08)(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, In Iraq a bicycle
laden with explosives exploded near a military truck in a market
north of Baghdad, killing 2 civilians and wounding 19. Gen. Ray
Odierno took over as the top American commander of the Iraq
conflict.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 18, In Iraq an
explosives-laden car parked at a bus station in the southern city of
Nasiriyah killed two people and wounded one. 7 American soldiers
were killed in southern Iraq when their helicopter crashed as it was
flying into the country from Kuwait.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 19, Seven Iraqis were
killed in a raid by American troops backed by attack aircraft
targeting al-Qaida in Iraq. Those killed in the Sunni town of Adwar
included four suspected insurgents and three women. Iraqi officials
and neighbors said the family had no connection to the insurgency.
Gunmen killed Sheik Oday Ali Abbas al-Ajrish, a cleric loyal to US
foe Muqtada al-Sadr, in the southern city of Basra.
(AP, 9/19/08)(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 19, South Korea said
it will completely withdraw its remaining troops from Iraq by
December, ending five years of military deployment.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 21, Iraqi interior
ministry Brig. Adel Abbas was injured along with his driver in a
drive-by shooting in western Baghdad. Earlier reports said he had
been killed. A finance ministry director was seriously wounded when
a bomb exploded in his car, also in western Baghdad. An American
soldier was killed when his patrol came under small-arms fire in
Baghdad. Suicide truck bombings in Mosul and Kirkuk killed 6 people
including police or police cadets.
(AP, 9/21/08)(AP, 9/22/08)(SFC, 9/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 22, Iraq and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC signed a deal to establish a joint venture that will
tap natural gas in southern Iraq. A mortar round apparently aimed at
an Iraqi military base missed its target and slammed into a house in
northwestern Baghdad, killing one man and wounding four others. A
car bomb struck a mainly Shiite area in central Baghdad. Police said
two men and a woman were killed and seven people wounded. In Mosul a
bomb hidden under trash killed at least 5 children playing soccer.
(AP, 9/22/08)(SFC, 9/23/08, p.A10)
2008 Sep 23, Two bombs
apparently targeting Iraqi security forces struck different areas in
Baghdad, killing at least one civilian and wounding seven others. US
soldiers accidentally killed Jassim al-Garrout, a US-allied Sunni
group leader in Siniyah.
(AP, 9/23/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A9)
2008 Sep 24, Iraq's parliament
overwhelmingly approved a provincial elections law, overcoming
months of deadlock and giving a boost to US-backed national
reconciliation efforts. An ambush against Iraqi forces raiding
Othmaniyah, a Sunni village northeast of Baghdad killed 35, most of
them commandos sent to the area as part of a US-backed military
crackdown. A suicide bomber killed a US soldier in Diyala province.
(AP, 9/24/08)(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 25, Iraq's Health
Ministry reported that a total of 327 cholera cases had been
confirmed in central and southern Iraq since an outbreak of the
disease last month. A roadside bomb killed an American soldier south
of Baghdad.
(AP, 9/25/08)(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 27, Iraqi police
fatally shot Riya Qahtan, a Kurdish politician, in Diyala province,
a killing that underlines the growing tensions between Kurds and
Arabs in parts of the north. The US military arrested five
Iranian-backed Shiite extremists, in 3 separate locations in eastern
Baghdad. accused in recent rocket attacks on Iraqi and American
forces. The extremists were suspected of links to the Hezbollah
Brigades, a Shiite extremist group that the US believes is backed by
Iran.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Iraq 3
explosions in Baghdad killed at least 31 people.
(SFC, 9/29/08, p.A19)
2008 Sep 30, An American
soldier was killed by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad, one of
only eight US deaths during fighting in September. At least 159
Iraqi police, soldiers and Sunni armed guards who have joined forces
with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq were killed in
September. At least 503 Iraqis were killed in September, a more than
50 percent drop compared with 1,023 reported last September.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 1, The Iraqi
government took responsibility for paying some 54,000 members of
Sunni Arab groups fighting al-Qaeda. A bombing in a car parked
outside a kebab restaurant in the mostly Shiite commercial district
of Karradah in central Baghdad killed at least three people.
(AP, 10/1/08)(WSJ, 10/2/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 2, Suicide bombers
targeted Shiite worshippers as they left morning prayers at two
Baghdad mosques, killing 24 people and injuring 50 others. Gunmen
fatally shot six Sunnis as they traveled in a minibus in the mainly
Shiite town of Wajihiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad. A suicide
bomber in western Baghdad wounded four American soldiers and 2
Iraqis.
(AP, 10/2/08)(WSJ, 10/3/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 3, Iraq's presidential
council officially approved a law that paves the way for US-backed
provincial elections to be held by the end of January. Iraq's
parliament had approved the law unanimously on Sept. 24 following
months of deadlock centering on a Kurdish-Arab dispute over the city
of Kirkuk. Kurdish legislators agreed to the latest proposal after
all sides accepted a UN compromise to put off the vote in Tamim
province, which includes Kirkuk, and form a committee to recommend
separate legislation for elections there by March 31. The US
military killed Mahir Ahmad Mahmud al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu
Assad or Abu Rami, an al-Qaida in Iraq leader. He was suspected of
masterminding the Oct 2 attacks in Baghdad as well as recent
bombings and the 2006 videotaped execution of a Russian official.
American troops also killed the man's wife in a firefight as they
tried to capture him in the northern neighborhood of Azamiyah in
Baghdad.
(AP, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/4/08)
2008 Oct 4, A ceremony in
Diwaniyah marked the departure of Polish troops from Iraq. Poland
sent combat troops into Iraq as part of the US-led coalition and had
2,500 troops deployed there at its peak. The last 900 were being
pulled out this month. Two US helicopters collided while landing at
a base in Baghdad. One Iraqi soldier was killed.
(AP, 10/4/08)(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 5, Ahmed Abul Gheit,
the first Egyptian foreign minister to visit Iraq in nearly two
decades, arrived in Baghdad and promised to help Iraq face its
challenges. 11 people, including women and children, were killed
after US forces came under attack by gunfire and a suicide bomber
during a raid in Mosul. There were no casualties among American
forces. Elsewhere in the northern city, gunmen opened fire on
mourners in a funeral tent, killing 5 people and wounding 7 others.
American troops acting on a tip killed Abu Qaswarah (also known as
Abu Sara), the No. 2 leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid in the
northern city of Mosul. The Moroccan was known for his ability to
recruit and motivate foreign fighters.
(AP, 10/5/08)(SFC, 10/6/08, p.A3)(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 7, In Iraq an American
soldier was fatally shot by an al-Qaida in Iraq extremist in Mosul.
An Iraqi policeman was also killed in the fighting.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 8, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest in Baqouba, the
provincial capital of Diyala province, killing 10 people and
wounding 21. A man accompanying the woman failed to detonate his
explosives vest and was arrested at the scene.
(AP, 10/8/08)(SFC, 10/9/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 9, Saleh al-Auqaeili,
an Iraqi lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr,
was killed when a bomb struck his convoy in Baghdad. At least one
bystander was also killed in the bombing.
(AP, 10/9/08)
2008 Oct 10, In Iraq Diyar
Abbas Ahmed (28), a Kurdish journalist, was gunned down in Kirkuk. A
New York-based journalists' group said it was the 136th killing of a
reporter since the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago. A car
bomb exploded in a market in southern Baghdad killing at least 14
people. Bombings and shooting around the country killed 24 people.
(AP, 10/11/08)(SFC, 10/11/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 12, In Iraq Qassim
al-Aboudi, the spokesman for the election commission, said there's
not enough time to organize a ballot this year but that it will take
place soon after the New Year. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the
Yarmouk district of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in a commercial
street of southwestern Baghdad, killing 7 people and wounding 9
others. Another car bomb in Mosul killed 6 people. A Christian music
store owner was shot to death in Mosul, the latest in a series of
killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious
minority to flee the city. Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in
Christian areas of Mosul as thousands of members of the minority
group fled the worst violence against them in 5 years. A spate of
attacks on Christians in Mosul since September 28 had killed at
least 11 people.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)(SFC,
10/13/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 13, Iraq's oil
minister met 34 oil company representatives in London to set out the
ground rules for foreign multinationals' first bite at the country's
enormous energy reserves since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 15, Baghdad and
Washington reached final agreement on a pact requiring US forces to
withdraw from Iraq by 2012. The agreement, reached after months of
difficult negotiations, would allow US troops to remain here after
their UN mandate expires Dec. 31. The US military detained 2
suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's
leadership in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier died of
noncombat causes.
(WSJ, 10/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/16/08)(AP,
10/17/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, A heavy sandstorm
turned Iraq's capital into a pinkish haze, sending dozens of people
to the hospital with respiratory problems and delaying a number of
international flights. The US military detained 2 more suspected
insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq's leadership in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul. A US soldier was killed in Diyala
province.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 16, The International
Committee of the Red Cross said Iran and Iraq have signed an
agreement to trace missing persons from the war between the two
countries. About 1 million people died in the eight-year war that
began when Saddam Hussein launched an attack on Iran in 1980.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 17, A bomb planted
near a Baghdad mosque killed three Shiite worshippers as they were
leaving prayers. Iraqi mosques used the Muslim week's holy day to
address recent attacks against Christians.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 18, Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraq's parliament to reject a US-Iraqi
security pact as tens of thousands of his followers rallied in
Baghdad against the deal. Abdul-Hadi al-Janabi, the leader of
a US-allied Sunni group that turned against al-Qaida, was killed in
a drive-by shooting south of Baghdad. Masked gunmen attacked the
home of a US-allied Sunni group in Balad, north of Baghdad, killing
5 people.
(AP, 10/18/08)(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.A22)
2008 Oct 19, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki's ruling Shiite alliance said that parts of the draft
security agreement that would keep US troops here for three more
years needs more discussion and amendments before it can be
approved. A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed
two people and wounded 10 in southeastern Baghdad. A second roadside
bomb in the same neighborhood blew up shortly afterward, wounding
three other policemen traveling in car and four civilians in another
vehicle. A US Marine died in a non-combat incident at Asad Air Base
in the west of Iraq.
(AP, 10/19/08)(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 20, The United States
and Iraq announced a $14 million program to set up a conservation
and historic preservation institute, refurbish the National Museum
in Baghdad and enhance the training of museum and archaeological
professionals in Iraq. An Iraqi policeman was arrested for allegedly
using police vehicles to smuggle weapons to Baghdad. Bombs struck a
double-decker bus and a taxi in eastern Baghdad, killing four
people.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Iraq's Cabinet
decided to ask the Americans for unspecified changes in the draft
security pact. A bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in eastern
Baghdad, wounding two civilians.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 22, A car bomb
exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing four
civilians. Local government acknowledged it has yet to persuade
frightened Christians to return to the homes they fled. In Baghdad
three separate blasts killed a sick man being transported in an
ambulance and wounded 11 others. An influential Iraqi cleric living
in Iran issued a fatwa condemning a US-Iraqi security pact that
would keep American troops in Iraq for three more years and warned
Iraqi leaders not to back the deal.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 23, The US
relinquished control of a southern province that includes Sunni
areas once known as the "triangle of death," handing security
responsibility to the Iraqi government. Babil was the 12th of 18
Iraqi provinces to be placed under Iraqi control. In Baghdad Iraq's
labor minister escaped assassination when a suicide bomber rammed an
explosives-laden SUV into his convoy, killing at least nine people.
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, About 300 Shiites
rallied in the southern city of Basra against a security pact being
negotiated that allows US troops to stay in Iraq for three more
years. In Baghdad, bombs killed an Iraqi army brigadier general and
a soldier.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 27, In Iraq US forces
killed 5 assailants in the eastern district of New Baghdad. A
roadside bomb exploded later in the same district killing 3
civilians. A car bomb in Baghdad killed a doctor and his friend. A
car bomb in Tuz Khormato killed an Iraqi soldier.
(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)(SFC, 10/28/08, p.A8)
2008 Oct 28, In Iraq 4 police
officers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of
Mosul and three civilians were killed in a separate Baghdad bombing.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Turkey's warplanes
and artillery struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 29, In Iraq the US
military handed over security responsibilities for the southern
province of Wasit to Iraqi authorities. A new commuter rail was
launched that travels 15 miles through Sunni and Shiite
neighborhoods in the heart of Baghdad. At least 8 people were killed
and wounded dozens in separate attacks. A bombing in eastern Baghdad
killed six people.
(AP, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 29, The UN panel
overseeing compensation for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of
Kuwait said it has paid a $888.6 million (709.4 million euros)
installment from Iraqi oil funds to cover losses and damages
suffered by governments and private companies.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, An Iraqi
opposition lawmaker claimed that thousands of his countrymen are
being mistreated in detention centers outside the official prison
system. A car bomb exploded near a market in north Baghdad, killing
one person and wounding five.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 1, In Iraq a police
quick reaction force for Anbar province moved to the border town of
Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad, to prevent al-Qaida from
moving into the area from Syria. Unknown assailants gunned down a
policeman on a foot patrol along Palestine Street in Shiite eastern
Baghdad.
(AP, 11/1/08)
2008 Nov 3, In Iraq PM Nouri
al-Maliki pledged to protect Iraq's Christian minority, which has
faced a spate of attacks this month in the northern city of Mosul.
Parliament approved legislation restoring guaranteed seats on
provincial councils to Christians and other small religious
communities, the last major hurdle to holding provincial elections
next year. A string of bombings in Baghdad and Baqouba killed nine
people and wounded at least 33 others.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 4, In Iraq bombs
exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing at
least 15 people and wounding 29 others. One person died when a
roadside bomb targeted the convoy of a Shiite government official
and former member of the Iraqi Governing Council in central Baghdad.
In Mosul a suicide bomber rammed his car into a passing police
patrol, injuring four officers. One civilian died on the scene of a
road accident with coalition troops near the city of Tikrit. A
second Iraqi died after being rushed to an aid station.
(AP, 11/4/08)(SFC, 11/5/08, p.A17)
2008 Nov 5, In Iraq a suicide
bomber rammed his car into a police patrol on the road to Baghdad’s
airport, killing 6 people. In Amara a police officer died from a
roadside bomb.
(SFC, 11/6/08, p.A2)
2008 Nov 6, A series of bomb
blasts across Baghdad killed six people and injured more than 20
others, in the fourth consecutive day of heightened violence in the
Iraqi capital. The al-Qaida leader, known as Abu Ghazwan, was killed
during a raid on a weapons cache. An American soldier has died of
noncombat related causes.
(AP, 11/6/08)(AP, 11/7/08)(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 6, Romania's defense
minister says the country's 501 peacekeepers in Iraq will all leave
by the end of the year.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 8, PM Nouri al-Maliki
called for changes to the Iraqi constitution to give more power to
the central government, especially in security and other key fields.
Kurdish politicians promptly dismissed al-Maliki's proposals,
defending their regional rule. Iraq's presidential council signed
off on legislation giving Christians and other religious minorities
fewer guaranteed seats on provincial councils than the UN and some
political groups had recommended. A suicide bomber slammed his car
into a police checkpoint, killing eight civilians and wounding 17
policemen on a highway near Ramadi.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 9, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up at a hospital west of Baghdad,
killing three people and injuring five others. 2 women and a
10-year-old girl were killed in the attack in Amiriyat al-Fallujah
near Fallujah. A roadside bomb in Mosul killed 3 Iraqi soldiers and
wounded 4 others. A bomb attached to a bike in Khalis killed at
least 2 people.
(AP, 11/9/08)(SFC, 11/10/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck in a crowd gathered at the site of an explosion that
moments earlier had damaged a bus filled with schoolgirls. Both
blasts killed 31 people and wounding 71 others. A female suicide
bomber attacked a security checkpoint in Baqouba, killing five
people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaida.
(AP, 11/10/08)(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 10, Iraq and China
signed the final agreement on a $3 billion deal to develop the Ahdab
oil field south of Baghdad over a 22 year-period.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 11, The Imams Bridge
in north Baghdad reopened. It had closed 3 years ago after a
stampede during a Shiite procession killed almost 1,000 people. A
pair of roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in east Baghdad
during the morning rush hour, killing 3 people and wounding 14
others. An Internet monitoring service said 10 Iraqi insurgent
groups have agreed to escalate attacks against US and Iraqi forces
to derail the proposed US-Iraqi security agreement. Hajji Hammadi, a
leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed. He was blamed in the April,
2004, abduction and murder of Army reservist Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin
of Batavia, Ohio.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/12/08)(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Iraq a series
of bombings shook Baghdad for the third straight day, killing at
least 11 people and wounding about 60. In Mosul unidentified gunmen
killed two sisters from a Christian family as they were waiting in
front of their house for a ride to work. Barzan Mohammed Abdullah,
an Iraqi soldier, opened fire on US troops after a quarrel broke out
in Mosul, killing two American soldiers and wounding six in a
military compound before he was shot to death.
(AP, 11/12/08)(SFC, 11/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 13, An American
soldier died of a noncombat cause in western Iraq. A civilian cargo
aircraft crashed in the desert south of Fallujah.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, Azerbaijan
lawmakers voted 86-1 to back President Ilham Aliev's request to
withdraw the 150 troops serving as part of the US-led coalition in
Iraq.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, Iraq's national
security advisor said all British troops will be out of Iraq by the
end of next year.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 15, A senior aide to
PM Nouri al-Maliki said US and Iraqi negotiators have agreed on a
draft of a security pact that would allow American troops to stay in
Iraq for three more years after their UN mandate expires Dec. 31. A
suicide car bomber struck a commercial district in the northern city
of Tal Afar, killing 10 people and wounding 20. In Baghdad a car
bomb parked near the National Theater exploded in the mainly Shiite
district of Karradah, killing at least five people and wounding 23.
An American Marine died from wounds suffered in a roadside bombing
west of Baghdad a day earlier.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 16, Iraq's Cabinet
approved a security pact with the United States that will allow
American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their UN
mandate expires at the end of the year. 7 people died and 7 others
were wounded in a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in
Diyala province. A roadside bomb in a Sunni enclave of Baghdad
killed three people and wounded 7 at a checkpoint belonging to
US-backed fighters. The US military said Iraq's Shiite-dominated
government is making good on promises to pay thousands of US-backed
Sunni fighters in Baghdad, despite some government unease over the
alliance.
(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 17, Baghdad Mayor
Sabir al-Issawi said in statement that Iraq's Cabinet has earmarked
$3 billion for a Baghdad subway project.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. Iraq's top Shiite cleric, said that the US-Iraqi
security pact would only be viable if the country's main political
groups backed it and it restored the country's full sovereignty.
Iraqi lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disrupted a
parliamentary debate ahead of a Nov. 24 vote on a US-Iraqi security
agreement that would keep American troops in Iraq for three more
years. An alleged senior member of Iran's elite security forces
suspected of funneling arms into Iraq was detained by Iraqi police
at Baghdad International Airport while he was trying to leave the
country. The man was released on Nov 21.
(AP, 11/18/08)(AP, 11/19/08)(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 20, Iraqi opposition
lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest in a second day
of emotional debate in parliament over a proposed agreement with the
US that would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more
years. An American soldier died of non-combat-related causes.
(AP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, In Iraq thousands
of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed
US-Iraqi security deal, burning an effigy of President George W.
Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein
statue five years ago.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 23, Baghdad
authorities killed more than 200 stray dogs, the opening day of a
campaign to cull dog packs roaming the capital that was prompted by
a spate of fatal attacks on residents. According to Baghdad's
provincial council 13 people died in August alone in the capital
after being attacked by dogs.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up near an entrance to the US-protected
Green Zone killing 7 people. A bomb tore through a minibus carrying
Iraqi government employees and killed at least 13 people, most of
them women. Three more people were killed in bomb attacks on police
patrols in Baghdad and Baqouba. An American soldier died of
noncombat-related causes in Diyala province.
(AP, 11/24/08)(AP, 11/25/08)(SFC, 11/25/08,
p.A13)
2008 Nov 24, Adel Hussein was
sentenced six months in jail by a court in Irbil, capital of the
Kurdish-ruled region, for violating a public decency law by writing
a story about homosexuality. The case centered on an April 2007
article Hussein wrote for the independent weekly Hawlati that
detailed the physical effects of homosexual sex.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Nov 25, In northern
Iraq 2 American servicemen were killed when a gunman in an Iraqi
army uniform opened fire while they were distributing humanitarian
aid.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 26, In Iraq intense
deal making among political factions delayed by one day a
parliamentary vote on a security pact that would allow American
forces to stay in the country through 2011 under tight Iraqi
supervision. A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded four
in central Baghdad. 18 young women, purportedly belonging to a
suicide bombing network in northern Iraq, surrendered and signed a
form promising not to conduct attacks as part of a reconciliation
program.
(AP, 11/26/08)(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 27, Iraq's parliament
approved a security pact with the United States that lets American
troops stay in the country for three more years, setting a clear
timetable for a US exit for the first time since the 2003 invasion.
Under the security pact, US forces will withdraw from Iraqi towns
and cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012.
(AP, 11/27/08)(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up among worshippers waiting to be searched
outside a mosque run by followers of anti-American Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least 12 people.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 28, Japan announced it
would end its airlift operations in Iraq by the end of the year,
citing security improvements and moves toward democracy in Iraq.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Iraq a rocket
attack in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone killed 2 people. In Diyala
province Mayor Sayid al-Anbaki of Salam district announced the
discovery of 7 mass graves in the village of Botoama. Al-Qaida in
Iraq had dominated the region in 2006-2007.
(SSFC, 11/30/08, p.A19)
2008 Nov 30, Iraqi and Iranian
troops exchanged the remains of soldiers killed during the 1980-1988
war between the two countries. It was the first such handover since
the two signed an agreement in October to work together in tracing
thousands still missing after the war.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, A series of suicide
bomb attacks struck US and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and the
northern city of Mosul, killing at least 32 people and wounding
dozens.
(AP, 12/1/08)(SFC, 12/2/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 2, A special Iraqi
court sentenced Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin, "Chemical Ali"
Hassan al-Majid, to death after convicting him of crimes against
humanity for his part in crushing the 1991 Shiite uprising in
southern Iraq. A series of bombs in northern and southern Iraq
killed at least 14 Iraqis.
(AP, 12/2/08)(SFC, 12/3/08, p.A17)
2008 Dec 3, In Iraq a sticky
bomb attached to a minibus carrying Education Ministry employees
exploded, killing at least one civilian and wounding five others in
eastern Baghdad. Another such bomb attached to a car exploded near
the entrance of the heavily fortified Green Zone, wounding the
driver, an Iraqi contractor working with US forces.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 4, Iraq's presidential
council approved a security pact that sets out a three-year
timeframe for US troops to leave, the final step for the agreement
to replace a UN mandate that expires Dec. 31. Two suicide bombers in
explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former
Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, killing at least 15 people
and wounding more than 100. A suicide car bomber killed two US
soldiers and wounded nine Iraqi civilians near a checkpoint in the
northern city of Mosul. A bomb in Baquba killed 3 people.
(AP, 12/4/08)(SFC, 12/5/08, p.A23)
2008 Dec 5, In Iraq three women
were killed in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad, when a bomb planted in a
radio exploded.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 6, A series of attacks
targeted Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and in the north, killing
at least six people, including a senior member of an anti-al-Qaida
group.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 7, In Iraq a bomb
hidden in an abandoned store exploded as the mayor of Baqouba was
leading a tour through the city center. The blast wounded the mayor,
Abdullah al-Hiali, and 34 other people. In northern Iraq Dr. Adel
Hussein, freelance journalist, was pardoned by Massoud Barzani, the
president of the self-ruled Kurdish region in the country's north.
He had been imprisoned for 13 days for violating a public decency
law by writing a story in 2007 about homosexuality. He was among 121
people pardoned by the president in advance of the Muslim
celebration of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 12/7/08)(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 8, The US military
captured four suspected members of a Shiite militant group in Iraq
allegedly trained and funded by Iran.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 11, In northern Iraq a
suicide bomber struck a crowded restaurant where Kurdish officials
were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing
ethnic tensions, killing at least 48 people and wounding nearly 100.
(AP, 12/11/08)(SFC, 12/12/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 14, Pres. George W.
Bush visited Baghdad just 37 days before he hands the war off to
President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. At the end
of nearly two hours of meetings, Bush defended the war, now in its
sixth year, as a reporter threw his shoes at him. The reporter was
later identified as Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for
Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Cairo,
Egypt. Bush then traveled to Afghanistan where he spoke to US
soldiers and Marines at a hangar on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base.
On March 12 shoe thrower was convicted of assaulting a foreign
leader and sentenced to 3 years in prison. On April 7 the sentence
was soon reduced to one year. In 2010 Muntadhar al-Zeidi published
his first book, entitled "The Last Salute to President Bush."
(AP, 12/14/08)(AP, 12/15/08)(AP, 3/12/09)(AP,
4/7/09)(AP, 12/14/10)
2008 Dec 14, It was reported
that a 513-page draft version of “Hard Lessons: The Iraq
Reconstruction Experience,” was circulating among technical
reviewers in Baghdad and Washington. It was compiled by the Office
of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction led by
Stuart Bowen, a Republican lawyer, and detailed the blunders of
reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
(SSFC, 12/14/08, p.A24)
2008 Dec 15, Thousands of
Iraqis took to the streets to demand the release of a reporter who
threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, as Arabs across many
parts of the Middle East hailed the journalist as a hero and praised
his insult as a proper send-off to the unpopular US president. A
suicide truck bomber killed at least five people at a checkpoint
west of Baghdad. A security official said three gunmen killed the
imam of a local Sunni mosque in Saadiya, Diyala province. US troops
killed three suspected insurgents and detained three others in
separate operations targeting al-Qaida networks in northern Iraq.
The US military handed over 39 detainees, described as former
members of Saddam Hussein's regime, to the government.
(AP, 12/15/08)(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 16, In Iraq Muntadhar
al-Zeidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W.
Bush, was handed over to the Iraqi judiciary, a move that signals
the start of criminal proceedings. 3 bombings in Baghdad and another
in Diyala province killed four people and wounded at least 30.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 17, British PM Gordon
Brown said his country's troops will leave Iraq by May 31, ending a
mission that provided the second-largest military presence in Iraq
after the United States. Police said a double-bombing in Baghdad
targeting traffic police left at least 18 people dead and 52 others
wounded. The US military reported nine killed and 43 wounded.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 17, Bulgaria's last
155 troops stationed in Iraq returned home. 13 Bulgarian soldiers
and six civilians have died in Iraq since 2003. Bulgaria also has
troops in international military missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo and
Bosnia.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 18, Iraqi officials
said that up to 25 people from the three major security ministries
have been arrested over the past week on accusations of conspiring
to restore the Baath party, whose exiled leaders staunchly oppose
the current government. On Dec 23 the police and security officials,
arrested on suspicion of forging identity cards and badges, were
released on bail. A police officer said gunmen stormed the Kirkuk
home of Nahla Hussein al-Shaly (37) and shot and beheaded her.
(AP, 12/18/08)(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Dec 18, Albania's Defense
Ministry said the country is pulling its 218 troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 12/18/08)
2008 Dec 24, The prime
ministers of Turkey and Iraq vowed to step up their cooperation in
the fight against Turkish Kurdish rebels whose presence in northern
Iraq has cast a shadow over relations.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, Iraq's Christians,
a scant minority in this overwhelmingly Muslim country, quietly
celebrated Christmas with a present from the government, which
declared it an official holiday for the first time. A bombing
outside a restaurant frequented by police killed four people and
wounded 25 others in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Shula. An
American soldier was killed in a rocket or mortar attack near the
northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 26, Three suspected
al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents broke out of jail during a riot that
killed six police officers and seven prisoners in the western city
of Ramadi.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 27, In Iraq a bomb
tore through a busy square in Baghdad at midday, killing at least 24
people and wounding 54. A suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fugitive was
killed in a gun battle with police in the western city of Ramadi. He
was one of four suspected al-Qaida in Iraq members who escaped
during a jailbreak and ensuing riot at a Ramadi police station a day
earlier that left six policemen and seven insurgents dead. An Iraqi
soldier and two other people were killed when a car bomb exploded as
they were trying to defuse it in Musayyib. Police in the northern
city of Kirkuk also arrested six suspected insurgents, including the
former driver of Hassan al-Majid — Saddam Hussein's cousin who is
also known as "Chemical Ali."
(AP, 12/27/08)(SSFC, 12/28/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber on a bicycle blew himself up amid a crowd of demonstrators in
Mosul, who were protesting Israel's airstrikes on Gaza. One
demonstrator was killed with 16 others wounded. A bomb exploded on
the outskirts of Fallujah, killing two civilians and wounding four
others. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier in Baghdad’s Sadr City.
(AP, 12/28/08)(SFC, 12/29/08, p.A12)
2008 Dec 30, Iraqi forces
arrested Arshad Abid Dayem, a leader of the "Soldiers of Heaven"
cult, along with 4 of his aides. The cult has carried out bloody
attacks during the Shiite Ashura holiday the past two years. Ashura
this year falls on Jan 7.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Iraq Oil
Minister Hussein al-Shahristani kicked off the country's second
postwar bidding round, naming 11 oil and gas fields or groups of
fields as eligible for development proposals. 8 people were killed
in four bombings in the north. At least 314 US soldiers died in
2008, down from 904 in 2007.
(AP, 12/31/08)(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph
E. Stiglitz authored “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost
of the Iraq Conflict.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.98)
2008 Patrick Cockburn authored
“Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for
Iraq.”
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.110)
2008 Ron Suskind authored “The
Way of the World,” in which he claimed that the White House in 2003
ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from Tahir
Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the head of Iraqi intelligence, to Saddam
Hussein.
(http://tinyurl.com/5tzhxl, 8/5/08)
2008 Abu Deraa, the nom de
guerre of Ismail al-Lami, fled Iraq to Iran. He was a military
leader of Sadr's Mahdi Army until he was disowned by the militia for
alleged atrocities during sectarian Shiite-Sunni conflicts that
peaked in 2006-2007.
(AFP, 8/10/11)
2009 Jan 1, The United States
handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein's
presidential palace to Iraqi authorities in a ceremonial move
described by the country's prime minister as a restoration of Iraq's
sovereignty. British forces handed over control of Basra airport,
its main military base in southern Iraq, to Iraqi officials in
accordance with an agreement signed with Baghdad this week. A
roadside bomb killed two Iraqi soldiers in the town of Jalula, 80
miles northeast of Baghdad. In Mosul a parked truck bomb killed
three police officers trying to search it and wounded a bystander.
In Kirkuk Iraqi and US troops killed three suspected al-Qaida gunmen
during a raid. American soldiers shot and wounded a woman after she
failed to heed warnings to stop near a Baghdad checkpoint recently
targeted by suicide and car bombs.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 2, In Iraq a suicide
bomber sneaked into a luncheon gathering called by the leader of a
local tribe in Youssifiyah, killing at least 23 people and wounding
110. Gunmen killed two people when they opened fire on a checkpoint
manned by members of the Sons of Iraq in Jurf al-Sakhar. Four other
people were reported wounded in the attack 40 miles south of
Baghdad.
(AP, 1/2/09)(SFC, 1/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 3, In Iraq two
brothers were killed and another was wounded when a bomb they were
concealing in their car exploded near the town of Sinjar, 75 miles
west of Mosul.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of pilgrims worshipping
at a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, killing at least 38
people and wounding about 72.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Iraq the US
inaugurated its largest embassy ever in the heart of the Green Zone,
officially opening the $700 million fortress-like compound that was
built as a testament to America's commitment to Iraq. Four bombs
exploded in different parts of Baghdad just before noon, killing
four people and wounding 19. Subhi Hassan, who handles political
relations for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and a bodyguard were
killed after unidentified gunmen chased down their car after it
passed through a checkpoint. US troops killed a civilian in a
vehicle after the driver failed to heed warnings to stop in Baqouba.
(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, In northern Iraq a
female suicide bomber allegedly planning to blow herself up among
Shiite pilgrims was arrested, as millions joined processions across
the country to honor the martyrdom of one of their most revered
saints.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Iraq 2
simultaneous roadside bombs tore through an Iraqi army patrol
responding to a mortar attack north of Baghdad, killing six Iraqi
soldiers. Two other Iraqi soldiers died in another blast near the
city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 9, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting worshippers on their way to pray at a Shiite mosque
in Baghdad killed three people.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 11, In Iraq US soldier
Pfc. Sean McCune died of a non-combat related injury near Samarra
north of Baghdad. Sgt. Miguel A. Vegaquinones later pleaded guilty
to involuntary manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of
McCune. Vegaquinones was sentenced in July to three years in jail
for the shooting. A US Marine died in a non-combat related incident
west of Baghdad.
(AP, 1/12/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 12, In Iraq a series
of bombs targeted Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. At least 10
people died as Vice President-elect Joe Biden arriving in Baghdad
following trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Iraq two people
were killed and two wounded in a suicide car bombing in the northern
city of Mosul.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Iraq's minister of
higher education escaped injury when a roadside bomb exploded near
his convoy in central Baghdad. A government security guard was
killed and four people were wounded in another blast. Iraqi police
arrested 13 suspected Sunni insurgents north of Baghdad, including
three senior members of an al-Qaida front group.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 16, In Iraq a Shiite
candidate for provincial elections was assassinated while
campaigning south of Baghdad, underscoring fears that political
rivalries will lead to a spike in violence ahead of a Jan. 31 vote.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 17, The US Department
of Defense announced that it transferred six detainees out of
Guantanamo, leaving about 245 at the offshore prison. Four detainees
were sent to Iraq, one to Algeria and one to Afghanistan. Since
2002, more than 525 detainees have departed Guantanamo. Haji
Bismullah (29) of Afghanistan had always insisted that he was no
terrorist.
(AP, 1/18/09)(SFC, 1/19/09, p.A4)
2009 Jan 20, In Iraq the
spokesman of PM al-Maliki said Iraq is willing to have the US
withdraw all its troops and assume security for the country before
the end of 2011, the departure date agreed to by former Pres. George
W. Bush. In Baghdad 2 bombings left 5 people dead.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A22)
2009 Jan 21, In Iraq a top
Sunni politician escaped assassination in a Baghdad car bombing that
killed at least 2 other people. Samira Ahmed Jassim (nickname Umm
al-Mumineen), a woman suspected of recruiting more than 80 female
suicide bombers, was arrested, dealing a major blow to one of the
most effective forms of attacks in Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A1)(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Jan 22, In Iraq gunmen
killed eight members of a Sunni family and kidnapped two others in a
tense area northeast of Baghdad where Shiite militiamen still
operate. A US soldier was killed in a non-combat vehicle accident.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Estonia said it
will end its nearly six-year military mission in Iraq after it
failed to agree with the Iraqi government on terms for its troop
deployment.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 23, Iraqi Foreign
Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Turkey, Iraq and the United States
have agreed to set up a joint command center in northern Iraq to
gather intelligence to fight Kurdish PKK rebels in the region.
(Reuters, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 23, Iraq's top
security official called a decision by his government to close Camp
Ashraf, housing some 3,500 members of an armed Iranian opposition
group north of Baghdad "irreversible," saying the Iraqi authorities
do not allow anti-Iran activities on their soil. Members of the
terrorist People's Mujahedeen, known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, will
either be deported to Iran or be given the option of going to a
third country. A bomb hidden inside a traffic police booth exploded
in western Baghdad, killing a 7-year-old boy and wounding his
mother.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 24, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber struck a police patrol in the former insurgent stronghold
of Karmah west of Baghdad, killing four people, including a senior
officer, and wounding six others. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint
south of the capital manned by government-backed Sunni fighters who
have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. Two
of the so-called Sons of Iraq were killed in the attack in Jurf
al-Sakr and two others were wounded. North of Baghdad a man and a
woman were killed and a child was wounded during a US-Iraqi military
operation in Hawija.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 26, In northern Iraq 2
US helicopters crashed in Tamim province, killing four American
troops, in the deadliest single incident for US forces in more than
four months. Enemy fire was later reported as the cause of the
collision.
(AP, 1/26/09)(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 27, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a Kurdish party's office in the northern city of
Mosul, killing at least three Iraqi soldiers only days before
pivotal elections. A Sunni insurgent group claimed responsibility
for downing two US helicopters that crashed a day earlier, killing
four US troops. The US military denied the claim.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 28, In Iraq special
voting began for those needed on duty for Jan 31 elections, such as
security forces and government officials. Iraqis held in detention
also were expected to take part in the early voting.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's former
prime minister Shinzo Abe signed a partnership accord with Iraq, on
a rare visit to the country for a senior leader of the close US
ally.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, Iraq said it will
bar Blackwater Worldwide from providing security protection for US
diplomats because its contractors used excessive force, sanctioning
a company whose image was irrevocably tarnished by the 2007 killings
of 17 Iraqi civilians. Hazim Salim al-Zaidi (51), former Iraqi army
officer in Mosul, was among three Sunni candidates killed two days
ahead of elections. One of the other Sunnis was killed in a drive-by
shooting in western Baghdad. The third was abducted along with his
brother and cousin in the Diyala province town of Mandali near the
Iranian border. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found later in the
day.
(AP, 1/29/09)(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Iraq's
provincial elections wrapped up without any reports of serious
violence. The polls decided who sits on the councils that run 14 of
Iraq’s 18 provinces. The turnout was 51% of the 7.5 million eligible
voters. US soldiers killed two Iraqi policemen after coming under
fire during an operation against al-Qaida in northern Iraq. An
American soldier died of a noncombat-related injury in the northern
city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 1/31/09)(AP, 2/1/09)(Econ, 1/24/09,
p.54)(Econ, 2/7/09, p.40)
2009 Feb 1, In Iraq according
to unofficial projections allies of Iraq's US-backed prime minister
appeared to have made gains in the provincial elections, rewarding
groups credited with reining in insurgents and militias.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 2, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting an American convoy exploded. Two people were killed
and six others were wounded.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 4, An Iraqi lawmaker
said the prime minister's coalition will talk to other parties about
sharing power in mostly southern areas after initial projections
showed the Shiite leader's allies were the big winners in last
weekend's provincial elections. Early results showed the that PM
al-Maliki’s allies, the Coalition of the State of Law, finished
first in 10 of the 14 provinces.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Iraqi election
commission said that PM Nouri al-Maliki's party won 38 percent of
the votes in Baghdad in the Jan 31 election, followed by allies of
anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and a Sunni party with nine percent
each. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a crowded restaurant
in a Kurdish city near the Iranian border, killing at least 12
people.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 8, In Iraq Spc. James
M. Dorsey (23) of Beardstown, Ill., was found unresponsive by fellow
troops in Baghdad and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 9, A senior Iraqi
security official said that four prisoners have been transferred
from the US military detention center in Guantanamo Bay to Iraqi
custody. A suicide bomber detonated his car near a US Army patrol in
Mosul killing 4 soldiers and their Iraqi translator.
(AP, 2/9/09)(SFC, 2/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 10, President Nicolas
Sarkozy made the first-ever visit by a French head of state to Iraq,
seeking to reassert French influence in the country even as the US
prepares to draw down its forces.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, In Iraq at least
12 people were killed and 25 others wounded in bombings in Baghdad
targeting Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala.
(AP, 2/11/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 12, In Iraq a bomb
attack targeting Shiite pilgrims in Karbala killed 8 people and
injured 52 others.
(AP, 2/12/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 13, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber attacked a tent filled with women and children
resting from a pilgrimage to Karbala, killing 40 people and injuring
60 others. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq this year and the
third straight day of bombings against Shiite pilgrims.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 14, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed two civilians and wounded four others, including a
soldier, when it exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in western
Mosul.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 15, Iraqi officials
nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across
the country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but
the cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any
province. A bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed one person and
injured 18 others in Sadr City. In Mosul one civilian and one police
officer were killed in two separate attacks on police patrols.
Police arrested a would-be suicide bomber south of Baghdad who had
explosives under his clothes and said he was also planning to target
pilgrims headed to Karbala. US Staff Sgt. Dean D. diamond (41) was
killed after an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle.
(AP, 2/15/09)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B5)
2009 Feb 16, In Iraq roadside
bombs struck two minibuses filled with Shiite pilgrims returning to
Baghdad, killing eight people, in the latest of a series of deadly
attacks targeting the pilgrims.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister met with top Iraqi leaders in
Baghdad in the latest high-level visit by a major Western nation
that opposed the 2003 US-led invasion but has promised to help Iraq
rebuild now that security has improved.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 17, In southern Iraq a
bus filled with Shiite pilgrims collided with a British military
vehicle, killing seven pilgrims and injuring 27 others.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul killed
one policeman. In Baghdad gunmen killed a local official from the
Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 20, A US Army medic
was convicted of murder for his involvement in the execution-style
slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees shot in the
back of the head in the spring of 2007. The court sentenced him to
life in prison.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 21, Iraq's infamous
Abu Ghraib prison reopened as the Baghdad Central Prison, with
official promises of humane treatment in a lockup notorious as a
center for abuse, both under Saddam Hussein and the US military.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 22, A military
official said Iraqi authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a
Sunni lawmaker accused of masterminding a series of high-profile
attacks, including mortar strikes on the Green Zone and a 2007
suicide bombing inside the parliament building. Lawmaker Mohammed
al-Dayni denied the allegations.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 23, Iraq's restored
National Museum was formally dedicated, nearly six years after
looters carried away priceless antiquities and treasures in the
chaos following the US-led invasion. Iraq's Interior Ministry said
it has arrested a Shiite police gang accused of killing the Sunni
vice president's sister. 3 US soldiers and an interpreter were
killed during fighting north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/23/09)(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, Two Iraqi police
officers opened fire on 4 American soldiers and two interpreters
inside a police station in Mosul. One US soldier and an interpreter
were killed. The assailants, believed to be associated with
Al-Qaida, escaped. The two policemen an officer and a sergeant, were
arrested in June by US and Iraqi forces and handed over to Iraqi
custody.
(SFC, 2/25/09, p.A2)(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Feb 24, South Korea signed
a $3.55 billion deal with Iraq to help rebuild the war-ravaged
country in return for oil and gas. The deal was inked by South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal
Talabani.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 25, Iraqi authorities
ordered the mid-flight return of a plane carrying a Sunni lawmaker
accused of directing a private terror cell, forcing him back to
Baghdad hours before parliament lifted his immunity and cleared the
way for his arrest. Mohammed al-Dayni faced allegations he
masterminded a string of attacks that include a 2007 suicide bombing
inside the parliament building and mortar strike on Baghdad's Green
Zone. Al-Dayni was picked up by his personal security contingent
before government security arrived. He was later believed to be in
Syria where he appeared on a cooking show.
(AP, 2/25/09)(SFC, 2/26/09, p.A2)(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 Feb 26, In Iraq an
American soldier died while conducting a combat patrol in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 27, President Barack
Obama outlined his plan for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq by
Aug. 31, 2010.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Feb 28, A US Marine died
in a non-combat related incident in Iraq's western Anbar province.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Feb, US jets shot down an
Iranian unmanned surveillance aircraft over Iraqi territory about 60
miles northeast of Baghdad. The Ababil 3 was tracked for about 70
minutes before US jets shot it down "well-inside Iraqi airspace."
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 1, In Iraq about 2,000
Shiites staged marches to protest the results of provincial
elections in tense Diyala province.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Iraq Ali Hassan
al-Majid, aka “Chemical Ali,” was sentenced to death for a 3rd time,
following his conviction relating to the Feb 19, 1999, death of
ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. Previous convictions related the
killing of Kurds in the late 1980s and the 1991 crackdown on Shiites
in southern Iraq.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 3, In Iraq the body of
Munther Mohammed Shaheen, the son of a newspaper editor, was found
in Kirkuk. One American soldier was killed in Mosul as insurgents
attacked an US-Iraqi base there.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 4, In Iraq a suicide
bomber triggered an explosives-packed belt as he walked among
members of a police intelligence unit in central Baghdad, killing
three people. A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in
Mosul, killing at least two policemen and wounding 15 people. Gunmen
killed a Sunni sheik, his wife and two sons near Samarra, 60 miles
(100 kilometers) north of Baghdad. Gunmen killed Brig. Gen. Salam
Salman Mohammed, a senior Ministry of Interior official, as he drove
to work in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 5, Iraq's parliament
passed a $58.6 billion budget after agreeing to sharp cuts amid
falling oil prices. A car bomb exploded in a crowded livestock
market selling sheep, cattle and goats south of Baghdad, killing at
least 12 people and wounding dozens. Justin Pope (25), a US veteran
who returned to Iraq as a civilian contractor, was shot to death
overnight while protecting American diplomats in Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/5/09)(AP, 3/8/09)
2009 Mar 7, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki called for an end to the practice of distributing top
government jobs along religious and ethnic lines, saying the system
leads to weakness and mismanagement.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 8, The US military
announced that 12,000 American and 4,000 British troops will leave
Iraq by September, hours after a suicide bomber struck police and
recruits lined up at the entrance of Baghdad's main academy, killing
about 30 people, including 5 police officers.
(AP, 3/8/09)(SFC, 3/9/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 9, In Iraq rockets
slammed into the British military base outside the southern city of
Basra, killing one civilian. It was the first such attack on the
base in nearly three months.
(AP, 3/9/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders touring a market after
a reconciliation meeting west of Baghdad, killing 33 people. A US
Marine died in an incident that did not involve combat.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 12, Turkish warplanes
carried out new bombing raids against Kurdish rebel positions in
northern Iraq. The strike targeted hideouts of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) in the Zap-Avashin region of the Kurdish-held
autonomous north of Iraq.
(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 16, In Iraq a
12-year-old girl was killed when American soldiers fired at a
vehicle speeding toward them and Iraqi police near Mosul. The
military said the girl was standing about 100 yards (meters) behind
the vehicle and was struck by a round. In Baghdad a US soldier was
fatally injured during combat operations.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 18, In Iraq a bomb
killed a farming couple in Diyala province. A suicide car bomber
struck a patrol, killing a policeman and wounding two others
in Mosul.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 19, A US airstrike on
a militant hideout south of Balad Ruz in Diyala province killed at
least 11 insurgents. A US soldier died from non-combat causes.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In Iraq followers
of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested US presence on
the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. In Baghdad’s
Karrada district a pair of roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes
of one another wounding 4 police officers and 3 civilians.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 23, Turkey's president
began the first visit to Iraq by a Turkish head of state in more
than 30 years, seeking to press Iraqi leaders to stop Kurdish rebels
from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey. In northern Iraq a
suicide bombing against a Kurdish funeral in Jalula killed 27
people. 8 people were killed in a bombing at a bus stop west of
Baghdad. A suicide blast in Tel Afar killed police officer and
wounded 8 people.
(AP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/24/09)(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 24, Kurdish rebels
rejected calls by Iraq's president to stop fighting against Turkey
and leave Iraqi territory as the visiting Turkish president stepped
up pressure on the Baghdad government to act against the group.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 25, In Iraq an
American soldier has died of non-combat injuries.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a crowded market in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad,
killing at least 20 people, including 4 women and 4 children, in the
country’s sixth major attack this month. A bomb attached to a car
exploded elsewhere in eastern Baghdad, wounding four people. Gunmen
killed Sheik Abdul-Kareem Saleh, a Sunni Arab cleric, and wounded
his son at Jalula, a town northeast of Baghdad where a suicide
bomber struck a Kurdish funeral this week. A foreign contractor was
shot and killed at a base north of Baghdad. Pfc. Carl T. Stovall III
(25) of Kennesaw, Georgia, was taken into custody soon after the
shooting at the US base in Taji.
(AP, 3/26/09)(AP, 3/27/09)(SFC, 3/27/09,
p.A4)(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Mar 28, Iraqi troops in
Baghdad arrested the head of Fadhil's Awakening Council for alleged
terrorist activity and for purportedly leading an armed group loyal
to Saddam Hussein's ousted party. Adil al-Mashhadani was believed to
have been involved in murder, extortion and other crimes as well as
leading an armed wing of Saddam's Baath party.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 29, US-backed Iraqi
forces swept through a central Baghdad slum, disarming
government-allied Sunni fighters who launched a two-day uprising to
protest the arrest of their leader. Up to 30% of the Sunni
paramilitaries involved in the uprising escaped with their weapons.
A roadside bomb exploded near a security patrol in the southern city
of Basra, killing one security guard and three civilians.
(AP, 3/29/09)(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Mar 31, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber plowed through a sandbag barrier to strike a police
station in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least eight people
and wounding 12. The British military transferred over coalition
command of the oil-rich southern province of Basra to the US. A US
Marine died as the result of a non-combat incident in Anbar
province. A US soldier died in a "noncombat-related incident" in
Salahuddin province.
(AP, 3/31/09)(AP, 4/1/09)
2009 Apr 2, An Iraqi military
spokesman said the government will next week start paying Sunni
paramilitary groups in the Baghdad area despite weekend clashes with
one of the units. In Baghdad two gunmen firing from a car killed an
Iraqi army officer in the Mansour district. One of the gunmen was
killed and the other captured. Militants hurled a grenade at an
American patrol on Palestine Street in east Baghdad, wounding two
civilians. In Mosul a roadside bomb exploded near a small restaurant
frequented by police, wounding four of them and a civilian. A US
aircraft attacked a group of men believed to be members of a
government-allied Sunni paramilitary group as they were planting a
roadside bomb at night north of Baghdad, killing one and wounding
two. Two gay men were killed Sadr City by relatives who were shamed
by their behavior, after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned
homosexuality. The killings come weeks after Iraqi police found four
bodies near Sadr City with the word pervert written on their chests.
(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/3/09)(AP, 4/4/09)
2009 Apr 3, In Iraq an American
soldier died of noncombat-related causes in Anbar province.
(AP, 4/4/09)
2009 Apr 5, In Iraq Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas won assurances that Iraqi leaders will
protect Palestinians living in Iraq, including thousands stranded in
desert refugee camps, during his first visit to the country since
the US-led invasion of 2003. Two roadside bombs in Fallujah killed
one officer and wounded three other people. Someone threw a grenade
at a police patrol in Samarra, killing one policeman and wounding
four. 8 people, including seven policemen, were wounded by a bomb
that blasted their patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Iraq a series
bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 37 people and
wounding more than 100 in a dramatic escalation of violence.
(AP, 4/6/09)(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 7, President Barack
Obama flew into Iraq from Turkey on a trip shrouded in secrecy, for
a brief look at a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end
as commander in chief. A car bomb in a Shiite neighborhood of
Baghdad killed at least nine people and wounded 18 others. A suicide
car bomb killed three people at a police checkpoint in Fallujah. In
Iskandariyah police found the bullet-riddled body a member of the
Awakening Council, a group of former Sunni insurgents who sided with
the US in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. The councilman was
kidnapped a day earlier. A car bombing in Kazimiyah killed nine
people, including a mother who was riding in a taxi with her infant
son.
(AP, 4/7/09)(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 8, In Iraq a bomb left
in a plastic bag exploded near the most important Shiite shrine in
Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 23.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 8, A fishing vessel
carrying 45 boatpeople, believed to be from Iraq, landed on
Australia’s remote Christmas Island, island, a day after the
opposition party said a softer stance on refugees had prompted a
"surge" in illegal immigrants.
(AFP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 9, In Iraq tens of
thousands of supporters of an anti-US Shiite cleric demanded an end
to the US military presence and burned effigy of ex-President George
W. Bush in a rally marking the sixth anniversary of the fall of
Baghdad to American forces. Police raided a cartoon exhibition in
the Shiite city of Karbala and seized a drawing depicting PM Nouri
al-Maliki with a long nose trying to repair a car labeled "sectarian
distribution of jobs." On Apr 12 a parliamentary committee
criticized police for raiding the exhibition.
(AP, 4/9/09)(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 10, In northern Iraq a
suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a sandbagged
wall surrounding a police headquarters in Mosul, killing five
American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen in the single deadliest
attack against US forces in more than a year.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 10, In Moscow Iraqi PM
Nouri al-Maliki met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and PM
Vladimir Putin. Al-Maliki told Medvedev in the Kremlin that Iraq is
interested in Russian investment, and Putin said at a joint news
conference that talks focused on oil and gas cooperation.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 11, In Iraq a suicide
bomber walked into a crowd of US-allied Sunni paramilitaries and
detonated his explosives belt, killing nine and wounding 30 others
waiting in line for their salaries in Jbala.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 11, In Moscow Iraqi PM
Nouri al-Maliki met with Russian business leaders to encourage them
to take an active part in rebuilding Iraq's economy.
(AP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 12, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed a US soldier north of Baghdad. A second roadside bombing
struck two cars carrying Iraqis in the Jisr Diyala area, about 10
miles (16 km) southeast of Baghdad. Nine people were wounded in the
explosion, including two women and a teenage boy.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, In Iraq an
American soldier was killed by an armor-piercing bomb south of
Baghdad.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 15, In Iraq 11 Oil
Ministry guards were killed and 13 wounded in a car bombing in
Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 16, In Iraq a suicide
bomber dressed in an army uniform detonated an explosives belt among
Iraqi soldiers lined up for lunch at a base in Habbaniyah, killing
at least 16 and wounding 50. Officials later maintained no one died
but the attacker. An American Marine died as a result of a noncombat
related incident in western Anbar province.
(AP, 4/16/09)(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Iraq mortar
rounds killed at least 4 people in the Shiite Jisr Diyala district
south of Baghdad.
(SFC, 4/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 19, Iraq's parliament
ended months of political paralysis by electing Ayad al-Samarraie, a
prominent Sunni lawmaker, as its new speaker. Armed with pistols
equipped with silencers simultaneously raided two jewelry stores
near one another in northern Baghdad. At least 7 people were killed
in the daylight heist.
(AP, 4/19/09)(SFC, 4/20/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 20, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 4 Iraqi police officers and wounded eight US soldiers
visiting the mayor of Baqouba city. At least 9 civilians were also
injured.
(AP, 4/20/09)(SFC, 4/21/09, p.A4)(Reuters,
4/23/09)
2009 Apr 22, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed at least five people and wounded 15 inside a mosque in
central Iraq. A US soldier died from combat related injuries
sustained during a patrol in an eastern section of Baghdad.
(Reuters, 4/23/09)(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 23, In Iraq two
suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks, killing at
88 people. One blast in Baghdad killed 31 people. In the other near
Muqdadiya 57 dead included visiting Shiites from Iran.
(AP, 4/23/09)(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 23, Iran's official
news agency says Tehran has reached an agreement with Iraq to build
a pipeline that will feed Iraqi crude to an Iranian refinery.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Iraq
back-to-back, female suicide bombings killed 71 people outside
Baghdad’s Shiite shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim . Among the dead were
25 Iranian pilgrims. An American soldier died as a result of a
noncombat related incident in the northern Salahuddin province.
(AP, 4/24/09)(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 26, In southern Iraq a
pre-dawn raid by US forces killed a woman in Kut. It drew sharp
fallout from Iraqi authorities who demanded an investigation and
ordered the arrest of two high-ranking Iraqi military officers for
allegedly allowing the operation to happen. Iraqi police officials
say the wife and brother of a local clan leader were killed. US
forces arrested six members of so-called "special groups," Shiite
militia factions that were once part of the Mahdi Army of Muqtada
al-Sadr. 3 Christians were killed in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Police said the slayings appear to be an attempt by al-Qaida to
spark sectarian clashes.
(AP, 4/26/09)(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, An Iraqi-US patrol
was ambushed while distributing grants to Iraqi businesses near the
northern city of Kirkuk. Iraqi officials said two civilians were
killed when the Americans returned fire, but the US military said
those killed were enemy fighters. Five bombs hit various
neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing at least 48 people in another
powerful strike by suspected Sunni insurgents seeking a return to
sectarian chaos.
(AP, 4/29/09)(SFC, 4/30/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 30, British forces
formally ended combat operations in Iraq, one month ahead of
schedule. A solemn ceremony remembered 179 dead comrades from six
years of warfare.
(AFP, 4/30/09)(SFC, 5/1/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 30, Turkey's military
said its warplanes struck Kurdish rebel targets overnight in
northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 30, The Iraqi
government decided to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid
worldwide fears of swine flu. No date was set for their killing. Two
US Marines and a sailor were killed during combat operations in
Anbar province.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 1, In northern Iraq
Ammar Afif Hamada (19), a would-be Syrian suicide bomber linked to
al-Qaida in Iraq, was tackled by guards on the doorstep of a mosque
in Kirkuk.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Iraq a roadside
bomb also exploded near a car and a cement mixer in Kirkuk, killing
at least 3 civilians and wounding 3 others. Two American soldiers
were killed after a gunman opened fire at a combat outpost near
Mosul. The attacker was described as a soldier, who also served as a
Sunni Muslim preacher for his unit. Iraqi police arrested
Mullah Nadim Jibouri, an Awakening leader in Duluija, along with 2
of his brothers.
(AP, 5/2/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)(SFC, 5/4/09,
p.A3)(SFC, 5/6/09, p.B5)
2009 May 4, Iraq’s Foreign
Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad and handed him a
letter of protest, demanding that Iran halt shelling against Kurdish
rebels in the country's north and warned the "extremely dangerous
violations" of Iraqi territory could harm relations between the two
countries.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 5, A South Korean
official said 3 South Korean army personnel have been convicted of
accepting or seeking bribes while serving as part of a US-led
alliance aimed at rebuilding Iraq. A captain identified by his
surname Park, was sentenced last month by a South Korean military
court to three years in prison for taking $25,000 and a digital
camera worth $800 from a local firm involved in construction
projects in the northern city of Irbil in return for administrative
favors. A master sergeant and a major received suspended jail terms
for demanding bribes from other Iraqi firms. The captain and the two
others were arrested in South Korea in December following a joint
US-South Korean investigation.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 6, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded at the entrance to a fruit and vegetable market in south
Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding about 40. Hours later,
another car bomb exploded in the capital's Karradah district,
killing two people and wounding six.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, The Baghdad
contract for the security firm once known as Blackwater Worldwide
ended, although the company will temporarily continue operations
elsewhere in Iraq. US troops in Mosul shot dead a 12-year-old Iraqi
boy suspected of throwing a grenade at them. It was believed
insurgents were paying children to help them. The boy was found with
10,000 Iraqi dinars, or around $8.50, in his hand.
(AP, 5/7/09)(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 May 9, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraq should launch an anti-corruption campaign that would match
the fight it has waged against insurgents and militias, amid
increasing complaints over criminality in the government.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 11, In Iraq Brig. Gen.
Abdul-Hussein al-Kadhoumi, a high ranking traffic police officer,
was fatally shot in central Baghdad. Sgt. John M. Russell (44), who
had served previously in Iraq, fatally shot five fellow soldiers at
a US military counseling clinic at the Camp Liberty base near the
Baghdad Int’l. Airport. Russell was charged with murder and
aggravated assault. A 325-page report on Russell was released on Oct
16. It painted a picture of soldier on his third deployment who
began to show obvious signs of unraveling nearly two weeks before
the shootings at the clinic.
(AP, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/12/09)(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 May 11, Australia’s armed
forces chief announced that Australia will formally end its military
mission in Iraq at the end of July, bringing the country's
involvement in one war to a close even as it prepares to send more
troops to Afghanistan.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber rammed his car into a police truck in the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing five policemen and a civilian.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 13, In Iraq Ali
Mohammed Kazim of the Public Integrity Commission, a senior
anti-corruption official, was assassinated on his way to work. The
US Army handed over its base at the 6,000-year-old archaeological
site of Ur to the Iraqi military in a ceremony.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Iraq's Trade
Minister Falah al-Sudani submitted his resignation following
allegations of widespread corruption in his department. PM Nouri
al-Maliki delayed accepting it to allow parliament to review the
allegations. Acceptance was announced on May 25.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 16, A joint US-Iraqi
force targeted an al-Qaida cell involved in funneling arms and
weapons into Iraq from Syria, arresting three people over the last
24 hours near Mosul. A mortar round crashed into a house in the
eastern part of Baghdad, killing a 2-year-old child and wounding
three others. Two policemen were killed west of Baghdad by a
roadside bomb that went off near their patrol. In southern Iraq an
American soldier was killed during combat.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, In Iraq a gunman
killed an off-duty prison officer in Mosul. Hours later a car bomb
went off near the governor's residence in Mosul, killing a policeman
and wounding three civilians.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 20, An Iraqi
government agency reported that nearly one in four Iraqis lives
below the poverty line. A car bomb exploded near a group of
restaurants in the Shiite Shula neighborhood of northwest Baghdad,
leaving 41 people dead and more than 70 others injured.
(AP, 5/21/09)(SFC, 5/21/09, p.A3)
2009 May 21, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed 8 US-backed Sunni paramilitaries as they waited in a
line to receive salaries at an Iraqi military base in the northern
city of Kirkuk. A bomb exploded inside a police station in western
Baghdad, killing 2 policemen and wounding 19 others. 3 American
soldiers were killed in a bombing in Baghdad that also killed 12
Iraqis.
(AP, 5/21/09)(SFC, 5/22/09, p.A4)
2009 May 22, In Iraq the body
of Jim Kitterman (60), an American civilian contractor, was found
stabbed to death in a vehicle in the Green Zone. Another contractor
was killed by a rocket attack near the American Embassy. An American
soldier died in a noncombat incident in Baghdad province. In June
Iraqi authorities detained 4 Americans and one Iraqi in connection
with the death of Kitterman, in what could be the first case of
Americans facing local justice under a joint security pact that took
effect this year. 3 of the detained American were soon released due
to insufficient evidence.
(AP, 5/23/09)(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)(AP,
6/11/09)
2009 May 25, In western Iraq a
roadside bomb struck a US convoy in Fallujah , killing three
Americans, including a State Department employee.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 27, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a medical compound in Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad,
wounding at least 15 Iraqis. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier in
Baghdad, making May the deadliest month for the American military
since September.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 28, In Iraq a roadside
bomb struck a civilian car on a highway linking the towns of
Khanaqin with Qara Tappah. The blast killed two boys ages 8 and 10
and their father.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 28, Turkish warplanes
attacked Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, hours after a land mine
blast on the Turkish side of the border killed six soldiers.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, Swedish media
reported that a 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden has
cracked a maths puzzle that has stumped experts for more than 300
years. Mohamed Altoumaimi has found a formula to explain and
simplify the so-called Bernoulli numbers, a sequence of calculations
named after the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli.
(AFP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 29, In Iraq a local
leader of a government-backed Sunni paramilitary group was killed
when a bomb hidden on a motorcycle exploded as he opened his butcher
store on the outskirts of Baqouba. Another bomb exploded inside a
bus station north of Baghdad in the Shiite enclave of Khalis,
killing at least four people and wounding 10. In northern Iraq an
American soldier was killed in a grenade attack in Ninevah province.
(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 30, Iraq's former
trade minister, Abdul-Falah al-Sudani, wanted on a corruption charge
was arrested at the Baghdad airport after attempting to leave the
country. The minister's brothers are accused of having skimmed
millions of dollars in kickbacks on food imports. One of them is in
custody after attempting to flee the country while the other is
still at large. A man purporting to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the
head of the Islamic State of Iraq, issued a 40-minute tape that was
posted on militant Web sites.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 May 31, An Iraqi sports
broadcaster was killed by a bomb attached to his car in northern
Iraq, while two other journalists were wounded in a similar blast in
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 1, Iraq's self-ruled
Kurdish region officially started pumping crude oil to the
international market. A bomb in a Baghdad market killed four people.
A suicide bomber exploded his car at a police checkpoint in Jalula,
killing a 7-year-old child and wounding eight other people. A
grenade thrown at a US patrol in the northern city of Mosul missed
the Americans but killed one Iraqi and wounded 15 others.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 2, The Iraqi and US
militaries tentatively agreed to keep a joint base on the edge of
Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, maintaining an American presence
in a strategic area even after the June 30 deadline for US combat
troops to pull out of the capital. An American soldier died of
wounds from a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
(AP, 6/2/09)(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 4, In northern Iraq an
American soldier was killed in a grenade attack in Tamim province.
Another American soldier was killed in a grenade attack north of
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/4/09)(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 5, In Iraq an American
soldier died as the result of a non-combat related incident.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 6, A senior Iraqi
police official escaped an assassination attempt by a suicide car
bomber in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. The US
military said Insurgents are increasingly using teenagers to stage
attacks against American and Iraqi security forces.
(AP, 6/6/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Iraq a bomb tore
through a minibus during morning rush hour in a mainly Shiite area
in Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 24.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 10, In Iraq a rare car
bomb ripped through a market in the town of Bathaa, in the southern
Shiite heartland, as shoppers were buying meat and vegetables,
killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Iraq a senior
Sunni lawmaker was killed after delivering a sermon during at a
mosque in a former insurgent stronghold in western Baghdad. Harith
al-Obeidi (47) led the main Sunni bloc in parliament and was known
as a fierce advocate of human rights and the rights of mainly Sunni
detainees. The assailant was chased down the street by mosque guards
and then detonated a grenade, killing himself and an undetermined
number of pursuers. A bomb on a bicycle exploded in eastern Baghdad,
killing two people and wounding nine others. An American soldier was
killed by a roadside bomb.
(AP, 6/12/09)(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 16, In Iraq a commuter
bus traveling from Baghdad to a southern city caught fire near Kut,
killing 14 passengers on board. An American soldier was killed by a
roadside bomb southeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 17, Iraqi forces
acting on tips arrested Ahmed Abid Uwaid (45), a suspected al-Qaida
in Iraq leader, who was believed to be a mastermind of the June 12
assassination Harith al-Obeidi, a prominent Sunni lawmaker in
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/17/09)(SFC, 6/18/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 18, In Iraq a special
committee set up by PM al-Maliki began an investigation into
allegations of widespread abuse and torture in Iraq's prisons, which
is threatening to become a major issue ahead of Jan. 30 national
elections. Four bodies bearing signs of gunshot wounds were found in
Baghdad’s Sadr city. Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr later claimed that men appearing to be Iraqi soldiers had
stormed two houses in Sadr City and arrested four men, whose bodies
were found the next day.
(AP,
6/18/09)(http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=114910)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 19, The bodies of two
men were handed over to the British embassy in the Iraqi capital
with the Foreign Office saying the remains were "highly likely" to
be those of Jason Swindlehurst (38) and Jason Creswell (39). They
were among four guards protecting Peter Moore when around 40 heavily
armed militants seized all five men at the finance ministry in
central Baghdad on May 29, 2007.
(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 20, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki called the withdrawal of US troops from cities by the end
of this month a "great victory" and promised it would go ahead as
scheduled. Hour later in northern in Taza, a mostly Turkomen city, a
truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque following prayers, killing
82 people and wounding 163.
(AP, 6/20/09)(AP, 6/21/09)(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Iraq bombings
killed as many as 18 people in the Baghdad area as violence
intensified ahead of a planned withdrawal next week of US troops
from major cities and urban areas. Bombings and shooting killed over
30 people across Iraq. An explosion late in the day killed 78 people
in Sadr City.
(AP, 6/22/09)(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 24, In Iraq an
explosion late in Sadr City killed 78 people and wounded 158. The
bomb was built using about 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of high
explosives packed with steel bearing and other metal objects. It was
apparently loaded on a motorcycle pulling a cart.
(AP, 6/25/09)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.A3)(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 25, A bombing at a bus
station in a Shiite neighborhood in southwest Baghdad killed at
least 7 people and wounded 31 others. Another three bombs and a
mortar killed two more people around the capital. At least 3 other
bombs exploded in the country as US forces prepared to withdraw from
Iraqi cities by June 30.
(AP, 6/25/09)(SFC, 6/26/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 26, In Iraq a
booby-trapped motorcycle loaded with nails and ball-bearings
exploded in a crowded bazaar in Baghdad, killing 19 people. The
attack struck just four days before the deadline for US combat
troops to withdraw from cities. Senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmed
Khatami called for harsh retribution for dissent. Opposition leader
Mousavi lost his main link to the world after his official Web site
Kalemeh, came up blank and stripped of any text or pictures.
(AP, 6/26/09)(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 26, Iraqi authorities
captured Ali Hussein Alwan Hamid al-Azzawi, a senior leader of a
militant group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq who oversaw the Aug 19,
2003, bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad and other attacks.
His capture was not announced until Jan 16, 2010, to ensure the
capture of other suspects believed to be linked to him.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2009 Jun 28, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting a US convoy in eastern Baghdad wounded six
bystanders. It was unclear if anyone in the convoy was injured. A
car bomb also exploded in the parking lot of a police academy in
western Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding six others.
Insurgents were apparently taking advantage of a major sandstorm
that blanketed Baghdad and reduced visibility to just a few yards in
some places.
(AP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 29, In Iraq four US
soldiers were killed in combat shortly before the American military
completed a withdrawal from Iraq's cities. PM al-Maliki assured
Iraqis that government forces taking control of urban areas on June
30 were more than capable of protecting the country.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jun 30, Iraq's
long-awaited licensing round to develop some of its massive oil
reserves stumbled as oil and gas companies dug in their heals,
demanding more money for their efforts than the government was
willing to pay. Iraq celebrated National Sovereignty Day, a new
public holiday, following the withdrawal of US forces from its
cities. An explosion in Kirkuk killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 6/30/09)(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A2)(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jun 30, The Dutch Supreme
Court upheld the war crimes conviction of businessman Frans van
Anraat for selling chemicals to Iraq, which were turned into poison
gas and unleashed in 1988 by the regime of Saddam Hussein on Kurds
and Iranians. The court shaved six months off Anraat’s 17-year
sentence because his case took so long.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 1, Iraq's government
approved a BP-led consortium's offer to develop a giant southern oil
field near Basra, moving forward with the only deal struck during a
disappointing international oil auction. On Oct 16 the Iraqi
government approved the deal by BP and its Chinese partner CNPC to
develop the 17.8 billion barrel Rumaila field, the 2nd largest in
the Middle East. A bombing in Kirkuk killed at least 30 people.
(AP, 7/1/09)(AP, 7/2/09)(AP, 10/17/09)(Econ,
12/4/10, p.58)
2009 Jul 2, In Iraq bombings
killed at least three people in the Baghdad area in the first
significant violence since Iraqi forces assumed responsibility for
securing cities after the withdrawal of US combat troops from urban
areas earlier this week.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 5, In Iraq an attack
on the checkpoint in western Baghdad killed two Iraqi police
officers and three soldiers.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 6, In Iraq a car bomb
targeted a police patrol in Mosul but missed, killing an 18-year-old
man and injuring eight other bystanders.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Iraq car bombs
in two Shiite villages near Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured
more than two dozen.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 9, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombings in Tal Afar, in Nineveh province, killed 38 people and
wounded 66. Tal Afar is mainly home to minority Turkmen of the
Shiite Muslim faith. In Baghdad, 8 people were killed and 30 wounded
by two bombs in a market in Sadr City, a poor, Shiite Muslim area.
10 more people were killed by bombs elsewhere in Baghdad. US forces
released five Iranian officials detained in January 2007 in northern
Iraq on suspicion of aiding local Shiite militants. An Iranian
television report identified the men as Mohsen Bagheri, Mahmoud
Farhadi, Majid Ghaemi, Majid Dagheri and Abbas Jami. A car driver
was killed in a head-on collision with a US Army Stryker vehicle,
the lead vehicle of a US-Iraqi convoy in western Diyala province.
(Reuters, 7/9/09)(AP, 7/9/09)(AP, 7/10/09)(AP,
7/11/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Iraq an
American soldier in Iraq shot and killed a truck driver who did not
respond to warnings to stop on a highway between Tikrit and Balad.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Iraq a car bomb
has exploded in Gugjeli a Shiite village in northern Iraq, killing
at least four people. Another 6 people died in bombings in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/11/09)(SSFC, 7/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 12, In Iraq bombings
in or near churches killed at least four people, including one that
happened as worshippers were leaving Mass in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 12, Five Iranian
officials held in Iraq for more than two years by US forces returned
home after the US released them under pressure from the Iraqi
government. They were handed over to Iraqi officials on July 9. The
Iranians were detained in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in
January 2007. At the time, US authorities said the men included the
operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which
is accused of arming and training Iraqi militants.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 13, Iraqi authorities
imposed vehicle bans in two mostly Christian towns and increased
security around churches in Baghdad after attacks targeting the
Christian minority. An Iraqi soldier was killed when a bomb attached
to his private vehicle exploded at noon in an area of northern
Mosul.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Iraq one person
was killed and nine others were wounded when a bomb exploded near an
Internet cafe late at night in south Baghdad. Two traffic policemen
were killed in eastern Baghdad by 2 gunmen who refused to stop at a
checkpoint near the fortified Green Zone.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed six people, including an Iraqi policeman, in an attack
on security forces in Ramadi, a former insurgent stronghold in
western Anbar province. A bombing in Sadr City killed 5 people.
(AP, 7/15/09)(SFC, 7/16/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 16, In Iraq 18 people
were injured in an explosion that targeted a minibus transporting
Shiite pilgrims to a holy shrine in Najaf. 3 US soldiers were killed
in a rocket attack on a base outside of Basra. On July 18 an
Iranian-backed militiaman confessed to the rocket attack near the
Basra airport.
(AP, 7/16/09)(AP, 7/17/09)(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Iraq two bombs
exploded around 3 a.m. in Karmah near the house of police Capt.
Bahjat Khawam. The bombs were planted under the police officer's car
and near a gate to his house. The officer's daughter (12) and a
granddaughter (4) were killed in the attack. In Baghdad bombings
killed 3 Iraqis and injured over 40 others. One bomb planted under a
bridge killed a married couple who were among hundreds of thousands
of Shiite pilgrims heading to a shrine to commemorate Imam Mousa
al-Kazim.
(AP, 7/17/09)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 18, In Iraq a
government spokesman said the Iraqi Cabinet had approved a measure
to confiscate the assets of the family of toppled dictator Saddam
Hussein and 52 former close aides who had used their powers to take
over or misuse public properties or funds. A bomb killed three
people, including the son of a tribal leader, near Fallujah.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 21, In Iraq bombs
killed 19 people and wounded 80 across the country. 6 bombs exploded
in Baghdad killing 14 people and wounded at least 30 others. These
included 2 bombs near a group of day laborers in Baghdad's Sadr City
area.
(AP, 7/21/09)(SFC, 7/22/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 22, In Iraq gunmen in
four cars opened fire on a convoy of buses carrying Iranian pilgrims
through Iraq, killing five of them near the village of Kebasi. Some
35 others were wounded.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 24, In northern Iraq
Fakri Hadi Gari, the deputy commander of a radical Sunni Islamic
group linked to al-Qaida, was arrested. Ansar al-Islam is believed
by the military to be behind attacks on US and Iraqi troops in
Mosul. Gari, also known as Abu Abbas and Mullah Halgurd, was
arrested with nine other suspected members. An American soldier died
of non-combat related injuries.
(AP, 8/4/09)(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 25, Iraqis voted in
elections in the self-ruled Kurdish north. Regional Kurdish
President Massoud Barzani, who has been a consistent critic of the
central government, won re-election with almost 70% of the vote,
while the leading candidate from the opposition party, Kamal
Mirawdeli, received 25%. A coalition of the two ruling parties,
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Iraqi President Jalal
Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, received a little over 57%
of the vote for the 111-seat parliament, while the opposition
Gorran, or Change, party took about 23%.
(AP, 7/25/09)(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 26, In Iraq 5 people
were killed in a daylight attack at a popular money exchange office,
a reflection of the increasing crime in Iraq even as violence is on
the decline. 5 more people were killed and 23 others wounded when a
suicide bomber struck a Ramadi funeral for a police officer, who had
been killed the day before in a roadside bomb attack.
(AP, 7/26/09)(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 27, In Iraq 2 people
were killed in bombings targeting police officers, considered the
weakest link among the Iraqi security forces that have taken the
lead from withdrawing American forces. The first bombing came in
eastern Baghdad, when a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol but
missed, killing one civilian. A short time later, a bomb attached to
a car exploded in Fallujah, killing a police captain.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Jul 28, Iraqi forces
raided Camp Ashraf, an Iranian opposition settlement north of
Baghdad. The standoff continued into the next day and left 11 people
dead. A gang made up of members of the presidential guard and led by
the head of security for the 2nd biggest Shia party robbed a bank in
central Baghdad killing 8 security guards. Initially police said the
gunmen made off with 8 billion Iraqi dinars ($6.9 million). Five
members of Iraq's security forces charged in the bank robbery went
on trial on Aug 23. They had allegedly made off with $4.8 million.
On Sep 2 four members of the security forces, convicted of the
robbery, were sentenced to hang.
(AP, 7/29/09)(SFC, 7/29/09, p.A2)(Econ, 8/8/09,
p.43)(AP, 8/23/09)(SFC, 9/3/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 28, Britain said it
will withdraw its remaining 100-odd troops in Iraq to Kuwait by the
end of the month after the Iraqi parliament failed to pass a deal
allowing them to stay to protect oil platforms and provide training.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 30, In Iraq a bomb
blast in a building used by a Sunni-backed political group in Iraq's
Diyala province killed at least seven people. Government spokesman
Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed that seven people were killed when Iraqi
forces seized control of the Iranian Camp Ashraf on July 28. The
government said it will change the name of the camp to New Iraqi
Camp to remove the Iranian reference. The camp was originally named
for one of the founders of the People's Mujahedeen, Ashraf Rajavi.
(AP, 7/30/09)
2009 Jul 31, In Iraq bombs
exploded near five Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 29
people, in an apparent coordinated attack that targeted worshippers
leaving Friday prayers. Iraqi police announced they had recovered
millions of dollars stolen on July 28 from a state-run bank in a
robbery that left eight guards dead.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 1, The war in Iraq
became an American-only effort after Britain and Australia, the last
of its international partners, pulled out. In Iraq a bomb hidden
inside a toilet struck a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad, injuring two
people, the latest in a wave of attacks against Islamic sites of
worship. Al-Jazeera television broadcast an audio clip purportedly
from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former top deputy of Saddam Hussein,
calling on Sunni insurgents to unite under one political umbrella.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 2, In Iraq Tariq Aziz,
one of Saddam Hussein's best-known lieutenants, was convicted of
helping to plan the forced displacement of Kurds from northeastern
Iraq and sentenced to seven years in jail. The ruling came more than
four months after Aziz was sentenced to 15 years in prison for
crimes against humanity in the 1992 execution of Iraqi merchants.
Rania Ibrahim, a teenage Iraqi girl, was sentenced to seven and a
half years in prison for attempting to blow herself up at a
checkpoint in Baqouba in August, 2008. She claimed her husband's
female relatives strapped explosives on her. An explosives-laden car
exploded near an outdoor market in a mainly Sunni area of Haditha,
killing at least 5 people and wounding 34, raising concern that
sectarian violence could resurge.
(AP, 8/2/09)(SFC, 8/4/09, p.A2)(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 3, In Iraq Asaib Ahl
al-Haq (League of the Righteous), a group believed to be responsible
for killing US soldiers and kidnapping British soldiers, agreed to
renounce violence following a weekend meeting with PM
al-Maliki. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a police
checkpoint in Saqlawiya. 3 civilians were killed and 7 people were
wounded including 3 police officers.
(SFC, 8/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 6, Iraq's cabinet
approved a bill to ban smoking in public places. A roadside bomb
struck a car full of Shiite pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing
one and wounding four others. Gunmen broke into a goldsmith shop in
the western Baghdad district of Baiyaa, killing the owner and making
off with an unknown quantity of gold.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8188265.stm)(AP, 8/6/09)(AP,
8/7/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Iraq a suicide
car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a
series of attacks that killed 61 Shiite pilgrims and worshippers.
The deadliest blast occurred in Rasheediyah, north of Mosul, when a
suicide car bomb struck a mosque, killing at least 44 people and
trapping dozens more underneath the rubble. In Baghdad 3 roadside
bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims killed 7 people returning from
Karbala.
(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 9, Iraqi authorities
arrested Daniel Fitzsimmons, a British contractor, on murder charges
over the shooting deaths of a British and an Australian contractor
in Baghdad's protected Green Zone. Two employees of ArmorGroup Iraq,
identified as Paul McGuigan of Britain and Darren Hoare of
Australia, were killed in the firearms incident. On Feb 28, 2011, An
Iraqi court convicted Fitzsimmons and sentenced him to 20 years in
prison, making him the first Westerner convicted in an Iraqi court
since the 2003 US invasion.
(AP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/10/09)(AP, 2/28/11)
2009 Aug 10, In Iraq a double
truck bombing tore through the village of a small Shiite ethnic
minority near the northern city of Mosul killing at least 35 people
in Khazna. 9 blasts wracked Baghdad in a wave of violence that
killed 22 people. All told more than 250 were left wounded.
(AP, 8/10/09)(SFC, 8/11/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 13, In Iraq a gunfight
erupted during an attempted bank heist in Baghdad, as a court
official announced that five members of Iraq's presidential guard
will go on trial later this month for their alleged roles in the
deadly July 28 robbery of Baghdad’s Rafidain Bank. In the northwest
city of Sinjar 2 suicide bombers blew themselves up at a popular
cafe killing 21 people and wounding 30 others.
(AP, 8/13/09)(SFC, 8/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 14, In Iraq
journalists took to the streets in Baghdad to protest what they say
is political pressure to silence the media. The rally came as
journalist Ahmed Abdul-Hussein was threatened with a lawsuit over
editorials related to the July 28 Baghdad bank robbery that left
eight security guards dead.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, Three Iraqi men
herding cattle were killed near Taji after wandering into the middle
of a US-Iraqi mortar training exercise north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/16/09)
2009 Aug 17, Human Rights Watch
said Iraqi militiamen are torturing and killing gay men with
impunity in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to
several other cities.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 18, Iraqi forces
seized a launcher loaded with 13 Iranian-made rockets after an
attack the previous day against the US base outside the southern
city of Basra.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 19, In Iraq a truck
bomb tore through the Foreign Ministry, knocking out concrete slabs
and windows and leaving a mass of charred cars outside killing at
least 65 people and wounding 250. A suicide truck bomber took aim at
the Finance Ministry complex causing part of a nearby overpass to
collapse killing least 28 people. A wave of explosions around
Baghdad killed at least 8 more people as mortars struck inside the
Green Zone. The total death toll from the string of blasts was later
set at 106. One of the suspected masterminds said in a confession
broadcast on Aug 23 that attackers paid $10,000 to get a bomb-laden
truck past checkpoints and next to the Finance Ministry. A US
soldier died of a non-combat related injury.
(AP, 8/19/09)(AP, 8/20/09)(AP, 8/23/09)(AP,
9/8/09)(AFP, 1/19/12)
2009 Aug 20, The Iraqi
government announced the detention of 11 army and police commanders,
accusing them of negligence in the previous day’s bombings. The
government also decided to keep concrete blast barriers around
potential targets. A bicycle bomb exploded near a restaurant in
Baghdad killing two people. There were three bombings in Babil
province, a region once so notorious for violence it was called the
Triangle of Death. A bomb attached to a minibus killed three and
wounded eight in Hillah, while two bombs at a market in Musayyib
wounded 45.
(AP, 8/20/09)(AP, 8/21/09)(SFC, 8/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Aug 21, In Iraq a small
truck passed through an Iraqi police checkpoint in southern Baghdad
but was not searched minutes before exploding at the front gate of
the market, killing two and wounding 20.
(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Iraq an attack
on a police checkpoint in the Azamiyah district of Baghdad left two
officers dead.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 23, The Iraqi military
broadcast the confession of a Sunni man, Wisam Ali Khazim Ibrahim
(57), identified as the mastermind of one of two Aug 19 suicide
truck bombings targeting government buildings in Baghdad. In
northern Iraq gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing
one police officer. An American soldier died of injuries sustained
during an attack on a US patrol in the Iraqi capital.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 24, Iraqi lawmakers
said major Shiite groups have formed a new alliance that will
exclude Iraqi PM al-Maliki, a step likely to stoke fears of
increasing Iranian influence and shake up the political landscape
before January parliamentary elections. The new bloc, called the
Iraqi National Alliance, will include the largest Shiite party, the
Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, or SIIC, and anti-US cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's bloc, which both have close ties to Tehran, as well as
some small Sunni and secular parties.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 25, Iraq recalled its
ambassador from Syria and demanded that Damascus hand over two
suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists it has linked to the Aug 19
suicide attacks.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 26, Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim (b.1950), the scion of a revered clerical family, died of
lung cancer in Iran, the country that was long his key ally. He
channeled rising Shiite Muslim power after the fall of Saddam
Hussein to become one of Iraq's most influential politicians.
(AP, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Iraq car bombs
targeted primarily Iraqi troops in the city and a northern Baghdad
suburb, killing one and wounding 22 people. Iraqi forces tightened
security around Shiite mosques, shrines and political party offices
ahead of the funeral of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite leader,
who died in Iran a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Iraq two
American soldiers died following an attack on a patrol in eastern
Baghdad.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 29, In Iraq a suicide
truck bomber attacked a small police station in the remote village
of Hamad north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people. a second
attack occurred near Mosul in the city of Sinjar, where a parked
truck bomb killed at least four people and wounded 23 others. A
suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 2 people in a market in
eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 8/29/09)(SSFC, 8/30/09, p.A7)
2009 Aug 31, Muhsin Mohammed
Muhsin (11) was kidnapped around noon on his way home from a
neighbor's funeral in Baghdad's eastern Shiite district of Sadr
City. Kidnappers demanded $100,000, but the father of six said he
only had $10,000. 3 days later police found the boy dumped in the
garbage with his head and hands chopped off. His body showed burns
and marks of torture.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 1, Ammar al-Hakim
(38), the son of the late leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political
party, acknowledged setbacks and reached out to political rivals as
he formally replaced his father at the helm of the Iranian-backed
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Two American soldiers were killed in
a vehicle accident in northern Iraq.
(AP, 9/1/09)(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, In Iraq a car bomb
apparently targeting Osama al-Tikriti, the leader of Iraq's largest
Sunni political party (the Iraqi Islamic Party), wounded four people
in Baqouba. The politician escaped unharmed. Police arrested Adnan
al-Obeidi, the deputy transport minister, after he was allegedly
filmed taking a bribe in a sting operation. Police had filmed
al-Obeidi accepting a $100,000 bribe from a company doing work at
the Baghdad airport.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, A water rights
battle over the historic Tigris and Euphrates rivers simmered, as
Iraq and Syria appealed for increased water flows to cope with
severe drought but Turkey said it was already too overstretched.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 3, In Iraq Ahmed
Hashim Abed, suspected of masterminding the March 31, 2004, attack
on Blackwater guards, was captured in a covert operation by US Navy
SEALs. Abed later alleged that he was beaten by US Navy SEALs. In
2010 two of the 3 accused Navy SEALs were acquitted. Petty Officer
2nd Class Matthew McCabe, of Perrysburg, Ohio, the SEAL charged with
assaulting Abed, was scheduled to be court-martialed May 3, 2010, in
Virginia.
(AP, 4/22/10)(http://tinyurl.com/yd5smcb)(AP,
4/23/10)
2009 Sep 5, In Iraq hundreds of
Sunni Arabs opposed to the presence of Kurdish troops in disputed
areas of northern Iraq demonstrated against a plan to deploy a mixed
force of American, Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers in the area.
(AP, 9/5/09)
2009 Sep 6, In Iraq a gunman
broke into a house in Mosul, killing a 3-year-old girl and her
grandmother before fleeing. Gunmen also attacked checkpoints in the
city, killing three policemen. In southeast Baghdad, a car parked
near a security checkpoint exploded, killing one person and wounding
five civilians.
(AP, 9/6/09)
2009 Sep 7, In western Iraq a
suicide car bomber targeted a line of vehicles stopped at a
checkpoint near Ramadi, killing eight people and wounding 16. In
Baghdad a bomb killed a driver as he approached a military
checkpoint in Sadr City district. Two children playing with a hand
grenade they found in a stream were killed when it exploded in the
northern city of Kirkuk. Abdul-Basit Turki, director general of the
Finance Ministry’s auditing department, was charged with wasting
public funds.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 8, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed Lt. Col. Zaid Hussein Khalaf, the head of an
anti-terrorism police unit, and four of his bodyguards in the
northern town of Armili, home to a large Shiite population. A
roadside bomb struck a police patrol near the town of Daqouq,
killing two policemen and wounding 3 others. A Health Ministry
official escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit
his convoy in the eastern part of Baghdad, but one ministry employee
died in the blast. Roadside bombs killed 4 US soldiers in separate
incidents.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 8, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed Lt. Col. Zaid Hussein Khalaf, the head of an
anti-terrorism police unit, and four of his bodyguards in the
northern town of Armili, home to a large Shiite population. A
roadside bomb struck a police patrol near the town of Daqouq,
killing two policemen and wounding 3 others. A Health Ministry
official escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit
his convoy in the eastern part of Baghdad, but one ministry employee
died in the blast. Roadside bombs killed 4 US soldiers in separate
incidents.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 9, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded outside a house in the flash point city of Kirkuk, killing
eight people inside the building and wounding one. US-backed Iraqi
soldiers raided a home in southeastern Baghdad before dawn, killing
two men inside and arresting an Iraqi soldier from an intelligence
unit. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi patrol in the Abu Ghraib
district, killing one soldier and injuring two others. An Iraqi army
colonel was killed by a bomb attached to his car in the insurgent
stronghold of Mosul.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 10, In northern Iraq a
suicide truck bomber hit the Kurdish village of Wardek before dawn,
killing at least 25 people and injuring 50 others, in what appeared
to be the latest in a string of attacks targeting Kurds and other
ethnic and religious groups in the region. The government of the
semiautonomous Kurdish region arrested the head of the provincial
intelligence service, Brig. Abdul-Rahman Ali, on accusations he was
directly involved in the planning of an Aug. 13 bombing near Mosul.
3 successive bombs exploded at a popular market in the city of
Mahmoudiya, killing 4 people and wounding 30. Violence broke out at
Abu Ghraib prison and two prisoners were killed.
(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 11, In Iraq prison
inmates at Abu Ghraib rioted for a 2nd day to demand better
conditions. The facility, now under Iraqi control, has been renamed
the Baghdad Central Prison.
(SFC, 9/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Sep 12, In Iraq 2 bombs
exploded moments apart near the tomb of a revered Shiite religious
figure in central Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 22. A
bomb attached to a civilian car exploded in the northwest of
Baghdad, killing the driver and wounding two passengers. 4 people
were killed by a roadside bomb in Diyala province. In the northern
city of Mosul, a roadside bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol,
prompting soldiers to open fire to scare off any attackers. A stray
bullet from the shooting killed a traffic policeman.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 13, In Iraq gunmen
broke into the home of a Kurdish policeman in Kirkuk, killing his
wife and three children execution-style with shots to the head as
they slept. Two separate police patrols were hit with roadside bombs
in southern Kirkuk, wounding six policemen. Four people were killed
in an area about 60 miles (100km) south of Mosul in a tribal
dispute. A civilian contractor was shot and killed on an American
military base in Tikrit. A US soldier was detained in connection
with the incident. US and Iraqi forces killed one fighter, captured
another and seized a truck loaded with weapons in Mosul, an area of
that remains an insurgent stronghold. Later Iraqi policemen
searching for the gunman who escaped clashed with insurgents. Two
policemen and two insurgents were killed.
(AP, 9/13/09)(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 15, Three rockets were
fired at Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where visiting Vice
President Joe Biden was spending the night. A fourth rocket fell
short and hit a residential building, killing two and injuring five
others. US-Iraqi forces arrested three militants suspected of firing
the rockets.
(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 15, In Turkey security
talks failed over Syria's refusal to extradite some suspects accused
of deadly bombings in Baghdad. Senior Iraqi and Syrian diplomats
attended the talks.
(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 16, In Iraq the US
military closed Camp Bucca, an isolated desert prison that was once
its largest lockup in Iraq, as it moved to release thousands of
detainees or transfer them to Iraqi custody before the end of the
year. American Marines shot and wounded an Iraqi man in the former
flashpoint city of Fallujah believing he was throwing a grenade at
them. Local police and witnesses said the object was only the man's
slipper. Al-Jumaili, a 30-year-old auto mechanic, said he ran after
throwing his slipper, but was slowed after a bullet grazed his leg.
(AP, 9/16/09)(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded at a market in Mahmoudiya, a region that was once the scene
of frequent attacks on Shiites, killing seven people and wounding 21
others.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 20, In Iraq a roadside
bomb exploded on a main road in Iskandariyah, 30 miles (50km) south
of Baghdad, killing the driver of a car and injuring four
passengers. A Black Hawk helicopter crashed at a Balad Air Base,
killing one US service member and injuring 12 others.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 21, A Danish court
rejected the military's request to stop a book by a former special
forces soldier from being published. Denmark's armed forces had
asked the Bailiff's Court in Copenhagen to ban Thomas Rathsack's
book, "Ranger: At War With the Elite," for national security
reasons. It describes operations that he took part in as a member of
an army ranger unit in Afghanistan and Iraq.
(AP, 9/21/09)
2009 Sep 23, In Iraq a bomb in
southwestern Baghdad killed a woman and her 2 children. Other
bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul killed at least 7
Iraqi security personnel and a local politician. 5 al-Qaida-linked
prisoners awaiting execution and 11 other inmates broke out of a
prison, just before midnight, in Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit, prompting a massive manhunt. More than 100 prison officials
and guards were soon detained for questioning. 6 of the escaped
convicts, including 3 of the al-Qaida linked inmates, were arrested
by late Sep 25. Iraqi security teams recaptured two more of
prisoners on Sep 26.
(AP, 9/23/09)(AP, 9/24/09)(AP, 9/25/09)(AP,
9/26/09)
2009 Sep 25, In Iraq a
controlled explosion of weapons confiscated by the Iraqi military
went awry east of Mosul, killing 15 soldiers.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 26, In northern Iraq a
US military drone crashed, hitting a regional office of Iraq's
largest Sunni political party in Mosul, an area that remains an
insurgent stronghold. At least six suspected insurgents were
killed in a raid by Iraqi police about 50 miles (85km) northwest of
Kirkuk. Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman during a drive-by
shooting in central Mosul.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Iraq a tanker
truck packed with explosives ripped through a police outpost,
killing at least 7 people in a suicide attack at a former insurgent
stronghold outside Ramadi. In a separate attack, at least three
Iraqi soldiers were killed in a double roadside bombing in the
predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah in western Baghdad.
In southern Iraq, bomb attached to a bus exploded in mostly Shiite
southern Iraq, killing at least six. In northern Iraq, a roadside
bomb targeting a police patrol in Mosul killed two officers and
wounded two. The US military freed another 35 members of a group
linked to the abduction of five British citizens from Iraq's Finance
Ministry in 2007. The prisoner release means nearly 100 members of
Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, have left U.S. custody
since late last week. In total, about 250 have been freed since July
as talks intensify over the fate of Peter Moore, the sole British
hostage believed to be still alive.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Oct 1, In Iraq an American
soldier was killed in a mortar attack at Baghdad's Camp Liberty. The
death raises to at least 4,348 members of the US military who have
died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an
Associated Press count.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, An Iraqi commander
said security forces have detained more than 100 suspects in sweeps
through Mosul to try to cripple the country's last major stronghold
of Sunni insurgents.
(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 4, In Iraq a fuel
tanker exploded near a checkpoint outside of Baghdad International
Airport, along a route once known as the world's deadliest road
because of frequent attacks there during the height of the
insurgency. The cause of the fire was under investigation. The body
of Imad Elia (45), an employee at Kirkuk's health directorate, was
found dumped in a field south of Kirkuk. He was shot in the chest
and authorities believe the captors kept shooting into his body
after he was dead. Elia was kidnapped two days before, but his
family was unable to pay the ransom demands. At least 10 Christian
families have left Kirkuk in recent weeks, fearing kidnap-for-ransom
gangs that have turned their sights on Christians.
(AP, 10/4/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed at least six mourners at funeral for a member of a
prominent tribe with ties to both security forces and insurgents in
Haditha, Anbar province.
(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 6, In Iraq a car bomb
blew up in front of a restaurant near Fallujah and killed 9 people
with dozens more wounded.
(SFC, 10/7/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 7, In Iraq a group of
36 Iranian opposition members were returned to Camp Ashraf, after
nearly three months in Iraqi custody and despite an ongoing effort
to expel them. A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Jalula,
Diyala province, killing three officers. PM Nouri al-Maliki told a
group of business leaders gathered in Baghdad that Iraq's budget was
strained by the number of police and soldiers needed to protect the
country.
(AP, 10/7/09)(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Iraq Jamal
Humadi, a Sunni cleric who denounced insurgents in Iraq, was killed
north of Baghdad when a bomb tore through his car, the second such
attack against religious officials in as many weeks.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 10, It was reported
that local Iraqi authorities have outlawed alcohol in the province
of Najaf, home to the holiest Shiite city, saying it contradicts the
principles of Islam. The Najaf provincial council's decision
followed a similar measure taken in August by authorities in Basra.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 11, In Iraq a series
of bombings killed at least 19 people and wounded 60 in Ramadi,
Anbar province.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 13, Iraqi lawmakers
approved the return of a limited number of British troops to Iraq to
help protect the country's southern oil ports, an area where Iraq is
lagging in its ability to provide security. The Iraqi Human Rights
Ministry released a report as part of a larger study on the
country's human rights situation, saying 85,694 people were killed
from 2004-08, and 147,195 were wounded during the same period that
followed the US-led invasion. UNESCO said drought has forced more
than 100,000 people in northern Iraq to abandon their homes since
2005, with 36,000 more on the verge of leaving.
(AP, 10/13/09)(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 14, In Iraq PM
al-Maliki suspended classes for one week and banned political
activities at Mustansirija Univ., one of Baghdad's leading
universities, following student protests on campus. Members of the
“Students League,” with alleged ties to the government, had recently
pistol-whipped education Prof. Abdullah al-Bayati (63). Attacks took
place in Baghdad and the holy Shiite city of Karbala, where three
bombs exploded near simultaneously. At least 12 people were killed
and more than 50 wounded.
(AP, 10/14/09)(AP, 10/15/09)(SFC, 10/20/09, p.A3)
2009 Oct 15, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki warned Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop conducting
military operations across Iraq's northern border targeting Kurdish
rebels and stressed that Iraq's sovereignty can not be violated. The
two met in Baghdad and were to sign agreements boosting economic
ties between their countries. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army
patrol in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 16, In northern Iraq a
suicide bomber opened fire on worshippers during prayers at a mosque
in Tal Afar and then blew himself up after running out of
ammunition, killing at least 15 people. 65 were wounded in the
attack. A government aide said Mohammed al-Dayni, a Sunni lawmaker
accused of being an insurgent ringleader, has been detained in
Malaysia.
(AP, 10/16/09)(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Iraq a suicide
bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge on a
highway used by the departing US military outside Ramadi. An attack
on an Iraqi army convoy just outside of the city of Fallujah killed
four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14. Attackers threw hand grenades at
an Iraqi army patrol near Kirkuk, killing two civilians and wounding
two others. In Mosul 2 policemen and one civilian were killed in
three unrelated incidents.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 18, In Iraq a bomb
attached to a motorcycle exploded near a popular cafe in a largely
Sunni district of Baghdad killing five people. In the north an
American soldier was killed in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 19, An Iraqi Army
patrol in western part of Mosul shot dead an armed man, who was
firing at the patrol. An American solider was killed and two others
were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle in
Ninevah province.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 20, In Iraq a car
packed with explosives blew up at a gas station in Saqlawiyah, 45
miles (75km) west of Baghdad, killing 3 policemen and one civilian.
In northern Baghdad, one civilian was killed and 4 were wounded when
a bomb attached to a minibus exploded in Kazimiyah, a primarily
Shiite suburb of the capital. Minutes later, a roadside bomb
targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad wounded 3 civilians. In
Hilla, just south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police
patrol killed one policeman and wounded two others. In Mosul a
roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two soldiers
and one civilian.
(AP, 10/20/09)
2009 Oct 21, In Iraq a blast in
Kirkuk killed cameraman Orhan Hijran, who worked for Baghdad-based
television station Al-Rasheed, and wounded correspondent Mohammed
Shahid of Cairo-based Al-Baghdadiyah.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 22, In Iraq a local
police chief said 6 suspected al-Qaida members, including two who
were formerly detained by US troops, were arrested near the western
Iraqi city of Fallujah. They had been released in July for lack of
evidence. A local criminal court in Diyala province issued an arrest
warrant for parliamentarian Tayseer al-Mashhadani a Sunni member of
parliament, and her husband, Hashim al-Hiyali, on suspicion of
financing and inciting sectarian violence.
(AP, 10/22/09)(AP, 10/24/09)
2009 Oct 24, In Iraq a suicide
bomber wearing an explosive vest in Tikrit killed two people outside
the offices of a Sunni political party called National Unity.
(AP, 10/24/09)
2009 Oct 25, In Iraq 2 suicide
car bombs exploded in downtown Baghdad, killing 155 people. The car
bombs targeted the Justice Ministry and the Baghdad provincial
administration. The explosions also injured some 500 people who were
taken to six area hospitals. 11 army officers and 50 security
officials were soon taken into custody over the bombings. Three
jailed suspects in the bombings later said they filmed the targeted
buildings before the attack and escorted the car bombs in a convoy
into Baghdad.
(AP, 10/25/09)(AP, 10/26/09)(AP, 10/30/09)(AP,
11/22/09)
2009 Oct 26, In Iraq a car bomb
at a police checkpoint near Karbala killed at least 4 people.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 28, Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani said the Kurds would not accept a proposed "special
status," referring to distinct voting rules specifically for Kirkuk
in Iraq's January election, which Kurds say would favor other
ethnicities.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 30, Two American
soldiers in Iraq died of noncombat related injuries in separate
incidents.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct, Turkish ministers
traveled to Baghdad and Damascus to sign a package of 48
co-operation deals with Iraq and 40 with Syria, covering everything
from tourism to counter-terrorism and joint military exercises.
(Econ, 10/31/09, p.57)
2009 Nov 1, In southern Iraq a
bomb attached to a bicycle near Hillah killed five people and
wounded 37. In the western city of Ramadi, two people — including a
policeman — were killed when twin car bombs exploded minutes apart
in the visitors' parking lot of the city's Traffic Police
Directorate. 3 people were killed when a bomb that was detonated
remotely exploded on a bus as the vehicle approached a police
checkpoint in the southern city of Karbala.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Iraq an American
soldier died of noncombat related injuries.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 4, In Iraq 2 American
soldiers died, one in combat and one of noncombat-related injuries.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 5, A consortium
grouping US and European oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal
Dutch Shell PLC signed a $50 billion deal to develop one of Iraq's
most prized oil fields, as the OPEC nation looks to revamp its
battered energy sector. The deal to develop the 8.6 billion West
Qurna Stage 1 field is the third such agreement in less than a week
between a foreign oil consortium and Iraq, which sorely needs
foreign company expertise and funding to revive an oil sector
hammered by years of neglect, sanctions and, most recently sabotage.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 8, In Iraq 2 American
pilots were killed in a helicopter crash while a Marine died of
noncombat related injuries in a separate incident.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 15, In gunmen wearing
Iraqi army uniforms abducted and killed 13 men and boys in the
village of al-Saadan, a village west of Baghdad, in what some
described as revenge against Sunnis who helped fight al-Qaida. Many
of the victims were beheaded, while others were shot and mutilated.
(SFC, 11/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Nov 16, In Kirkuk a parked
car bomb exploded in a market, killing two civilians and wounding 10
others. An American soldier died of injuries sustained in a vehicle
accident during a patrol. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
dropped in on US troops in Iraq, thanking them for the sacrifices
they and their families are making.
(AP, 11/16/09)(AP, 11/17/09)(SFC, 11/17/09, p.A8)
2009 Nov 16, US federal
prosecutors said the Kuwait logistics firm, Public Warehousing co.,
had inflated prices and defrauded the US government under its
multi-billion dollar contract to feed American troops. The contract
was set to expire in December 2010.
(SFC, 11/17/09, p.D2)
2009 Nov 22, An American
soldier was killed in action in Iraq.
(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 23, Iraqi lawmakers
voted to change the system for distributing parliamentary seats. But
lawmakers from the Sunni minority walked out before the vote, saying
they will lose seats under the change.
(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 25, In Iraq a double
bombing killed 4 people and injured 25 civilians in Karbala ahead of
the 4-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha. 6 others were killed in an
overnight raid by insurgents on a home north of Baghdad.
(AP, 11/25/09)(SFC, 11/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 27, In Iraq a US
soldier died of noncombat-related injuries.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 29, In Iraq an
American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 11/29/09)
2009 Dec 2, In northeast Iraq
an American airstrike killed one gunman after a joint US-Iraqi foot
patrol was attacked in what a police official described as a case of
mistaken identity. A police official said the gunmen opened fire on
the soldiers in Sadiyah, believing they were insurgents.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 3, In Iraq Ahmed Subhi
al-Fahal, a top counterterrorism officer, was killed in a suicide
bombing in Tikrit. The bombing also killed two of his bodyguards and
two bystanders. Within hours dozens of Web sites affiliated with
al-Qaida in Iraq celebrated the death of their longtime nemesis.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 6, In Iraq gunmen
killed four policemen at a checkpoint west of Baghdad in an early
morning attack.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 7, In Iraq an
explosion outside an elementary school in Sadr City, a Shiite
district of Baghdad, killed at least 8 people including 6 children.
Gunmen stormed a checkpoint near Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, killing
five members of an anti-al-Qaida group. A roadside bomb killed one
soldier and wounded two others in southeastern Baghdad, and in the
west of the capital, a bomb attached to a vehicle killed one
civilian.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 8, In Iraq a series of
coordinated attacks struck Baghdad, including two suicide car
bombers and another vehicle that blew up near government sites. At
least 127 were killed and over 500 hundred wounded in the worst wave
of violence in the capital in more than a month.
(AP, 12/8/09)(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 9, In Iraq a bomb
attached to a minibus exploded in northern Baghdad, killing two and
injuring 11. A bomb hidden in a garbage heap killed two street
sweepers and injured three passers-by in northern Baghdad. An hour
later in the same neighborhood a gunman killed a police officer at a
checkpoint.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Dec 10, Iraq’s PM Nuri
al-Maliki accused rivals of stoking political rows that have put
security at risk, as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived on a
surprise visit.. One US soldier died of injuries unrelated to
combat.
(AFP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 11, In Iraq at least
six people were killed after a two-pronged bomb attack south of
Baghdad that was apparently designed to ambush bystanders. A US
soldier in northern Iraq died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 12/11/09)(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 11, Iraq struck deals
with consortiums led by Anglo-Dutch and Chinese giants Shell and
CNPC over massive southern oil fields, as part of a two-day auction
that seeks to dramatically boost the country's crude output.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, Iraq sold Russian
firm Lukoil rights to the West Qurna-2 oil field, one of the world's
biggest untapped oil fields, on the 2nd day of an auction. Lukoil
will work with junior partner StatoilHydro of Norway.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 13, Iraq's top
security chiefs said that the US military had warned them in advance
about an imminent attack but the tip came too late to act on before
last week's deadly Baghdad bombings against government sites. The
also said that 13 al-Qaida-linked suspects have been detained in
connection with the Dec 8 bombings.
(AP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 15, In Iraq car bombs
and other explosions ripped through Baghdad and Mosul, killing nine
people and highlighting once again the apparent ease with which
insurgents can slip past security. 3 car bombs in Baghdad killed 5
people. 2 car bombs in Mosul killed 4 people.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 15, Disarmed Iranian
rebels and their families defied Iraqi police instructions to leave
a camp near the border which the government has ordered closed.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 16, Iraq’s PM Nuri
al-Maliki said the Iraqi cabinet has approved a plan to offer
rewards of up to 85,000 dollars for tip-offs about car bombs. A bomb
attached to a car killed an Awakening Council member and injured two
others in Madain, about 14 miles south of Baghdad. A bomb hidden
inside a sack left in a minibus killed two passengers and wounded 6
others mid-afternoon in Baghdad's northern Kazimiyah neighborhood.
(AFP, 12/16/09)(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 17, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded outside a popular restaurant in central Baghdad, killing 3
people and wounding 16 as diners were out enjoying the start to
their weekend.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dec 17, Iranian forces
took control of Well 4, a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed
section of the border in Maysan province. Well 4 lies in the Fauqa
Field, part of a cluster of fields Iraq unsuccessfully put up for
auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of
1.55 million barrels. There have been a number of meetings in recent
years aimed at reaching agreement on border fields, so far without
success.
(AFP, 12/18/09)(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 19, An Iraqi official
said a mass grave discovered in northeast Iraq contains dozens of
bodies, mostly of women and children, believed killed during a
crackdown against Kurds by former dictator Saddam Hussein. The grave
was originally found nearly two years ago west of Kirkuk, though its
discovery was only made public this week after forensic pathologists
began examining it.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 19, Iraqi troops
massed near an oil well on the border in a standoff with Iranian
forces that seized control of the site in a sudden flare up of
tension between the two uneasy neighbors.
(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 20, Iraqi oil workers
returned to the disputed oil well No. 4 in southern Iraq that was
seized by Iranian forces Dec 17. Baghdad also confirmed that Iranian
troops left the well.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 20, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki opened a landmark visit to Egypt in what aides described
as an ambitious attempt to improve relations with one of the Arab
world's most powerful players.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 21, In northern Iraq a
suicide bomber attacked the convoy of a Tel Afar city council chief,
killing Hussein Akrash and three guards.
(AP, 12/21/09)
2009 Dec 23, In northern Iraq a
bomb targeting the Mar Toma Church (Church of St. Thomas) killed 2
men and damaged the historic building in Mosul, a day before
Christmas Eve services that will be heavily guarded for fear of more
attacks on the country's Christian minority. Gunmen stormed a
checkpoint in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi police
officers. A bomb planted on a minibus killed two people and injured
five in a Shiite neighborhood in north Baghdad. In East Baghdad a
bomb struck Shiite pilgrims marching toward Karbala killing 3
people. Saud al-Essawi, a Sunni Arab candidate for Iraqi
parliamentary elections, and his two bodyguards were killed when a
magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to his car exploded in Fallujah.
Another bomb in Fallujah targeted an Anbar University professor but
missed and killed the man's brother.
(AP, 12/23/09)(AFP, 12/23/09)(SFC, 12/24/09,
p.A3)
2009 Dec 24, In Iraq explosions
killed at least 26 people across the country, most of them Shiite
pilgrims taking part in a holy mourning ceremony. Twin explosions
targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Hillah killed at least 13 people
and injured 74 others. In Baghdad a bomb targeting a funeral killed
nine and wounded 33 in Sadr City. In a southern Baghdad
neighborhood, a bomb killed four Shiite pilgrims and wounded 10
others on their way to Karbala.
(AP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed 6 Shiite Muslim pilgrims in a procession marking the
ten-day Shiite festival of Ashoura, which ends Dec 27.
(AP, 12/25/09)(SFC, 12/26/09, p.A5)
2009 Dec 26, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed three Shiite pilgrims in eastern Baghdad, the latest
round of violence to strike worshippers during a revered mourning
observance. Another pilgrim was killed in southern Baghdad late in
the day when a bomb struck a procession.
(AP, 12/26/09)(AP, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 27, In northeast Iraq
a bomb killed five Shiite pilgrims in a procession in the town of
Tuz Khormato. Blasts in Baghdad killed 2 more pilgrims as millions
of people marched to commemorate Ashoura, the most important Shiite
religious observance. The 10-day religious ceremonies culminated
today with huge processions.
(AP, 12/27/09)(SFC, 12/28/09, p.A4)
2009 Dec 28, An Iraqi
government official said around 40 Iranians held in an Iraqi prison
in Nasiriyah are on a hunger strike to demand meetings with Iranian
officials about their cases. The prisoners were convicted of
illegally crossing the border to commit terrorist acts and were
sentenced to between five and seven years behind bars.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 29, In central Iraq
gunmen killed five Sunni security guards, including one by
beheading, in a gruesome pre-dawn slaying at a Tal Massoud village
checkpoint. The victims were part of the Sunni tribe of Khazraj.
They are the latest example of attacks on Sahwa, the Arabic word for
Awakening. An Iraqi army intelligence officer was killed in the
eastern Baghdad neighborhood of al Baladiyat. Drive-by shooters
targeted Iraqi Army 1st Lt. Wadi Direa Atiyah as he was driving his
car.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 30, In Iraq staggered
explosions killed at least 26 people in Ramadi, 13 of them
policemen, and wounded Anbar provincial governor Kassim Mohammad
Fahdlawi as well as some 100 others. Peter Moore, a British hostage
held for over two years by militants, was released safely in
Baghdad. In the town of Khalis, about 50 miles (80km) northeast of
Baghdad, a bomb killed 7 pilgrims taking part in a procession to
commemorate the death of a Shiite revered saint.
(AP, 12/30/09)(Reuters, 12/30/09)(SFC, 12/31/09,
p.A3)
2009 Dec 30, An Iraqi official
said the Angolan national oil company Sonangol has signed
preliminary deals to develop two small oil fields in northern Iraq.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec 31, US District Judge
Ricardo Urbina dismissed the case against the Blackwater guards
accused of the shooting in a crowded Baghdad intersection on Sep 16,
2007.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 1, In Iraq a US
soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iraq 3 policemen
were killed and eight people were wounded by two explosions in the
northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 6, Five Iraqis were
killed and eight injured after their minibus collided with a US
military vehicle that was traveling in the wrong lane 80 km south of
Baghdad. In northern Iraq a US army soldier died of injuries
unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, In Iraq a series of
5 blasts killed at least 8 people in western Anbar province. In
Diyala province a bomb exploded near a police station, killing one
policeman and injuring ten other people near the Iranian border.
(AP, 1/7/10)(SFC, 1/8/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 11, In Iraq a bomb
attached to a pickup truck in an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker's convoy
wounded five people, including three of his bodyguards, when it
exploded in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 12, Iraqi security
forces locked down large swathes of Baghdad, seized hundreds of
pounds of explosives and arrested 25 men suspected of plotting
terror attacks possibly timed to coincide with the run-up to
parliamentary elections in March.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, Iraqi police
arrested Khalid al-Khonfisi, a man wanted for his alleged
involvement with al-Qaida in Iraq. He was captured in a police raid
of his hideout near Jurf al-Sakhar, about 43 miles south of Baghdad.
A water truck loaded with explosives was detonated in a suicide
attack in Saqlawiya, Anbar province, killing 7 people.
(AP, 1/14/10)(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 14, Iraq's electoral
commission barred 500 candidates from running in March's
parliamentary election, including a prominent Sunni lawmaker, in a
decision that is sure to deepen Iraq's sectarian divides. A Baghdad
court sentenced 11 Iraqis to death by hanging after convicting them
of carrying out the first of a series of audacious attacks on Aug
19, 2009, targeting government buildings in the heart of the city.
(AP, 1/14/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Iraq gunmen in
a speeding car opened fire on a police checkpoint in the western
neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing two policemen.
(AP, 1/16/10)
2010 Jan 17, In Iraq Saddam
Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" was convicted and
sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the gassing of Kurds in
1988, killing more than 5,000 in an air raid thought to be the worst
single attack of its kind on civilians.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Iraq gunmen
broke into the office of an Iraqi humanitarian organization in
Baghdad and killed five employees.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 19, The head of an
Iraqi national reconciliation committee said he hopes to place all
the estimated 96,000 members of the Sons of Iraq movement in
government jobs by the middle of the year. The government said it
has found jobs for nearly 50,000 Sunni fighters who played a key
role in US efforts to fight insurgents.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 20, In Iraq an
audacious robbery attempt in Baghdad left 3 dead and 6 wounded. The
suspects escaped. A roadside bomb struck a patrol in Kirkuk killing
a police lieutenant. A US soldier died of injuries from a vehicle
accident that was not related to combat.
(AP, 1/20/10)(AP, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 22, In northern Iraq
Saad Uwayid Obeid Mijbil al-Shammari, also known as Abu Khalaf, a
key al-Qaida in Iraq leader was killed during a joint Iraqi-US raid
in Mosul. Intelligence officials said he was responsible for
bringing hundreds of suicide bombers across the border from Syria.
(AP, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 23, The US Marine
Corps wrapped up nearly seven years in Iraq, handing over duties to
the Army and signaling the beginning of an accelerated withdrawal of
American troops as the US turns its focus away from the waning Iraqi
war to a growing one in Afghanistan. Iraqi-American contractor Issa
T. Salomi (60) went missing in Baghdad. Shiite militants executed
the kidnapping after luring him into central Baghdad with promises
of visiting distant relatives. In a video that later surfaced, his
abductors from the League of the Righteous, demanded the release of
militants and the prosecution of Blackwater security contractors
accused of killing 17 Iraqis in 2007 in Baghdad. Salomi was freed on
March 25 in exchange for 4 militants.
(AP, 1/23/10)(AP, 2/6/10)(SFC, 8/13/10, p.A3)
2010 Jan 25, In Iraq suicide
bombers struck near three hotels popular with Western journalists
and businessmen just as Iraq announced the execution of Saddam
Hussein's notorious cousin known as "Chemical Ali." At least 41
people were killed and more than 104 injured. The explosions came
hours after an Iraqi security official defended the ADE651, made by
the British company ATSC, a bomb-detecting device that Britain
banned for export to Iraq because of questions about whether it
works, saying it would be a "big mistake" to withdraw it from
checkpoints.
(AP, 1/25/10)(Econ, 1/30/10, p.57)
2010 Jan 26, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber struck a police crime lab in central Baghdad, killing at
least 22 people and injuring dozens a day after suicide attacks hit
several hotels favored by Western journalists. Baghdad officials put
the death toll at 17.
(AP, 1/26/10)(SFC, 1/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 28, In southern Iraq
an American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated an explosives belt at a restaurant popular with
security forces in Samarra, a city that was once a flash point for
sectarian slaughter, killing at least two people.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Iraq a female
suicide bomber mingling among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad
detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people on the
outskirts of the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 3, An Iraqi appeals
court struck down a ban imposed on hundreds of candidates for
suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's regime, allowing them to run in
next month's election. A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle ripped
through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims, killing at least 20 people and
wounding more than 100, as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims made
their way to an important annual Shiite religious observance. Hours
earlier, two separate roadside bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims
exploded in Baghdad, killing one and wounding seven others. A senior
security official said agents arrested 13 suspects believed involved
in making explosive belts for suicide attacks.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 5, In Iraq twin car
bombs tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as
they walked to Karbala south of Baghdad for a major religious
observance, killing at least 40 people and wounding 154 others. A
roadside bomb struck a bus carrying pilgrims through Baghdad,
killing one and wounding 13.
(AP, 2/5/10)
2010 Feb 6, Iraqi leaders
pushed the country's highest court to issue a quick ruling on
hundreds of candidates who have been banned from running in March
elections, warning that parliament will settle the controversy if
the judges don't.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 10, In Iraq an
American soldier died of injuries unrelated to combat.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 11, The Iraqi interior
minister said he had expelled 250 ex-employees of the American
security firm Blackwater, whose guards were charged with killing
unarmed civilians in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 12, In Iraq a joint
raid by American and Iraqi security forces on suspected weapons
smugglers in the village of Ali al-Sharqi near the Iranian border
left at least five people dead. The troops were searching for
weapons allegedly smuggled across the border by suspected
Iranian-backed Kateb Hezbollah fighters.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Iraq about 10
rockets struck Camp Sparrowhawk near Amarah early in the morning,
injuring two Iraqi soldiers and damaging equipment.
(AP, 2/13/10)
2010 Feb 14, Iraqi officials
said only one in five candidates accused of being loyalists to
Saddam Hussein's regime successfully fought an order banning them
from running in the national elections. Armed assailants in Mosul
killed Rayan Salem Elias, a Chaldean, outside his home.
(AP, 2/14/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Iraq
greengrocer Fatukhi Munir was gunned down inside his Mosul shop in a
drive-by shooting.
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 16, In Iraq Zia Toma
(21), an engineering student, was killed in Mosul, the third in as
many days, as community leaders warned of rising violence against
the minority ahead of Iraq's March 7 general election. The gunman
also wounded pharmacy student Ramsin Shmael (22), both Assyrian
Christians.
(AFP, 2/16/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, In Iraq the
bullet-riddled body of Assyrian Christian student Wissam George (20)
was recovered in Mosul after he went missing the same morning.
(AP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 17, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates announced that the Obama administration has decided to
give the war in Iraq a new name, "Operation New Dawn," effective
Sept 1, to reflect the reduced role US troops will play in securing
the country this year as troop levels fall.
(http://tinyurl.com/3dhn288)
2010 Feb 18, In Iraq a suicide
car bomb exploded outside the gate of the main government compound
in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, killing at least 13
people, including 4 police. At least 26 people were wounded.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 19, Iraq rejected
calls to abolish or suspend capital punishment made during a review
by the UN's top human rights body. Iraq has also dismissed
suggestions that it should reduce the number of crimes for which the
death penalty can be imposed.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 20, Iraq's main Sunni
party said it is dropping out of next month's national elections,
seizing on U.S. concerns about Iran's influence in the political
process as proof that the vote will not be legitimate. Iraqi police
said they found Adnan al-Dahan (57), a Syrian Orthodox shopkeeper,
shot to death in Mosul, the fifth Christian killing in a week
thought to be related to March elections.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 20 - 2010, Feb 23, In
Iraq 8,080 computers, worth $1.8 million from US taxpayers, arrived
at the port of Umm Qasr destined for school children in Babil, but
failed to reached their destination. In August Iraqis auctioned
4,200 of the computers for $45,700. Whereabouts of the rest were
unknown. In Sep arrest warrants were issued for 10 customs officials
at Umm Qasr and investigations continued.
(SSFC, 9/26/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 21, Kathryn Bigelow's
Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" swept the board at the BAFTA awards
in London, winning the best film and director awards and leaving
ex-husband James Cameron almost empty-handed.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Iraq assailants
killed 8 members of a Shiite family in a village outside Baghdad,
shooting some and beheading others, just one of a series of
pre-election shooting and car bombing attacks that swept the
country, killing at least 23 people.
(AP, 2/22/10)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A3)
2010 Feb 23, In Iraq an
American soldier died in a vehicle related accident in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Iraq Saleh
al-Mutlaq, a top Sunni lawmaker who just last week pulled his party
out of the upcoming election, announced that his National Dialogue
Front would contest the crucial March 7 vote.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Iraq reinstated
20,000 former army officers dismissed after the 2003 US-led invasion
for serving under the former dictator, a landmark gesture at
reconciliation ahead of the March 7 elections.
(AP, 2/27/10)
2010 Mar 3, In Iraq a string of
three deadly suicide bombings killed 30 people in the former
insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, including a blast from a suicide
bomber who rode in an ambulance with the wounded before blowing
himself up at a hospital.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 4, In Iraq a string of
blasts ripped through Baghdad targeting early voters and killing 17
people, raising tensions in an already nervous city as early ballots
are cast for the March 14 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a bus for pilgrims in the Shiite city of Najaf,
killing at least three people, including two Iranians, on the eve of
key national elections.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 7, Iraq held its 2nd
election since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein. 62% of Iraqis
voted. Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at
voters, killing at least 37 people in 136 attacks aimed at
intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine
whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have
plagued it since the 2003 US-led invasion. PM Nuri al-Maliki, the
Shiite who helped ease Iraq's sectarian strife, soon emerged as a
front-runner in a parliamentary election. Former PM Ayad Allawi
edged out chief rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89.
(AP, 3/7/10)(AFP, 3/8/10)(SFC, 3/9/10, p.A3)(SFC,
3/11/10, p.A2)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 8, In Iraq 2 American
soldiers died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki underwent surgery. He was released from the hospital the
next day in good health. US troops opened fire on a car in western
Baghdad, killing Iraqi journalist Aseel al-Obeidi and her husband.
(AP, 3/11/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Mar 11, Preliminary
election results released by Iraq's electoral commission showed PM
Nouri al-Maliki leading in Babil province by nearly 14,000 votes and
in Najaf by 7,000, two Shiite provinces in southern Iraq. Manaf
Abdul al-Rawi, alleged Baghdad leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, was
arrested. He soon gave investigators information that eventually led
to the April 18 strike that killed Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu
Ayyub al-Masri.
(AP, 3/11/10)(SFC, 4/23/10, p.A2)(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 Mar 14, In Iraq early
results released by the electoral commission showed the prime
minister's political coalition ahead in oil-rich Basra province,
strengthening his lead in the country's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 15, In Iraq the US
military turned over the Taji prison holding some 2,900 detainees to
Iraqi authorities. A suicide car bomber killed 8 people and wounded
28 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the
morning rush hour in Fallujah. In northern Iraq an American soldier
died in a vehicle accident.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AFP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Iraq a roadside
bomb and a gun attack killed four people and wounded seven others in
Baghdad.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest
partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger,
former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the
prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on
the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond
to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 22, In Iraq 4 people
were killed, including two policemen, in shootings in Baghdad.
(AFP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 24, In Iraq gunmen
riding in two cars shot dead five Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in
the suburbs of Baghdad. Iraqi forces arrested 17 suspects in the
area.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 26, Iraq’s election
commission announced that former PM Ayad Allawi edged out chief
rival PM Nouri al-Maliki by two seats, 91-89, in the March 7 vote
for a 325-member parliament.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 27, Iran used an
ancient new year celebration to reach out to Afghanistan,
Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey at a summit
meeting that projected Iranian leadership in the strategic region
straddling the Middle East and Central Asia.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 28, In Iraq several
bombs exploded near a house linked to a prominent Sunni figure who
ran in this month's parliamentary elections, killing five people and
wounding 26 others.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, In Iraq the names
of candidates elected for the 325-member parliament were published
in newspapers. Several prominent politicians, long considered
untouchable in the political arena, failed to make it into
parliament following the country's March 7 elections. A pair of car
bombs in the holy city of Karbala killed at least four people and
wounded 22, with the second blast detonating near the provincial
governor's home.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 31, In Iraq gunmen
fatally shot Mohammed Chillab, a health ministry official, at his
home in Baghdad in the latest slaying apparently targeting
government employees. A mobile phone shop owner was gunned down and
killed as he was closing his store for the night.
(AP, 4/1/10)
2010 Mar, Iraq ranked 162nd in
the world in income per head. It was also reported to be the 4th
most corrupt country in the world and 153rd in the world for ease of
doing business. 25% of Iraqis had access to adequate and the same
percent received needed electricity, 22% of the people were
malnourished. Unemployment in rural areas was said to approach 80%.
Over the last 7 years the US has spent $800 billion on Iraq. [That
would be about $2600 per every US man, woman and child.]
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.32,34)
2010 Apr 2, In Iraq Ammar
al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, offered
support for Ayad Allawi, a secular candidate for prime minister in
Iraq, a major blow to the incumbent Nouri al-Maliki. Gunmen trying
to pass themselves off as US and Iraqi soldiers raided a Sunni
village outside Baghdad and killed at least 24 people in an
execution-style attack.
(AP, 4/2/10)(http://tinyurl.com/yb6qm8d)
2010 Apr 3, Gunmen in Iraqi
military uniforms raided a village outside Baghdad and killed at
least 24 people in an execution-style attack, apparently targeting a
Sunni group that revolted against al-Qaida and helped turn the tide
of the Iraq war.
(AP, 4/3/10)
2010 Apr 4, In Iraq suicide
attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad,
killing over 40 people and wounding more than 200 in back-to-back
attacks. Security forces shot and killed a man wearing a suicide
belt before he could detonate a fourth bomb-rigged car near the
former Germany Embassy, which is now a bank. An earlier blast,
believed to be caused by a bomb underneath a parked car killed one
civilian and injured nine others.
(AP, 4/4/10)(AFP, 4/7/10)(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 5, In Iraq a Shiite
couple and four of their children were gunned down in their home
outside Baghdad.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 6, In Iraq at least
five bombs ripped through apartment buildings across Baghdad and
another struck a market, killing some 50 people and wounding more
than 160. Officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents for the
violence.
(AP, 4/6/10)(AFP, 4/7/10)(AP, 4/9/10)
2010 Apr 7, In Iraq spokesman
Salah al-Obeidi announced that a survey of supporters of
anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr voted 24% for him to support
Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was interim prime minister
from 2005 to 2006. Iraq's incumbent PM Nouri al-Maliki and his chief
rival Ayad Allawi received only 10% and 9% of votes respectively. In
northern Iraq 2 American soldiers died in combat while conducting a
patrol.
(AP, 4/7/10)(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 10, In Iraq five
people including a child were killed in a pair of attacks near the
northern city of Mosul. A second roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi
army patrol south of Mosul went off around noon, killing a soldier
and a child.
(AP, 4/10/10)
2010 Apr 11, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki's political party said its investigation into the March 7
parliamentary election has thrown into question some 750,000 votes,
enough to change the results of the nationwide poll.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew up a car in Mosul killing a policeman and a civilian, as
two soldiers were killed near Baghdad.
(AFP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 13, In Iraq a bomb
planted inside a Baghdad liquor store killed three people and
wounded seven.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Iraq gunmen
killed Sheik Ghazi Jabouri (48), a Sunni cleric, outside a Baghdad
mosque where he had just finished leading morning prayers in the
latest wave of attacks in the Iraqi capital that left five people
dead. Iraqi police arrested members of a militant network allegedly
behind the April 4 suicide car bombings against three embassies in
Baghdad, which killed 46 people. The arrests were based on evidence
given by a failed bomber caught on the day of the attacks. On May 4
videotaped confessions were shown of a man identified as the failed
suicide bomber, Haitham Ahmed Khalaf, and the network's alleged
ringleader, Mubarak Mohammed Abbas.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 Apr 17, In northern Iraq
an American soldier was killed and 3 others were wounded in a
helicopter crash near Tikrit.
(AP, 4/18/10)
2010 Apr 18, In Iraq Abu Omar
al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq,
were killed in a nighttime raid on their safehouse near Tikrit. 4
dead men were identified as al-Masri, his assistant, al-Baghdadi and
al-Baghdadi's son. An American soldier died of non-combat related
injuries.
(AP, 4/19/10)(AP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 19, An Iraqi panel
investigating election complaints ordered a recount of more than 2.5
million votes cast in Baghdad during the March 7 election, agreeing
to a demand by PM Nouri al-Maliki that could swing the outcome in
his favor.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 20, Iraqi and US
troops killed Ahmed al-Obeidi (Ahmad Ali Abbas Dahir al-Ubayd), a
regional leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, in an early morning raid in the
northern province of Ninevah. Five family members of a local chief
of an anti-Qaeda militia were gunned down in their homes in
Tarmiyah, north of Baghdad, with the children also beheaded. A
police colonel and his driver were killed by a roadside bomb in the
western city of Hit, while 7 other policemen and 4 civilians were
injured in bombings in Ramadi and Baghdad.
(AP, 4/20/10)(AFP, 4/20/10)(SFC, 4/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 21, In Iraq US
diplomats visited a Baghdad prison that PM al-Maliki has ordered
closed. The prison on the grounds of the Old Muthanna military
airfield had been undisclosed and held hundreds of detainees from
northern Iraq.
(SFC, 4/22/10, p.A5)
2010 Apr 22, In Iraq an
American soldier died of injuries that were not a result of combat.
(AP, 4/23/10)
2010 Apr 23, In Iraq a series
of bomb attacks mainly targeting Shiite worshippers killed 72
people, including 25 near the main Baghdad office of an anti-US
Shiite cleric. An Iraqi soldier was killed as he stormed a house
west of Baghdad where insurgents had stockpiled explosives.
(AP, 4/23/10)(AFP, 4/23/10)(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 25, In Iraq troops
raided the town of al-Safra and arrested Burhan Mahmoud Mohammed, a
local leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. An explosion inside an
iron factory in Irbil killed five workers, including two Indians,
two Arabs, a Kurd, and wounded 15.
(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 25, Kifah Hassan,
chief executive of Iraqi Airways, had his passport seized and the
plane he arrived on was impounded at Gatwick Airport in a
long-running legal dispute with Kuwait Airways. The dispute dated
back to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when,
according to the oil-rich emirate, 10 of its planes and aircraft
parts were plundered after its airport was seized.
(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr 26, An Iraqi court
disqualified 52 candidates from the country's parliamentary
elections, including two who won seats, and threw out their votes in
a decision that could potentially change the outcome of the March 7
vote.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 27, Two Iraqi soldiers
were killed in an overnight mortar attack on a security station in a
Shiite neighborhood in northern Baghdad.
(AP, 4/27/10)
2010 Apr 28, In Iraq former PM
Ayad Allawi, the front-runner in the recent parliamentary elections,
called for the formation of an impartial, internationally supervised
caretaker government to prevent the country from sliding into
violence and counter what he says are efforts to change the vote
results. The US military said an American soldier has been killed by
a roadside blast in the Diyala province in northern Iraq.
(AP, 4/28/10)
2010 Apr 29, Iraq's election
commission said recounting all the ballots from the key Baghdad
province will take around 2 to 3 weeks, further delaying the
formation of a long awaited new government. 8 people were killed and
20 injured in car bomb outside a Baghdad liquor store. Iraq's banned
Baath party, booted out of power in the 2003 US-led invasion, held
its first public meeting in the Syrian capital.
(AP, 4/29/10)(AFP, 4/30/10)
2010 May 1, In Iraq gunmen
robbed a jewelry store in northern Baghdad and killed its owner. As
they were making their escape, a car bomb exploded nearby, killing
three policemen who were responding to the robbery.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 2, In Iraq 2 bombs
exploded minutes apart near buses carrying Christian students in the
northern city of Mosul, killing at least one bystander and injuring
around 100 others.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 3, In Iraq two
American soldiers died from injuries sustained in separate incidents
unrelated to combat. Sardasht Othman (23), a Kurdish journalist, was
kidnapped in front of the campus of University of Salahuddin in the
regional capital of Irbil. His handcuffed and bullet-riddled body
was found four days later outside the Kurdish region in Mosul.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Iraq's two main
Shiite blocs seeking to govern the country signed an agreement that
gives the final decision on all their political disputes to top
Shiite clerics. The provision would likely further alienate Iraq's
Sunni minority, which already feels excluded by Shiite dominance and
had been hoping that March's election would boost their say in
power. Sardasht Osman (22) was kidnapped in the regional capital
Arbil. He had written articles critical of the rule of Kurdish
regional president Massud Barzani. His corpse was found a day later
in Mosul with a single bullet to the head. On Sep 15 an
investigative committee formed by Barzani said that Osman was killed
because of his ties to an extremist group.
(AP, 5/5/10)(AFP, 9/16/10)
2010 May 7, In Iraq gunmen late
at night attacked a car in downtown Kirkuk carrying two members of
the Peshmerga, the military force of the nearby Kurdish autonomous
region, killing one and injuring the other.
(AP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 7, The Turkish air
force struck Kurdish rebel hideouts in neighboring northern Iraq
after an attack inside Turkey left two soldiers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 8, In northern Iraq
bombs planted inside the home of a policeman exploded, killing him,
his mother and one other resident. The bombing was one of several
attacks around Iraq's north that killed a total of nine people since
the previous evening. The kidnapped teenage son of a wealthy Sufi
sheik was found dead. Mohammed Tahir Said (16) was kidnapped on
April 27 and a $250,000 ransom was demanded. Hundreds of students
and other activists rallied to protest the kidnap and murder of
Sardasht Othman, a Kurdish journalist in northern Iraq, with many
blaming the regional government for his death.
(AP, 5/8/10)(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up outside a Hillah textile factory in a crowd
that gathered after two car bombings at the same spot. At least 50
people were killed and 140 wounded. Attacks killed 119 people across
the country, the deadliest day this year. After Hillah, Basra was
the hardest hit, with the morgue reporting a total of 30 people
dying in three bombings.
(AP, 5/10/10)(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than
a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city
of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities
for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late
night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City
neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated
prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the
vehicle.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than
a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city
of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities
for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late
night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City
neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated
prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the
vehicle. The dead included young people who had gathered to drink
tea and play dominoes. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol
in Baghdad's central al-Nahda square, killing a bystander and
wounding 8 others, including five policemen. An Iraqi army
lieutenant was shot dead by a sniper in the afternoon while manning
a checkpoint in New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)(SFC, 5/13/10,
p.A2)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 14, Iraq’s election
commission said a full recount of votes for Baghdad province from
the parliamentary elections showed no fraud or major irregularities
and is unlikely to change the vote's final results. Al-Qaida in
Iraq's new leader warned Shiites that "dark days soaked with blood"
lie ahead and that a new campaign of attacks was under way. The
Iraqi insurgent umbrella group, the Islamic State of Iraq, named
al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman as its new minister of war,
replacing the Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri, killed in a US-Iraqi
military strike on a safe house in April. Within hours of the
warning, a car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque south of
Baghdad just after Friday prayers, wounding 20 worshippers.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 17, An Iraqi official
said security forces have detained Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani,
an al-Qaida militant suspected of planning an attack targeting the
World Cup in South Africa next month. Al-Qahtani entered Iraq in
2004 and was suspected in several attacks in the capital and
elsewhere in the country. Assailants disguised in Iraqi military
uniforms beheaded a Sunni cleric and stuck his head on an
electricity pole in Sadiyah, where he had preached against al-Qaida.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 18, In Iraq Abdullah
Azam Saleh al-Qahtani, an alleged al-Qaida militant, said he had
talked to friends about attacking Danish and Dutch teams at the
World Cup in South Africa next month to avenge insults against the
Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 5/19/10)
2010 May 20, In Iraq a US
Division-North soldier died of injuries sustained in a non-combat
related incident. The circumstances surrounding that incident were
under investigation.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 20, Twenty Turkish
warplanes bombed Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iraq.
(SFC, 5/21/10, p.A2)
2010 May 21, In Iraq a car
bombing at an open-air market in Khalis, a Shiite town northeast of
Baghdad, left 30 people dead. A US Division-North soldier was killed
near Mosul in an incident that was put under investigation.
(AP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 23, The Iraqi cabinet
said in a statement that a court has sentenced to death a man
accused of the kidnapping and killing of five Russian embassy civil
servants.
(Reuters, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, In Iraq gunmen in
Mosul killed newly elected lawmaker Bashar Mohammed Hamid Ahmed,
part of a Sunni-backed list that narrowly won the March elections.
(SFC, 5/25/10, p.A2)
2010 May 25, In Iraq some 17
masked gunmen shot up a gold jewelry market in Baghdad, killing 15
people before they fled with a large quantity of gold in their arms.
(AP, 5/25/10)(SFC, 5/26/10, p.A2)
2010 May 26, Iraq's government
dissolved state-owned Iraqi Airways over a decades-old financial
dispute dating back to Saddam Hussein's invasion of his oil-rich
neighbor Kuwait. A lawyer for Kuwait Airways called the Iraqi
government's strategy a "cynical tactic" and said it will not end
the dispute because Kuwait will still hold the government
accountable for the debt.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 28, In Iraq robbers
stole $5.5 million from a bank near the Iraqi city of Najaf after a
policeman drugged fellow bank guards by slipping sleeping medication
into their tea.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 31, In Iraq 4 people
were killed and several others wounded in separate attacks. Among
the dead was Nael al-Azami, a prominent local leader of
anti-insurgent Sunni forces known as Awakening Councils, who was
shot by two gunmen armed with silenced pistols. A series of other
early morning blasts across Baghdad wounded 11 more people.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 May, In Iraq some 337
people were killed this month including 275 civilians, as compared
to 328 in April.
(Econ, 6/19/10, p.48)
2010 Jun 1, Iraq's Supreme
Court took the first major step toward resolving the nation's
election crisis, ratifying the results and declaring a secular
alliance the biggest winner in the March 7 parliamentary vote. The
election results gave 91 seats to the Iraqiya political alliance led
by Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister and secular Shiite. The
alliance is heavily backed by Iraq's once-dominant Sunni Arab
minority. The US military withdrew from the last 9 checkpoints of
the Green Zone.
(AP, 6/1/10)(SFC, 6/2/10, p.A3)
2010 Jun 2, In Iraq a US
soldier died in Baghdad in a noncombat related accident.
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 4, Kurdish rebels
based in northern Iraq announced they had ended their unilateral
ceasefire with Turkey a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud
Barzani met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and pledged
"all efforts" to stop rising rebel violence.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, A senior Kurdish
official in northern Iraq said Iranian troops have crossed the Iraqi
border in pursuit of Iranian Kurdish rebels. Jabar Yawar, a deputy
minister in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq, said
that 35 Iranian soldiers remain in the Iraqi village of Perdunaz
after crossing the border on June 3.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 6, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded outside a Baghdad police station in the deadliest of a pair
of attacks that killed six people in the capital.
(AP, 6/6/10)
2010 Jun 7, In Iraq attackers
targeted police and anti-insurgent fighters in a campaign of
intimidation that left at least 13 people dead, including three
killed when a car bomb loaded with ball bearings exploded in a
Baghdad shopping area.
(AP, 6/7/10)(SFC, 6/8/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 8, In Iraq 5 people
were killed, including a policeman and a soldier, in bomb attacks
and shootings in and around Baghdad.
(AFP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 9, In Iraq a suicide
bomber riding on a motorcycle killed two bystanders while targeting
an American military convoy in Muqdadiyah. Masked gunmen killed
three jewelers before fleeing with a large amount of gold in a
sophisticated attack Basra, underscoring fears that street crime is
soaring as sectarian fighting wanes.
(AP, 6/9/10)(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 11, A car bomb struck
a joint US-Iraqi military convoy north of Baghdad, killing at least
five people, including two American troops. 3 people were killed
when a bomb hidden in a pile of trash exploded at a market in
southern Baghdad. That explosion, in the capital's Dora
neighborhood, wounded 10 people.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 12, In Iraq
American-backed Iraqi security forces killed 2 suspected insurgents
and arrested 7 other south of Baghdad. Iraqi officials said the
killed were civilians.
(SSFC, 6/13/10, p.A5)
2010 Jun 13, In Iraq gunmen
trying to rob the central bank in Baghdad battled security forces
for hours after bombs ripped through a nearby area, leaving as many
as 26 dead, including 3 suicide bombers. Police blamed al Qaeda in
Iraq.
(AP, 6/13/10)(SFC, 6/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jun 14, Iraq's new
parliament convened for just under 20 minutes in what was little
more than a symbolic inaugural session because of unresolved
differences over key government positions.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 15, In Iraq Saleh
Mahdi Saleh, head of Sadiyah's municipal council, was taken into
custody and charged with terrorism and police found 11 pounds (5kg)
of TNT and three remote controlled devices. Police acted on the
confession of Saleh's son who was arrested two days ago on terrorism
charges and said his family kept explosives in their home. A
roadside bomb in the northern town of al-Hajaj, about 80 miles (130
km) north of Baghdad, exploded as a car was driving by, killing the
driver and wounding a passenger. One American soldier died in
Baghdad of injuries sustained in a noncombat related accident.
(AP, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 16, In Iraq 2 separate
blasts in eastern Baghdad killed one person and wounded eight
people.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 16, Human Rights Watch
called on Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq to ban the practice
of female genital mutilation, and said in a new report that the
majority of women in the self-ruled region undergo the medically
risky and emotionally painful procedure.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 17, In Iraq an
anti-al-Qaida fighter and four family members were killed as they
slept in their garden to escape the heat in a former insurgent
stronghold west of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 18, In Iraq at least 5
people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a car bombing in Tuz
Khormato, a mainly Shiite Turkomen town, 210 km north of Baghdad.
(AP, 6/18/10)
2010 Jun 19, In Iraq a protest
over electricity shortages in the southern port city of Basra turned
deadly with troops fatally shooting one demonstrator. A series of
bombings and a rocket attack struck Baghdad late in the day, killing
five people.
(AP, 6/19/10)(AP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 20, In Iraq two
suicide car bombers struck a crowded area outside a state-run bank
in Baghdad, killing 27 people. Police and morgue officials said the
decomposed bodies of six women and a man were found buried in the
backyard of a deserted house in the religiously mixed Zayouna
neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. The seven victims apparently were
killed two to three months ago. In Tikrit at least 5 people were
killed by a suicide bomber as police and onlookers responded to a
roadside bomb, apparently set as a trap.
(AP, 6/20/10)(SFC, 6/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 20, Turkish forces
pushed into northern Iraq, killing 4 people, including a girl (15),
as they hit back against hideouts of Kurdish rebels who killed 12
soldiers over the last 2 days.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Iraq riot
police used water hoses to disperse an angry crowd protesting
lengthy power outages in Nasiriyah, where soaring temperatures have
pushed tensions to a boiling point. Many impoverished Iraqis in the
south have been left without air conditioning or fans despite high
humidity and summer temperatures that frequently rise above 110
degrees.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, In Iraq bombs
killed at least nine Iraqis, including two leaders of
government-backed Sunni militias that have fought al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Iraq 7 police
officers were killed in suicide bombings and a checkpoint shooting
in Mosul.
(SFC, 6/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 24, In Iraq 2 police
officers were killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
(SFC, 6/25/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 26, In western Iraq
gunmen raided a jewelry shop in Fallujah, killing four people before
fleeing with a large amount of gold. One policeman was killed and
five others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near a patrol in
the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 28, In Iraq attacks in
Baghdad killed two women civilians and an intelligence officer,
while two policemen died trying to defuse a bomb.
(AFP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 29, In Iraq a series
of bombings claimed 13 lives, including four policemen, a Baghdad
provincial council official, an Iraqi army general and a 9-year-old
girl.
(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jul 1, In Iraq 2 soldiers
and 2 members of a government-backed Sunni militia fighting Al-Qaida
were killed in a day of attacks.
(WSJ, 7/2/10, p.A2)
2010 Jul 3, It was reported
that checkpoints in Iraq, set up for fighting insurgents, have
turned into shady customs stations where police demand a $9 bribe if
a lorry driver’s papers are in order and multiples of that if not.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.46)
2010 Jul 5, It was reported
that three decades of wars, massacres and sectarian killings in Iraq
have left as many as a million widows. More than 100,000 lost their
husbands in the US-led invasion and violent aftermath. The
struggling postwar government was of little help.
(AP, 7/5/10)
2010 Jul 6, In Iraq Army
Specialist Bradley Manning, an American soldier suspected of leaking
a military video of an attack on unarmed men, was charged with
multiple counts of mishandling and leaking classified data and
putting national security at risk [see July 12, 2007]. 9 Shiite
Muslims taking part in the pilgrimage in Baghdad were killed and
dozens were wounded in mortar attacks and roadside bomb explosions.
(AP, 7/6/10)(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, In Iraq militants
targeted the homes of security forces west of Baghdad, blowing them
up and killing three family members despite heightened security
around the capital for a Shiite religious occasion. In a separate
attack in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern
Baghdad, police Maj. Abdul-Rahman Sobhi was killed when a bomb
attached to his car detonated as he drove to work. Nearly 60 people
were killed in attacks in and around Baghdad, including 35 by a
suicide bomber who targeted pilgrims heading to a mosque in northern
Baghdad. Two people were killed near Ramadi, when insurgents blew up
the houses of three policemen.
(AP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/8/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Iraq three
separate roadside bombings in eastern and northern Baghdad left 14
people dead and at least 63 wounded. The attacks targeted the
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who defied violence to take part
in the final day of a Shiite religious holiday.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, In Iraq a suicide
bomber drove an explosives-laden car into an Iraqi army check point
in western Baghdad, killing six people and injuring 20.
(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 10, Baghdad officials
said 58,000 stray dogs have been killed in and around the Iraqi
capital over the past three months as part of a campaign to combat
dog attacks.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 11, An Iraqi judge
said a court has ordered the arrest of 39 members of members of the
People's Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), an exiled Iranian
opposition group, accusing them of crimes against humanity in
helping Saddam Hussein to crush a revolt almost two decades ago.
(AP, 7/11/10)
2010 Jul 13, In Iraq 3 people
were killed by a device which blew up in a mock coffin during a
demonstration. In Yusifiyah, 25 km (15 miles) south of Baghdad,
gunmen killed a leader of the Sahwa militia, which has sided with US
forces against Al-Qaeda, and four family members in their home. Two
bombs exploded near a petrol station in Baghdad’s central district
of Muhandicin, killing two and wounding five others. A man was
killed in the western city of Fallujah when a "sticky bomb" attached
to his car blew up.
(AFP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 13, Iraqi Oil Minister
Hussain al-Shahristani said the cabinet had decided to summon
representatives of the Kurdish regional government to discuss oil
smuggling to Iran and "to put an end to it, as it harms Iraq's
national and economic interests." Reports about the oil smuggling
surfaced just over a week after the US imposed new sanctions barring
the export of refined fuels to Iran.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, Iraq's deputy
justice minister said that US has handed over 55 former members of
Saddam Hussein's inner circle, including the longtime int’l. face of
the regime, Tariq Aziz. As of July 15, Iraqi security officials will
control Camp Cropper, and the US will hand over roughly 1,600 Iraqi
prisoners currently in American custody.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 15, In Iraq the US
handed over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi
authorities, a milestone in Iraq's push for complete sovereignty. A
car bomb in Tikrit and two other attacks killed 8 people, including
4 police officers, and wounded 14 others. A double suicide bombing
against a Shiite mosque in southeast Iran killed 27 people,
including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard in the provincial
capital Zahedan. The insurgent group, Jundallah, claimed
responsibility.
(AP, 7/15/10)(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 15, In northern Iraq a
fire in a five-story hotel killed 28 people, half of them
foreigners, in a harrowing blaze that forced several victims to jump
to their deaths to escape a building without fire escapes in the
Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.
(AP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 18, In Iraq twin
suicide bombings killed 48 people, including dozens from a
government-backed, anti-al-Qaida militia lining up to collect their
paychecks near a military base southwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 19, In Iraq a British
national was killed in a car bomb attack on a convoy in the northern
city of Mosul. A car bomb exploded near a restaurant in Baqouba,
killing six people.
(AFP, 7/19/10)(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Jul 20, Iraqi officials
discovered that 4 al-Qaida-linked detainees escaped from Karkh
prison in the Baghdad area, which was handed over by the US to Iraqi
authorities a week ago. The four men were officially listed in a
security report as Mohammed Hamid, Qais Azmi, Malik Nazzal and
Hussein Ahmed. A car bomb near a roadside restaurant just
north of Baghdad killed one person and wounded seven Iranian
pilgrims heading to Karbala.
(AP, 7/22/10)(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 21, In Iraq a car bomb
outside a Shiite mosque in Baqouba, Diyala province, killed 15
people, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days. A US
soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province. Iraqi
soldiers arrested Saleem Khalid al-Zawbayi, the minister of defense
for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). Zawbayi was suspected of
organizing a July 18 suicide bombing in the town of Radwaniyah.
(AP, 7/21/10)(AP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 22, In Iraq 2 Ugandans
and a Peruvian who worked as security contractors for the US
government were killed during a rocket attack on the Green Zone. In
Mosul a bombing and a series of drive-by shootings killed an Iraqi
army brigadier general, a Sunni cleric, two policeman, a soldier and
two civilians.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber driving a minibus blew himself up in front of the Baghdad
office of a Saudi-funded television channel, killing 4 people.
Twin car bombs killed 21 people in the Shiite city of Karbala, while
four people died in a suicide attack on a Saudi-funded television
channel in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/26/10)(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 27, In Iraq mortars
killed 7 people and wounded 46 in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 27, An audit by the US
Special Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction said the US Defense
Department is unable to properly account for over 95 percent of $9.1
billion in Iraqi oil money tapped by the US for rebuilding the war
ravaged nation.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, In Iraq a
sandstorm downed an Iraqi military helicopter, killing its five-man
crew. Midmorning bombings in Baghdad killed 6 people.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 29, In Iraq militants
flew an al-Qaida flag over a Baghdad neighborhood after killing 16
security officials and burning some of their bodies in a brazen
afternoon attack that served as a grim reminder of continued
insurgent strength in Iraq's capital. A suicide bomber drove a
minibus into the main gate of an Iraqi army base near Tikrit,
killing 4 soldiers and wounding 10. Two road side bombs, targeting
Iraqi army patrols exploded in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 km) west of
Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding eight others. In
Mosul a bomb attached to a police vehicle killed one policeman and
injured two others.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 29, The UN released
$650 million in Iraqi compensation to Kuwait, the latest payment of
a war reparation scheme that began in 1994. The payment brings the
total sum of compensation paid to Kuwait to $30.15 billion. A
further $22.3 billion is due to Kuwait.
(AFP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, In Iraq the head
of a five-member family was killed when a roadside bomb hit the car
in which they were traveling. He was a local leader of a
government-backed Sunni armed group known as an Awakening Council.
The man, his wife and three children, two boys and a 4-year-old
girl, were killed in the attack.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Jul 31, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed four people, including three army soldiers, and wounded
11 people south of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 2, In Iraq 2 bombings
and a drive-by shooting killed eight people.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 2, President Barack
Obama said the United States will end its combat mission in Iraq as
scheduled on August 31 despite a recent flare-up in violence.
(AFP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Iraq a car bomb
in Kut killed at least 15 people. Suspected al-Qaida militants
killed 5 Iraqi soldiers in a brazen dawn attack at a western Baghdad
checkpoint and planted the terror group's black banner before
fleeing the scene. An Iraqi soldier and a policeman were killed and
nine people were wounded in other attacks across Baghdad.
(AP, 8/3/10)(SFC, 8/4/10, p.A3)
2010 Aug 4, In Iraq a judge
said Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammadi, No. 54 out of 55 on a former US
military list of most-wanted Saddam officials, has been released
from prison after he was found innocent of helping the former regime
punish opponents by draining the country's fabled marshlands. 3
traffic policemen were killed in drive-by shootings in western
Baghdad while gunmen stormed the house of a policeman, killing him,
his wife and a relative.
(AP, 8/4/10)(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 5, In Iraq gunmen
stormed a Baghdad money exchange and killed three people, the latest
in recent brash daylight attacks on banks, financial and trade
centers in the Iraqi capital, many of which have been blamed on
insurgents.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Iraq a drive-by
shooting and a bomb hidden in a motorcycle killed three traffic
policemen in Baghdad, taking to eight the number from the city's
force killed this week.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 7, In Iraq explosions
killed at least 20 people at Basra’s al-Ashaar market. 5 policemen
were killed in an overnight shootout at a suspected bomb workshop in
Baghdad. One policeman was shot dead at a checkpoint in Fallujah. A
suicide bomber killed a policeman and injured 3 others on foot
patrol in Mosul.
(SSFC, 8/8/10, p.A5)(AP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 8, In Iraq a suicide
car bomber struck a police patrol west of Baghdad and killed 8
people, mostly civilians.
(SFC, 8/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 9, In Iraq a rush-hour
bombing at a western Baghdad police precinct killed two traffic cops
and one civilian. Iraqi traffic police began to arm themselves with
high-powered weapons for the first time in two years following an
escalation in attacks against the force.
(AP, 8/9/10)(AFP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, In Iraq the leader
of an anti-Qaeda militia was gunned down outside his home, while
bombs killed three civilians in a series of attacks south of
Baghdad.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, In Iraq gunmen
burst into a house in Sadiyah, Diyala province, killing three people
and sending the surviving children to an Iraqi army checkpoint to
lure soldiers to the residence. As the troops arrived at the
booby-trapped house, it blew up, leaving 8 soldiers dead. Gunmen
broke into the house of a senior female doctor in Baghdad and killed
her. the gunmen used pistols fitted with silencers and stole 250
million Iraqi dinars (about $215,000).
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 14, In Iraq two
policemen were shot dead and their bodies set ablaze at a Baghdad
checkpoint. A drive-by shooting killed 2 more police officers in
Baghdad. An anti-Qaeda fighter was killed at a checkpoint manned by
government-backed Sunni fighters in northeast Baghdad. A bomb
attached to a police officer’s car in Baghdad blew up, killing the
driver and wounding 2 passengers. Mohammed Ali al-Deen (34), who
returned less than a month ago after completing a pharmacy course in
Washington DC, was gunned down at his home in Noamaniyah in the
central province of Wasit.
(AFP, 8/14/10)(AFP, 8/15/10)(SFC, 8/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Aug 15, In Iraq drive-by
shootings and a spate of bombings killed 11 people and wounded
dozens. Five of the dead were Iraqi police and security forces. 3
Sunni Muslims were gunned down as they left Abid Wais mosque in Jurf
al-Sakhr, 50 km (30 miles) south of the capital in the mainly Shiite
province of Babil. Three others, including an off-duty policeman,
were killed when their minibus was struck by a bomb attack as it
travelled to the centre of Baghdad from an eastern quarter. A
traffic policeman and a civilian were also killed, and a police
officer was wounded, when a roadside bomb exploded near Al-Shaab
stadium in the east of the capital. Another person was killed and
seven others wounded by three roadside bombs in northern Baghdad. In
Mosul, one Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded in a
shooting at a security checkpoint in the east of the northern city.
(AP, 8/15/10)(AFP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 16, In Iraq a car bomb
killed four Iranian Shiite pilgrims and an Iraqi citizen travelling
on a bus northeast of Baghdad with women among nine others wounded.
(AFP, 8/16/10)
2010 Aug 17, In Iraq a suicide
bomber sat for hours among hundreds of army recruits before
detonating nail-packed explosives strapped to his body, killing 61
people and casting new doubt on the ability of Iraqi forces as US
troops head home.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 18, In Iraq 3 farmers
were killed and leaflets pinned to their bodies warning against
cooperation with American and Iraqi forces in a brutal act of
intimidation as thousands of US troops leave.
(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 19, In Iraq insurgents
kept up a relentless campaign against the country's institutions and
security forces, killing five Iraqi government employees in roadside
bombings and other attacks. The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry
Division, officially designated the last combat brigade to leave
Iraq under Obama's plan to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31,
headed home.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 22, In southern Iraq
an American solider was killed in a rocket attack, marking the first
American fatality since the last combat unit in Iraq pulled out of
the country. A bomb struck a popular cafe in the capital's
southwest. The explosion killed one person and wounded 15 people. A
late night grenade attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint in Amariyah, a
Sunni area in western Baghdad, killed one soldier and injured 2
others.
(AP, 8/22/10)(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 23, In Iraq unknown
attackers in a speeding car threw a grenade in the mixed
Sunni-Shiite eastern neighborhood of New Baghdad. The blast killed
one policeman and wounded another.
(AP, 8/23/10)
2010 Aug 25, In Iraq bombers
and gunmen launched an apparently coordinated string of attacks
against Iraqi government forces, killing at least 61 people, one day
after the number of US troops fell below 50,000 for the first time
since the start of the war. In the deadliest attacks a suicide
bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police
station and the provincial government's headquarters in Kut, killing
20 people, 15 of them policemen. A suicide bomber detonated a car
bomb in a parking lot behind a police station in Baghdad killing 15
people, including six policemen.
(AFP, 8/25/10)(AP, 8/26/10)(SFC, 8/26/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 26, In Iraq insurgents
killed six members of a government-allied Sunni militia using a
roadside bomb and ambush near the town of Muqdadiyah.
(AP, 8/26/10)
2010 Aug 27, In northern Iraq
gunmen killed three anti-Qaeda militiamen overnight in the latest
revenge attack against the force credited with turning the tide
against the jihadists.
(AFP, 8/27/10)
2010 Aug 27, The US military
said it is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of
computers intended for Iraqi schoolchildren. The computers were
allegedly auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000.
(SFC, 8/28/10, p.A2)
2010 Aug 30, It was reported
that over $5 billion in American aid to Iraq has been wasted on
abandoned or incomplete projects. This was over 10% of US
reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
(SFC, 8/30/10, p.A4)
2010 Aug 31, President Barack
Obama marked the symbolic end of US combat operations in Iraq. Vice
President Joe Biden presided over the formal end to US combat
operations in Iraq. Biden made a new appeal to Iraqi leaders,
including PM Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat
a new government. Since the US invasion in March, 2003, almost 5,000
American and allied soldiers lost their lives as well as some
150,000 Iraqis. Over 2 million Iraqis fled the country.
(AFP, 8/31/10)(AP, 8/31/10)(Econ, 8/28/10, p.37)
2010 Sep 1, The United States
changed commanders in Iraq, beginning the final phase of American
military involvement in the country despite political uncertainty
and persistent violence.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, Iraq signed an
agreement to pay $400 million to Americans who say they were abused
by Saddam Hussein's regime. The signing was made public on Sep 10.
the money would be given to Americans who were affected by the Iraqi
invasion of neighboring Kuwait in 1990. Generally such agreements
have to be approved by the Cabinet, but this settlement would likely
be extremely unpopular among Iraqis who survived years under Saddam
only to suffer vicious sectarian fighting after the American
invasion.
(AP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 3, The Iraqi National
Alliance, a powerful Iranian-backed Shiite bloc, added a third man
to the political wrangling by naming Adel Abdul-Mahdi, Iraq's Shiite
vice president, their candidate for the job.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 5, In Iraq a car bomb
and suicide bombers hit a Baghdad military headquarters and killed
12 people, two weeks after an attack on the same site pointed to the
failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their
security. Five soldiers were among the dead. American troops found
themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi
military headquarters in the center of Baghdad.
(AP, 9/5/10)
2010 Sep 7, In Iraq Riad
al-Saray, a prominent state television anchorman, was shot dead as
he was driving in the capital. Reporters Without Borders has tallied
230 cases of journalists and media staff killed in the country since
the conflict broke out on 20 March 2003. An Iraqi soldier, Soran
Rahman Saleh Wali, opened fire on a group of American troops
protecting one of their commanders during a visit to an Iraqi army
base. Two American soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded
in the attack. Wali was killed and his brother, who works as a
policeman in Tuz Khurmatu, was arrested. A grenade attack on a US
military convoy in the Salaheddin provincial capital Tikrit wounded
two American soldiers and four Iraqi civilians. One of the attackers
was killed.
(AFP, 9/7/10)(AP, 9/8/10)(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 8, In Iraqi 4
prisoners with links to al-Qaida have escaped from the US-controlled
part of the Karkh maximum-security prison, formerly Camp Cropper, in
Baghdad.
(AFP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 13, Amnesty
International said tens of thousands of detainees are being held
without trial in Iraqi prisons and face violent and psychological
abuse as well as other forms of mistreatment.
(AFP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 15, Iraqi and US
forces launched a raid on the former insurgent stronghold of
Fallujah, killing seven people in the second incident this week in
which American troops were involved in fighting despite the official
end of combat. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the fight. 9 Iraqi
soldiers were killed near Mosul when a bomb exploded on a bus as
they left their base in Tal Afar for vacation. An American airman
was killed and a soldier wounded in a controlled detonation at the
US Joint Base Balad.
(AP, 9/15/10)(AFP, 9/15/10)(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 16, The Iraqi
government said its Cabinet has unanimously approved a $400 million
settlement for Americans who say they were abused by Saddam
Hussein's regime.
(AP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 19, Iraq signed a deal
with Turkey to extend for 15 years the use of the main pipeline
linking its northern oilfields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
3 car bombs tore through Baghdad and the former insurgent stronghold
of Fallujah, killing at least 36 people. Al-Qaida's front group in
Iraq later claimed responsibility for the two Baghdad bombings that
killed at least 31 people at a government security agency and what
it called an "evil" mobile phone provider.
(AFP, 9/19/10)(AP, 9/19/10)(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 21, In Iraq blast
targeting an army patrol on the outskirts of Kirkuk killed 2 Iraqi
soldiers.
(AP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 22, Several dozen
Iraqis who failed to gain asylum in Europe were returned to Iraq
despite concerns the situation is still too dangerous.
(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, In Iraq a "verbal
altercation" broke out among four American soldiers in Fallujah and
suspect Spc. Neftaly Platero "allegedly took his weapon and began
shooting the other soldiers." 2 soldiers died the next day and one
was left wounded. On Oct 20 Platero (32) was charged with killing
the 2 soldiers and wounding a third.
(AP, 9/28/10)(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Sep 26, Iraq inaugurated
the first in a fleet of new US-built patrol boats, part of efforts
to boost its naval capacity and secure key oil platforms ahead of an
American withdrawal at the end of next year. A car packed with
explosives blew up near the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah,
killing 4 policemen in the latest sign that insurgents could be
trying to win back old strongholds. Attacks elsewhere in the country
killed at least 4 others.
(AFP, 9/26/10)(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 27, Iraqi police
officials said a bomb exploded as Alaa Muhsen, a news anchor for
Iraqiya television, drove through southern Baghdad.
(AP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Iraq a gang
using bombs and automatic weapons tried to storm a bank in Baghdad
in a failed robbery attempt that left three people dead, including
two policemen.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 1, In Iraq aides said
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to support the bid by
Iraq's PM al-Maliki to retain power. A roadside bomb exploded and
killed at least three people, including two members of an
anti-insurgent militia, and wounded seven others in a mostly Sunni
district of southern Baghdad. In Mosul gunmen killed a policeman and
a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi soldier on foot patrol.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 4, In Iraq 5 people
were killed in violence in Baghdad and central Iraq, including a
roadside bomb targeting a junior minister.
(AFP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 5, In Iraq gunmen in
the northern city of Mosul ambushed and killed the director of the
city's crime lab in the latest targeted killing of security
officials and government workers.
(AP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 7, In Iraq
back-to-back bombings at a vegetable market south of Baghdad killed
at least five people, including a policeman who was searching for
explosives.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 11, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military uniforms raided the homes of several anti-al-Qaida
Sunni fighters. They killed four men in an execution-style slaying
and left 2 wounded before dawn near the town of Youssifiyah.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Iraq Al-Qaida's
umbrella group threatened to kidnap family members of Iraqi
politicians and ministers unless the wife and children of its slain
leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, are released from prison.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, In Iraq targeted
explosions in Baghdad and northern Iraq wounded 28 people, among
them 7 Iranian pilgrims and 9 policemen.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 13, Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad told visiting Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki that
better ties between the two nations will be strengthened by the
formation of a new Iraqi government.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 14, In Iraq a roadside
bomb hit the car of Abdul Karim al-Mohammadawi, a prominent member
of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya alliance, killing four people and
wounding six others, including the politician.
(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 17, In Iraq two
policemen and two gunmen were killed in gunfights between security
forces and armed groups attempting to rob Baghdad jewelry stores. 5
gunmen escaped.
(AP, 10/17/10)(SFC, 10/18/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 17, The New York Times
reported that possibly hundreds of members of Iraq's Awakening
Councils, a group affiliated with the US military, have switched
their loyalty to Al-Qaeda.
(AP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 18, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki was in Tehran to drum up support for his premiership bid,
as his chief rival Iyad Allawi accused Iran of meddling in Baghdad's
political affairs. In Iraq a roadside bomb hit a convoy carrying
Jassim al-Saiedi, a member of Baghdad's local government, killing
him and wounding eight people. Two Associated Press journalists were
among those assaulted by Iraqi soldiers while trying to cover the
bombing.
(AFP, 10/18/10)(AP, 10/18/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 19, In Iraq a bomb
exploded near the house of a policeman in Saddam Hussein's hometown
of Tikrit, killing his 6-month-old niece, both her parents and five
other members of the same family. In Samarra a roadside bomb struck
a police patrol, killing two policemen and wounding two. In Baghdad
two bombs attached to buses exploded and wounded 15 Iranian
pilgrims. Chief UN envoy AD Melkert finished meeting with Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and was leaving the Shiite city of Najaf
when his convoy hit a roadside bomb. A member of the Iraqi security
forces was killed and several others were injured in the attack.
(AP, 10/19/10)(AP, 10/19/10)
2010 Oct 22, The WikiLeaks
website released 391,831 purported Iraq war logs in the biggest leak
of secret information in US history. The documents date from the
start of 2004 to Jan 1, 2010. They suggested that far more Iraqis
died than previously acknowledged during the years of sectarian
bloodletting and criminal violence unleashed by the American-led
invasion in 2003. Accounts of civilian deaths included deaths
unknown or unreported before now, as many as 15,000 by the count of
one independent research group.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23 ,
Iraq's PM Nouri al-Maliki accused WikiLeaks of releasing documents
that detail prisoner abuse by Iraqi security forces to sabotage his
re-election hopes.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 24, Iraq's highest
court ordered parliament back to work after a seven-month political
impasse that has blocked the formation of a new government. In the
Sunni-dominated northern city of Mosul, a car bomb killed two
passers-by and wounded 19.
(AP, 10/24/10)
2010 Oct 25, In Iraq masked
gunmen in Baghdad stole more than $27,000 in cash intended for
university workers' salaries in a daylight ambush of a money
courier's car.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 26, In Iraq Saddam
Hussein's longtime foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, was sentenced to
death by hanging for persecuting members of Shiite religious parties
under the former regime. Thieves armed with guns and hand grenades
stormed a jewelry shop in northern Iraq and killed 10 people during
a robbery attempt.
(AP, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 26, An annual report
by Transparency Int’l. marked Somalia as the most corrupt county in
the world, followed by Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq. Denmark, New
Zealand and Singapore tied as the world’s least corrupt nations. The
US declined to 22nd from 19th last year.
(SFC, 10/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 27, In Iraq a bomb
blast near a Sunni religious organization in Baghdad killed two
security guards. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb hidden in a pickup
truck exploded, killing the driver and injuring three passers-by.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew up his car outside a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing
one policeman and injuring seven. In Baghdad small bombs stuck on
cars owned by ranking police officials killed one and wounded
another.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 29, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up inside a popular café in Balad Ruz,
Diyala province. 22 people were killed with 68 wounded.
(AFP, 10/30/10)(Reuters, 11/1/10)
2010 Oct 31, In Iraq an al
Qaeda attack left 68 people dead including 46 hostages, 7 police and
5 attackers, at the Sayidat al-Nejat Syriac Christian cathedral (Our
Lady of Salvation) in Baghdad. The attack ended with police storming
the church to free more than 100 hostages. Officials said most of
the casualties were killed or wounded when the security forces
raided the place and that the attack was aimed at driving the
Christian minority out of the country. Al-Qaida cited the cases of 2
Egyptian women, wives of Coptic priests, who had converted to Islam
in order to get away from their abusive husbands. On August 2, 2011,
a Baghdad court convicted 3 Iraqis and sentenced them to death for
their role in the church siege. A fourth man was sentenced to 20
years in prison.
(Reuters, 11/1/10)(AFP, 11/1/10)(SFC, 12/27/10,
p.A2)(AP, 8/2/11)
2010 Oct 31, A French airliner
landed at Baghdad International Airport, becoming one of the first
passenger planes to fly into the Iraqi capital direct from western
Europe since the Gulf War and opening a potential new route to
stronger international business ties.
(AP, 10/31/10)
2010 Nov 2, In Iraq Shiite
Baghdad neighborhoods were targeted in a series of bombings and
mortar strikes that took place over the span of about an hour. In
Sadr City 21 people were killed by car bomb near a market. In 12
other neighborhoods at least 55 more were killed. In total some 91
people were killed and some 232 people were wounded. The Islamic
State of Iraq, an umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq and
other Sunni insurgent factions, soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/3/10)(SFC, 11/3/10, p.A3)(AP,
11/4/10)(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 4, In northern Iraq a
rocket confiscated by authorities blew up in the back of a police
pickup truck, killing four people. Two people died in a roadside
bomb explosion west of Baghdad.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, Iraqi civil society
groups said they are to launch a legal battle for Iraqi MPs left
idle since a March 7 poll to return 40 million dollars received in
salaries and allowances over the past eight months.
(AFP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 5, Britain began a
3-day hearing on Iraqi civilian claims of abuse. Lawyers for 222
Iraqi civilians were suing the British government, claiming their
clients were subjected to a regime of systematic abuse by British
soldiers and interrogators, and that their only realistic remedy is
a far-reaching public investigation into how the U.K. treated its
captives in Iraq.
(AP, 11/5/10)
2010 Nov 6, Iraq's political
rivals reached a breakthrough power-sharing deal in which Nuri
al-Maliki, a Shiite, retains the premiership. The deal came 8 months
after inconclusive elections. The deal was between the National
Alliance, which represents the main Shiite parties, and the Kurdish
coalition, while the Sunni-backed Iraqiya's support hinged on its
agreement over the posts of speaker and president. A roadside bomb
killed two Sunni anti-Qaeda militiamen and two Iraqi soldiers died
in separate attacks on checkpoints north of Baghdad. Twin mortar
attacks in Baghdad wounded two people. 25 people were wounded when
three car bombs exploded outside the homes of officials of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 11/6/10)(AFP, 11/7/10)(AFP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Iraq leaders of
all the main political blocs met for the first time since March
elections in a new push to break the eight-month deadlock over
forming a new government. Car bombs struck Karbala and Najaf killing
16 people.
(AP, 11/8/10)(SFC, 11/9/10, p.A3)
2010 Nov 10, Iraq's fractious
politicians agreed to return Shi'ite Nuri al-Maliki as prime
minister, ending an eight-month deadlock that raised fears of
renewed sectarian war. The deal will see Kurd Jalal Talabani retain
the presidency and give Iyad Allawi's bloc the speaker post in
parliament and other Iraqiya members cabinet jobs, such as foreign
minister. Allawi himself will head a council of strategic policies.
(Reuters, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 10, In Iraq a
coordinated series of at least 11 roadside bombs blew up in
predominantly Christian neighborhoods of Baghdad, killing 6 people
and sowing panic among the minority, many of whom now want to flee.
2 mortar rounds also struck Christian enclaves of the predominantly
Sunni neighborhood of Dora in south Baghdad. An estimated 800,000
Christians lived in Iraq before the 2003 invasion but that number
has since shrunk to around 500,000.
(AFP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, In Iraq Shi'ite
Nuri al-Maliki was re-nominated as prime minister. Lawmakers from
the Sunni-backed Iraqiya alliance of former PM Iyad Allawi walked
out of the parliamentary session. Parliament met for only the 2nd
time since the inconclusive March 7 election, electing Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, as president and Iraqiya lawmaker Osama
al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, as speaker.
(Reuters, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Iraq the
Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc said it will join efforts to
produce a national unity government, backing away from a threat to
boycott parliament. Lawmakers approved an agreement to bring all of
Iraq's feuding political blocs into a new government.
(AP, 11/13/10)(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 15, In northern Iraq
the Badoosh prison commander and his body guard were killed when
twin car bombs detonated outside a residential complex housing
prison guards and staff on the outskirts of Mosul. In downtown
Baghdad an Iraqi policeman was killed when a roadside bomb struck a
patrol, while four policemen were wounded when another roadside bomb
detonated in eastern part of the capital. In the town of Qaim on the
Syrian border some 340 km (210 miles) west of Baghdad, two people
were killed and five others wounded by two roadside bombs, including
one in a market. Gunmen in Mosul killed two Christians, in the
latest assault on the country's dwindling Christian community.
(AFP, 11/15/10)(AP, 11/16/10)
2010 Nov 17, Iraq’s Pres. Jalal
Talabani said he would never sign former deputy premier Tareq Aziz's
execution order, stressing it was time to turn the page on Iraq's
history of capital punishment.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 19, In Iraq 4
Jordanians of Palestinian origin from Zarqa were killed while
fighting American troops. The men were all in their 20s and 30s and
with the exception of one, had served jail terms in Jordan for
plotting anti-American terror attacks.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Nov 22, In Iraq gunmen
shot and killed, Saad and Raad Hannah, two Christian brothers in the
northern city of Mosul in the latest in a spate of attacks targeting
the religious minority.
(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 23, In Iraq a surgeon
and an engineer at Baghdad International Airport were gunned down in
a mostly Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad. an Education
Ministry professor was shot in another Sunni area in northeastern
Baghdad. A passer-by was slain in a drive-by shooting in the
northeastern city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 24, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed four people in the town of Shurqat, 155 miles (250 km)
northwest of Baghdad.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 25, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki appealed to the country's warring political factions for
unity after formally accepting a request by the president to form
the next government, part of a deal to end an eight-month deadlock
over who would lead the country the next four years.
(AP, 11/25/10)
2010 Nov 27, Iraq arrested 12
militants suspected of helping take Christians hostage in a church
siege that killed 44 worshippers and two priests on Oct 31. Among
those apprehended were Huthaifa al-Batawi, the Baghdad chief of the
Islamic State of Iraq, the Al-Qaeda front group which carried out
the attack, while senior ISI leader Ammar al-Najadi was killed.
(AFP, 11/27/10)
2010 Nov 28, In Iraq US troops,
who thought they were under attack, killed an Iraqi airport employee
as he drove near a military convoy on his way to work. In the
village of al-Meshahda gunmen wearing Iraqi security forces uniforms
invaded the home of Sunni Sheik Abdul Kerim Talab Mutlak
al-Halbussi, a leader of the local Sahwa, in a pre-dawn raid and
shot him and his son (15). In Baghdad a roadside bomb in a western
neighborhood killed a passer-by and wounded 3 during rush hour at
the start of the local work week.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 28, More than 250,000
classified US State Department documents were released by online
whistleblower WikiLeaks. Among the leaked memos was information that
Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel.
Memos said the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to
facilitate weapons shipments." Documents also detailed concerns by
US officials in Baghdad about Iran’s influence on Iraq. Memos also
said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United
States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program to stop Tehran
from developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, An Iraqi court
convicted Tariq Aziz (74), Saddam Hussein's longtime foreign
minister, of terrorizing Shiite Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war,
sentencing him to 10 years in prison. He already faced an execution
sentence from another case. The Iraqi military said its forces have
thwarted an attempt by a suicide bomber to blow up a vehicle by the
French embassy using intelligence gathered after a bloodbath at a
Baghdad cathedral.
(AP, 11/29/10)(AFP, 11/30/10)
2010 Dec 2, Iraqi officials
said security forces have arrested 39 suspected Al-Qaeda members in
the mostly Sunni western province of Anbar. 2 insurgents were killed
and 2 others wounded in an army raid in the northern province of
Salaheddin. One of those wounded was a Moroccan fighter. Violence in
Baghdad and the restive northern city of Mosul left three dead,
including an 18-year-old girl, and nine wounded.
(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 3, In Iraq 24 people,
including 22 Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite holy sites, died when
two buses collided head-on south of Baghdad. A sniper shot and
killed a policeman manning a checkpoint in Baghdad. Gunmen with
silencers opened fire from a speeding car on a police colonel and
wounded him.
(AP, 12/3/10)
2010 Dec 4, In Iraq bombs
killed 17 people across Baghdad, including Iranian pilgrims near a
revered shrine and shoppers at a Shiite neighborhood market.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 7, Jordanian computer
engineer Mohammed Rateb Qteishat (33) was killed by Iraqi forces in
Mosul. He was an al-Qaida operative fighting American forces in
Iraq. In 2006, he was sentenced to death in absentia in his native
Jordan for plotting attacks on Americans in Jordan and attempting to
blow up hotels in Amman.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 8, In Iraq a car bomb
outside a restaurant killed 3 people in Taji. Scattered bombings and
gunfire left a total of 5 people dead and 24 wounded. A roadside
bomb in Baghdad wounded 7 Iranian pilgrims on a bus traveling to a
Shiite religious festival. In southern Iraq a US soldier was killed
during operations.
(AP, 12/8/10)(AP, 12/9/10)(SFC, 12/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 9, In Iraq attacks on
a police patrol in northern Baghdad and a checkpoint north of the
city killed two policemen.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew up his car outside government offices in Ramadi, killing
at least 13 people, including women and elderly people waiting to
collect welfare checks. Six police officers were among the dead.
Near Baquba a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest
near an Ashura procession, killing three people.
(AP, 12/12/10)(AFP, 12/13/10)(SFC, 12/13/10,
p.A3)
2010 Dec 13, In Iraq four
Shiites were killed and 17 others wounded when a suicide bomber
detonated explosives in Balad Ruz. Insurgents killed a woman and her
daughter when they bombed the house of a member of Sahwa, the
anti-Qaeda militia, in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr.
(AFP, 12/13/10)
2010 Dec 15, Iraqi authorities
said they have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who
claim al-Qaida is planning suicide attacks in the US and Europe
during the Christmas season. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites
descended on Karbala ahead of the climax of Ashura ceremonies,
surrounded by heavy security over fears of attacks. The UN Security
Council lifted most of the sanctions imposed on Iraq following its
1990 invasion of Kuwait.
(AP, 12/15/10)(AFP, 12/15/10)(SFC, 12/16/10,
p.A5)
2010 Dec 15, At least 27
refugees, thought to be from Iran and Iraq, died after their wooden
boat shattered in violent seas off Australia before horrified
witnesses, with fears as many as 50 could have perished.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 15, Sweden deported 5
Iraqi Christians, part of a group of at least 20 Iraqis, who failed
to gain asylum and were flown out of the country. On Dec 17 the UN
refugee agency called itself "dismayed" over the deportation and
called on countries to take in Iraqis from Baghdad, Kirkuk and three
northern provinces that the UN considers unsafe because of repeated
attacks, sectarian tensions and human rights violations.
(AP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 16, In Iraq bombs
hidden in trash cans exploded near a group of pilgrims in a town
north of Baghdad, killing two people as millions of Shiites headed
to ceremonies to mark Ashura, a day of mourning. Karbala provincial
council chief Mohammed al-Mussawi said "We were able to destroy 14
terrorist cells and arrest 73 people, including 37 wanted persons."
(AP, 12/16/10)(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, In Iraq a roadside
bomb in southeast Baghdad exploded as Shiite pilgrims were returning
home from Karbala, after final ceremonies ended for Ashura, the
Shiite Muslims' most solemn religious event of the year. Eight
pilgrims were wounded. The UN refugee agency said an "exodus" of
thousands of Iraqi Christians was taking place following a deadly
church attack in Baghdad carried out by Al-Qaeda militants at the
end of October.
(AP, 12/17/10)(AFP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, Iraq's parliament
took a major step toward creating a unity government, lifting a ban
on three Sunni Muslim politicians who were barred from running in
national elections last March after being accused of having ties to
Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
(AP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 20, Iraqi army special
forces killed three Libyans allegedly planning suicide bombings
ahead of Christmas in a raid in the northern city of Mosul.
(AFP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, Iraqi lawmakers
unanimously approved a new government to be headed by incumbent
Shiite PM Nouri al-Maliki, ending nine months of political deadlock
that threatened to stall economic development and suck the country
back into sectarian violence. They also adopted a 43-point program
aimed at liberalizing the economy and fighting terrorism. Women made
up a quarter of the 325-seat Parliament but were given only two
ministries in the 44-member Cabinet, approved after a nine-month
delay.
(AP, 12/21/10)(AFP, 12/21/10)(AP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 22, In Iraq a large
military operation targeting Al-Qaeda and their sleeper cells was
launched overnight in Anbar province. 93 suspects were arrested,
including 60 wanted men. Gunmen with silenced weapons raked the car
of General Imad Hasham with gunfire in a Baghdad street, killing him
and wounding his daughter. Gunmen also with silenced weapons shot
and wounded police Lieutenant Colonel Majid Hamid as he was driving
through the Amiriya area of Baghdad.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 23, In Iraq police
patrol discovered the body of Barbaros Mohammed Habeeb, a member of
the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's
party, in the disputed northern oil hub of Kirkuk. Security forces,
searching for a young woman on suspicion she had ties to al-Qaida,
raided her father's home outside Baqouba. During questioning Najim
al-Anbaky told police he had killed his daughter, Shahlaa, a month
earlier because he found out she intended to blow herself up in a
suicide attack.
(AFP, 12/23/10)(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 24, In Iraq a Shiite
militia leader, his wife and three children were killed in a bomb
attack on their home in Haswa, south of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 27, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up, killing nine people at the government
compound in Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province. 43
people were injured by the blasts. 3 members of the same family were
killed when a roadside bomb hit their car outside the town of
Dujail, 50 miles (80km) north of Baghdad.
(AP, 12/27/10)
2010 Dec 29, In Iraq 3 al-Qaida
suicide bombers attacked a police building in Mosul, leveling the
building and killing Lt. Col. Shamil al-Jabouri, the city's top
commander. He had escaped at least five previous assassination
attempts. On of the suicide bombers was shot dead before setting off
his explosives belt.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, In Iraq at least
four Christian homes in Baghdad were hit in the first string of
attacks since al-Qaida-linked militants last week renewed their
threats of violence against Christians. 2 people were killed when a
bomb exploded outside a Christian family's house in Baghdad's
eastern neighborhood of al-Gahdir.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2011 Jan 2, Across Iraq bomb
and gun attacks killed at least 9 people, including six members of
the Iraqi security forces and a city engineer. Two American soldiers
were killed during operations in central Iraq.
(AFP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/3/11)(SFC, 1/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 3, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated an explosives-laden car in Baquba, killing 2 people
with 16 wounded, many of them schoolgirls in a passing minibus. A
policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad and a
Christian woman was shot to death by armed men who broke into her
house.
(AP, 1/3/11)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Jan 5, Anti-American
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr (36) returned to Iraq. He led several Shiite
uprisings against American forces in Iraq before going into exile in
neighboring Iran at least three years ago.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 7, In Iraq
unidentified gunmen killed a family of five in a predawn attack on a
home in Hussainya, 25km northeast of Baghdad.
(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 10, Iraqi fishermen
killed a Kuwaiti coast guard member during a shootout in one of the
more serious incidents between the neighboring countries in years. 4
Iraqi fishermen were then detained by Kuwaiti forces.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 12, Kuwait's PM Sheikh
Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah received a red carpet welcome on
his first visit since Iraq's 1990 invasion of its oil-rich neighbor.
Both sides pledged to redouble efforts to resolve issues from that
conflict.
(AFP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 13, In Iraq NP Joe
Biden emphasized to Iraqi leaders that the US wants nothing more
than for Iraq to be a free and democratic country in a daylong visit
that officials said would focus on the departure of American troops
from the country. Three bombings near mosques in central and
northern Baghdad killed two people. Gunmen also killed a jewelry
shop owner.
(AP, 1/13/11)(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, In Iraq a dozen
terror suspects disguised in police uniforms broke out of a jail in
Basra, prompting a manhunt across the nation's south for what
officials called a dangerous group of top-ranking insurgents linked
to al-Qaida.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 15, The prime
ministers of Iraq and Syria agreed to boost cooperation in security
and economic affairs during talks aimed at improving relations
strained by Baghdad's allegations that the Syrians were harboring
Iraqi insurgents.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 15, In Iraq 2 US
troops were killed by an Iraqi soldier who apparently smuggled real
bullets into a training exercise in Mosul and opened fire. The
shooter was immediately killed by American soldiers. Another
American soldier was killed during an unrelated military operation
in central Iraq.
(AP, 1/15/11)
2011 Jan 16, In Iraq a bomb
planted near offices of the military wing of one of Iraq's dominant
Shiite political parties exploded, killing one worker and wounding
three people. The afternoon bomb followed two earlier explosions in
Baghdad that police and health officials said wounded 10 people
during the morning rush hour.
(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 17, The governor of
Iraq's western Anbar province survived at least a fourth
assassination attempt in just over a year, escaping unharmed a
suicide attack that left six people wounded in Ramadi. Tamim
provincial Gov. Abdul-Rahman Mustafa said an electricity dispute
with the central government has spurred him to cut the power supply
to Baghdad emanating from his oil-rich region. A US soldier died in
an incident in northern Iraq unrelated to combat.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 18, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits, killing at
least 65 people in Tikrit.
(AP, 1/18/11)(AP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 19, In Iraq a suicide
attacker driving an explosives-packed ambulance crashed through the
front gate of an Iraqi guard force headquarters in Baqouba, killing
at least 13 people, wounding 74 and toppling a building. Another
suicide bomber detonated an explosive-packed belt among a group of
Shiite pilgrims walking to holy sites to observe a major religious
ritual next week. 2 people were killed and 15 were injured.
(AP, 1/19/11)(SFC, 1/20/11, p.A4)
2011 Jan 20, In Iraq 56 people
were killed in triple suicide bombings at security checkpoints
targeting pilgrims headed to the Shiite holy city of Karbala for
rituals. As many as 175 people were believed to be wounded.
(AP, 1/20/11)(AP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 21, Iraqi authorities
announced the arrest of several suspects in the deadly suicide
bombings outside Karbala that have provoked criticism of the
security forces for not protecting the pilgrims flocking to the
shrines. Police in Hillah arrested the local leader of a
government-backed Sunni Muslim militia for planning the deadly
bombings on Shiite pilgrims this week.
(AP, 1/21/11)(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 23, In Iraq a flurry
of morning bombs killed 10 people and wounded 34 around Baghdad. At
least two car bombs exploded, apparently targeting police patrols,
killing two policemen and a bystander, while two other people were
killed when the offices of the government sewage department in
downtown was bombed. Another bomb exploded as a bus of Iranian
pilgrims drove by, killing one and injuring nine. In the town of
Taji, a car bomb killed a farmer and his son heading to a nearby
market. In the nearby town of Tarmiyah, a bomb planted outside a
school went off, killing two young boys.
(AP, 1/23/11)
2011 Jan 24, In Iraq 2 car
bombs struck Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, killing at least 26 people
as crowds massed for religious rituals marking the end of a 40-day
mourning period for the Islamic sect's most beloved saint. 2 bombs
in Baghdad killed an Iraqi Army intelligence officer and his driver
and wounded 8 bystanders in separate strikes that hit a Shiite and a
Sunni neighborhood. Unknown gunmen killed two members of a
government-backed Sunni militia known as Awakening Councils, of
Sahwa, as they were driving in their cars southwest of the city of
Kirkuk. A roadside bomb exploded near Tikrit as Salahuddin
provincial Gov. Ahmed Abdullah al-Jubouri's motorcade was driving
by, wounding five of his bodyguards.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 26, Iraq and Kuwait
pledged to work toward resolving border disputes and debt issues as
the two former enemies seek to repair relations damaged by Saddam
Hussein's 1990 invasion of the oil-rich emirate.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 27, In Iraq a car bomb
ripped through a funeral tent in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad,
killing at least 51 people and prompting scuffles between police and
Iraqis angry about security failures. 3 other Iraqis were killed in
sporadic bombings targeting Iraqi troops and an electricity official
earlier in the day.
(AP, 1/27/11)(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Feb 1, Human Rights Watch
said elite Iraqi troops controlled by PM Nouri al-Maliki's office
are holding prisoners at a secret jail and torturing inmates at
another facility.
(AP, 2/1/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Iraq the
8-year-old son of a local anti-terrorism chief was killed in a food
market by gunmen aiming for his father in Tuz Khormato. A
demonstration near the southern city of Diwaniyah left four people
wounded when police fired into the air to disperse a crowd.
(AP, 2/4/11)(AFP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 4, Iraq’s PM al-Maliki
said that he’ll return half of his annual salary to the government’s
treasury in a symbolic effort to narrow the gaps between the
nation’s rich and poor. Iraqis seized on Egypt's unrest to protest
what they call corruption in their own security forces, rampant
unemployment and scant electricity and water supply.
(SFC, 2/5/11, p.A2)(AP, 2/4/11)
2011 Feb 6, In Iraq protesters
scuffled with riot police and marched along sewage-filled streets in
demonstrations across the country to demand better utilities and job
security from their government. In a press conference PM al-Maliki
said he would increase monthly food rations for all Iraqis by about
15,000 Iraqi dinars, or about $12. He also rejected the use of
violence against demonstrators.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 9, In Iraq a suicide
bomber posing as a dairy deliveryman struck a Kurdish security
headquarters, setting off a series of rapid-fire attacks against the
oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Three car bombs killed 10 people and
wounded up to 80. The attacks were blamed on Sunni militant group
Ansar Al-Islam.
(AP, 2/9/11)(AFP, 2/9/11)(SFC, 2/10/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 10, In Iraq a car bomb
killed 8 pilgrims on the road to the Shiite shrine in Samarra, a
highly sensitive site still being rebuilt after a 2006 attack that
sheered off its gleaming golden dome and engulfed the country in
years of sectarian bloodshed. Iraqi lawyers called for the end of
judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in a protest that was one of
the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Iraq since the start
of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
(AP, 2/10/11)
2011 Feb 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew himself up on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims, killing 36
people on their way to the al-Askari mosque in Samarra that has been
a flash point in Iraqi sectarian strife.
(AP, 2/12/11)(AP, 2/13/11)
2011 Feb 15, In Iraq 4 people
were killed in two bomb explosions today in a marketplace in
Zafaraniyah. A policeman was killed when a bomb exploded outside his
home in Baquba.
(AFP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 16, A Iraqi teenager
was killed when private guards shot at protesters who set fire to
several government offices in Kut, the capital of Wasit province. 3
demonstrators were killed in Kut. Baghdad’s city government demanded
that the US pay $1 billion and apologize for damage to the city
caused by blast walls erected during the nearly 8-year long war.
(AFP, 2/16/11)(AP, 2/17/11)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.54)
2011 Feb 17, In Iraq Kurdish
security forces opened fire in Sulaimaniyah on a crowd of protesters
surrounding the headquarters of the party affiliated with Kurdish
President Massoud Barzani. Two people were killed and 54 injured.
Hundreds of demonstrators massed in the southern city of Basra to
demand the local governor's ouster. Protesters in Nasir stormed a
local government building. Gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed
a spokesman for the provincial government in the northern city of
Mosul.
(AP, 2/17/11)(AFP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 18, Iraqis demanding
better public services, jobs and pensions blocked a bridge in the
southern oil hub of Basra, as spreading Middle East unrest emboldens
Iraqis to take on government officials over poor living standards.
(AP, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 19, In Iraq around
2,000 university students demonstrated in Sulaimaniyah province,
demanding an apology from regional president Massud Barzani after
protests earlier in the week left two dead. Ten protesters were
wounded in clashes with Kurdish security forces.
(AFP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 20, In Iraq gunmen
burst into the Kurdish NRT television station in Sulaimaniyah,
shooting up the equipment and setting fire to the building,
apparently in retaliation for footage they aired earlier in the week
of a deadly protest.
(AP, 2/20/11)
2011 Feb 21, In Iraq a suicide
attacker detonated a car bomb at a police station in Samarra,
killing at least 12 police officers. Police and hospital officials
in Sulaimaniyah said two protesters died, including a teenager, and
46 were wounded as a result of injuries sustained during overnight
protests.
(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Iraq a suicide
bomber trying to assassinate the deputy head of the provincial
council killed 11 people including 7 policemen and a bodyguard in
Ramadi, Anbar province. Security forces killed al-Nasser Lideen
Allah Abu Suleiman, the top military leader of an al-Qaida front
group, surrounding his hideout and firing shots that blew up his
booby-trapped getaway car in Hit, Anbar province. The Kurdish
government sent thousands of its troops into positions around Kirkuk
saying it feared that demonstrations planned for the next day could
turn violent.
(AP, 2/24/11)(AP, 2/25/11)(AP, 3/9/11)
2011 Feb 25, In Iraq thousands
marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in
cities across the country, in the largest and most violent
anti-government protests here since political unrest began spreading
in the Arab world several weeks ago. The "Day of Rage" clashes
between security forces and demonstrators in the city of Mosul and
town of Hawija left 8 dead and dozens wounded. At least two people
were killed and 14 others injured in riots in Anbar province. One
person was killed in Tikrit and another in Kalar. In a bid to head
off protests, Iraq slashed politicians' pay, increased food funds
for the needy and delayed a planned law that would raise import
tariffs and, thus, prices of goods in markets. 2 teens died of their
injuries the next day. Altogether at least 19 people were killed.
(AP, 2/25/11)(AFP, 2/25/11)(AP,
2/26/11)(SFC, 2/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Feb 26, In Iraq gunmen
before dawn attacked the Baiji Refinery, Iraq's largest oil
refinery, killing one engineer and forcing a shutdown that
threatened to exacerbate acute electricity shortages that have
prompted violent protests. The bodies of three protesters turned up
in Kirkuk. Police said all three took part in a Feb 25
demonstration. They were shot in the head and their hands bound.
(AP, 2/26/11)(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.A8)(AP, 3/8/11)
2011 Feb 28, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki called for new provincial elections following
anti-government protests that killed 14 people last week in a
demonstration of the simmering anger many Iraqis feel at a
government they say fails to provide basic services.
(AP, 2/28/11)
2011 Mar 3, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck a group of soldiers collecting their paychecks in
Haditha, killing eight people. Massoud Barzani asked the Kurdish
parliament to study the possibility of early general elections in
the Kurdish region. A spokeswoman said former PM Ayad Allawi, who
led a political coalition heavily supported by Iraq's minority
Sunnis, has turned down a position in the new government. The step
could further marginalize Sunnis.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 4, In Iraq thousands
rallied across Baghdad and elsewhere in the country in
anti-government demonstrations that defied security checkpoints and
a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the
capital.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 6, In southern Iraq a
roadside bomb killed six people and wounded 12 in the oil-rich city
of Basra. A radio station in Kalar, called Voice, was vandalized.
The independent station in the Kurdish region was established by two
young journalists about two years ago.
(AP, 3/6/11)
2011 Mar 11, In Iraq protesters
gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, one of at least four
demonstrations in major Iraqi cities. The largest rally was in
northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, with an estimated turnout of
4,000. Some protesters accused security forces of detaining and
beating them for taking part in demonstrations calling for better
services and a corruption-free government.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 12, Iraq’s lawmakers
tentatively agreed to cut their annual pay in half to $60,000 and
reduce the salaries of top leaders in hopes of appeasing protesters.
Gunmen ambushed 7 Iraqi soldiers as they were leaving work outside
the northern city of Mosul, killing them and fleeing before they
could be captured.
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.A4)(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 13, In Iraq 22 people,
including 15 guards, were injured in a melee that started after
officials found holes in the prison's steel fence and discovered an
escape plan by inmates linked to al-Qaida in Salahuddin province.
One inmate was killed by jumping off the roof in an effort to escape
from prison during a riot.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 14, In Iraq a suicide
bomber blew up his booby-tapped car outside an army battalion
headquarters, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 29 people in Kanan,
Diyala province.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 15, In northern Iraq 2
top Kurdish politicians resigned from local government in what
appeared to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control
of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 16, An Iraqi court
ordered the execution of an al-Qaida leader and five of his
lieutenants for masterminding some of Baghdad's deadliest bombings.
Munaf al-Rawi was convicted and sentenced to death for the attacks
that included the August 2009 government ministry bombings that
killed more than 100 people. A car bombing in Kirkuk killed three
people, including a four-month old baby and the baby's mother.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 18, In Iraq thousands
of protesters rallied in mostly Shiite cities against what some are
calling "sectarian attacks" by security forces against Shiite-led
protesters in the Sunni-ruled kingdom of Bahrain.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 21, The US military
said an American soldier has died from wounds sustained from a
roadside bomb attack during operations in southern Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 29, In northern Iraq
gunmen wearing military uniforms and suicide bomb belts stormed a
government headquarters in Tikrit in an attempt to take hostages. At
least 57 people were killed and 98 wounded. Among the dead was
journalist Sabah al-Bazi, a correspondent for Al-Arabiya satellite
TV channel and a freelancer for CNN.
(AP, 3/29/11)(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Apr 1, In Iraq a suicide
bomber disguised as a street cleaner walked up to soldiers outside a
mosque and blew himself up, killing two of the troops and a
worshipper in Fallujah, a city that was once an al-Qaida hotbed.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied in Baghdad's Tahrir
Square and in Sulaimaniyah, one of the three provinces of autonomous
Kurdish region in Iraq's north, demanding better government
services, an end to corruption and more jobs.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 2, In southern Iraq 2
US soldiers were killed in a rocket attack that struck their unit.
(AP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 3, In northern Iraq an
American soldier died in a non-combat incident.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 4, Iraq handed over
the remains of 17 Iranian soldiers killed in the grinding war
between the two countries throughout the 1980s. The two governments
signed an agreement in October 2008 to find tens of thousands of
fighters still missing after the war.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 4, In Iraq gunmen
killed six people sleeping in their home in Youssifiyah, an area
south of Baghdad that remains an al-Qaida stronghold. An Iraqi army
patrol hit a roadside bomb near the northeast Iraqi city of Kirkuk,
killing one soldier and wounding two others. An American soldier
died in a noncombat incident in central Iraq.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 5, Iraq's environment
ministry says the war-plagued country has an estimated 25 percent of
the world's unexploded land mines, making it one of the most
contaminated. Most of the land mines were left behind from the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, when Saddam Hussein's regime planted them in
the desert near the border. There are no existing maps to show where
they are located.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 8, Iraqi forces
stormed an Iranian exile camp that Iraq's Shiite-dominated
government has tried to close for years. Both sides reported
casualties in the raid. A hospital official in Baqouba said 10
people were killed and 16 wounded in the clashes. A UN spokesman
later said the Iraqi army raid on Camp Ashraf left 34 Iranian exiles
dead. Iraqi officials said three died.
(AP, 4/8/11)(AP, 4/14/11)(Reuters, 6/18/11)
2011 Apr 9, In northern Iraq an
American soldier died in a non-hostile incident.
(AP, 4/10/11)
2011 Apr 11, In central Iraqi
bombings in two cities killed at least 10 people, with twin blasts
near a school and market in a former insurgent stronghold leaving
six dead.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 11, Iraq’s government
voted to shut down a camp of Iranian dissidents and move them out of
the country by year’s end, but not back to Iran.
(SFC, 4/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 12, In Iraq bombings
in a town west of Baghdad killed five people, including three family
members of Ahmed Jassim, a former pro-government Sunni fighter.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 14, In Iraq roadside
bombs killed three people, including 2 policemen, at a market in
Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 16, In Iraq gunmen
late at night stormed the home of a Shiite family living in a mostly
Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad and killed all four family members.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iraqi police
opened fire on stone-throwing crowds protesting corruption in the
northern Kurdish region. At least 35 people were wounded.
(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 18, In Iraq suicide
bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars outside Baghdad's
heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least 9 people and wounding
23. Two carloads of robbers stormed two jewelry shops in Baghdad's
eastern al-Amin area, sparking a shootout with police. A shop owner
and a customer were killed. Police also shot dead one of the robbers
before the attackers fled with a bag of gold and gems. Gunmen
stormed a house in Kirkuk, a northern, ethnically mixed city,
killing 3 Shiite Arab women who had recently moved there.
(AP, 4/18/11)(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 19, In Iraq a senior
Education Ministry official was killed by a bomb that was hidden on
his car in Baghdad.
(AP, 4/19/11)
2011 Apr 21, An Iraqi court
sentenced three members of Saddam Hussein's regime to death for
their involvement in the assassination of a Saddam opponent, Shiite
dissident Talib al-Suhail, in 1994. The court acquitted Tariq Aziz,
who has already been sentenced to death for persecuting members of
Shiite religious parties under the former regime.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 22, In southern Iraq
two American soldiers were killed while conducting operations.
(AP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 23, A Kurdish
protester (28) died of gunshot wounds, becoming the tenth person
killed in more than two months of rallies in Iraq's northern
autonomous region. Hardi Farukh was wounded by a bullet to the head
during demonstrations on April 18 in Sulaimaniyah.
(AFP, 4/23/11)
2011 Apr 24, In Iraq a bomb
exploded outside the entrance of a Baghdad church injuring at least
7 people.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 24, Iran and Iraq
signed agreements to return each others' detainees, which could lead
to the forced repatriation of an Iranian opposition group based in
Iraq.
(AP, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 27, In southern Iraq a
US soldier died in a non-combat related incident.
(AP, 4/28/11)
2011 Apr 28, In northern Iraq a
car bomb explosion killed a police officer and three of his guards
in Hawija. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a Shiite mosque in
Balad Ruz.
(AP, 4/28/11)(SFC, 4/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 29, In Iraq attacks
around the country killed six people, including the 8-year-old
daughter of an imam who preached against violence and three brothers
who fought al-Qaida. In southern Iraq an American soldier was killed
while conducting military operations.
(AP, 4/29/11)(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 Apr 30, Two Iraqi
lawmakers said parliament has approved a $400 million settlement to
Americans who claim they were abused by Saddam Hussein. A judge, his
wife and daughter were killed when their house in Taji was blown up.
(AP, 4/30/11)
2011 May 3, In Iraq a car bomb
tore through a cafe packed with young men watching a football match
in Baghdad, killing at least 16 people. Earlier in the day a police
colonel in northern Iraq was killed by a roadside bomb.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 5, In central Iraq a
suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-packed vehicle into a
barrier outside a police building in Hillah, killing 20 police
officers and wounding dozens more. At least four other people were
killed in scattered violence around the country.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 7, In Iraq thieves
armed with guns fixed with silencers stormed a currency exchange
company in Baqouba, killing five people, and detonated a bomb to
fend off pursuing police. The assailants managed to make off with
four billion Iraqi dinars, about $3.4 million. Nine people were
wounded including four policemen when a sticky bomb attached to a
civilian car exploded near a checkpoint in Baghdad's southern Dora
area.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 8, In Iraq Abu
Huthaifa al-Battawi, the man accused of masterminding an attack on a
Baghdad church last year, wrestled a gun from a guard at a detention
facility, freed his comrades and launched an hours-long assault that
ended with 17 people dead, including a top counterterrorism officer.
A group of the detainees, including al-Battawi, managed to seize a
car and were driving toward the gate of the compound when a guard
opened killed them with a machine gun.
(AP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 13, In Iraq more than
500 protesters gathered in downtown Baghdad, demanding better
government services and more jobs.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 15, In Iraq gunmen
broke into a house and fatally shot a family of three as they slept
in Baghdad’s mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of Baiyaa. Separately,
mortar rounds struck in central Baghdad, killing two.
(AP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 16, In Iraq two
members of the security forces were killed and two Norwegian
contractors injured in attacks in Baghdad, part of a recent uptick
in violence as US troops prepare to leave the country by year's end.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 19, In Iraq twin bombs
that lured policemen out of their fortified headquarters in Kirkuk
killed 27 people, most of them police officers. A third bomb,
planted on a road, set cars and trucks ablaze when it exploded about
550 yards (500 m) away, targeting a police patrol near a mosque
wounding eight people.
(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 21, In northern Iraq
violence in the disputed province of Kirkuk left five people
dead, just two days after a string of anti-police attacks in the
region killed 29.
(AP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Iraq a
rapid-fire series of explosions in and around Baghdad killed 20
people, including 10 people who died when a suicide bomber blew
himself up in a crowd of police officers in Taji. 2 US soldiers were
killed by a bomb near Camp Victory. In the northern city of Kirkuk,
police found the dead body of a man believed to be in his late 20s.
The man's hands were tied behind his back and he was killed
execution-style with a bullet to the back of his head.
(AP, 5/22/11)(SFC, 5/23/11, p.A3)
2011 May 22, The last of
Britain's military forces in Iraq pulled up anchor, ending more than
eight years of fighting militants and training security forces since
invading in 2003.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, Iraq's Electricity
Ministry spokesman said a five-year plan with Iran will let Iraq buy
25 million cubic meters of natural gas each day to feed two power
plants in northeastern suburbs of Baghdad, one built by Iran and the
other by South Korea's Hyundai conglomerate.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 23, In Iraq two bomb
blasts targeting security forces in Kirkuk and Baghdad killed two
people and wounded 20, underscoring instability. PM Nouri al-Maliki
insisted that security forces have been mostly successful in curbing
insurgent attacks.
(AP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 25, In Iraq 4 people
were killed in the explosion of a bomb in a parked car in a Sunni
neighborhood of southwestern Baghdad.
(AP, 5/25/11)
2011 May 26, In Iraq tens of
thousands of militiamen and followers of anti-American cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr led a massive rally, marching in Baghdad in a show
of force as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep US troops in the
country beyond the end of the year. A suicide bomber struck an Iraqi
army patrol in western Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding
11 others. Ali al-Lami, a Shiite who was responsible for purging
loyalists of deposed ruler Saddam Hussein, was fatally shot by
gunmen while driving his car. He was often accused of working with
neighboring Shiite Iran to sideline Sunnis from power and re-ignite
sectarian tensions. On June 17 an al-Qaida-linked group in Iraq
claimed responsibility for the killing of al-Lami.
(AP, 5/26/11)(AP, 5/27/11)(AP, 6/17/11)
2011 May 28, A senior Iraqi
intelligence officer said security forces have arrested a Sunni
insurgent who confessed to involvement in attacks that killed 70
people, including nearly two dozen at a wedding in 2006.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 29, In Iraq a roadside
bomb planted outside a suburban liquor shop west of Baghdad killed
an Iraqi soldier and a firefighter as security forces tried to
extinguish a blaze from explosions minutes earlier.
(AP, 5/29/11)
2011 May 31, Iraqi authorities
said that they've arrested a man suspected in the May 26 killing of
Ali al-Lami, a prominent Shiite official who was responsible for
purging loyalists of deposed ruler Saddam Hussein. The official was
once implicated in a bombing that killed Americans.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 2, In Iraq a series of
bombings ripped through the capital of western Anbar province,
killing nine people. New York-based Human Rights Watch said Iraq's
central government and regional Kurdish leaders are beating and
illegally detaining protesters to try to stop demonstrations calling
for reforms.
(AP, 6/2/11)(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 3, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated explosives at a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers,
killing 16 people, including a police commander and a judge in
Tikrit. Victims were taken to a hospital. Another suicide bomber
walked into the hospital and blew himself up near the emergency
room, where family members had gathered, killing 5 more people.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 6, In Iraq five
members of the US military who were serving as advisors to the Iraqi
security police, were killed by a rocket attack on their residence
in Baghdad. This was the worst single-day loss of life for American
troops in Iraq in two years. Kataib Hezbollah claimed responsibility
for the rocket attack.
(AP, 6/6/11)(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jun 11, In northern Iraq
two car bombs killed 6 people and wounded 52 in Mosul. A separate
attack in Tikrit killed the 3 sons and a daughter of a school
teacher. A human rights activist was killed in
Baghdad.
(AP, 6/11/11)(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 13, In Iraq two
American soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 6/15/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 14, In Iraq PM
al-Maliki linked assassinations of security officials to his own
government and said a militia of more than 400 men had been set up
within the Interior Ministry. At least 8 people were killed after
gunmen stormed a local council office in Baquba, Diyala province.
(SFC, 6/16/11, p.A3)(SFC, 6/15/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 16, An Iraqi court
sentenced 15 alleged al-Qaida members to death for their role in the
2006 wedding party massacre of 70 people, considered one of the most
horrific attacks carried out by Sunni-led militants during the
insurgency.
(AP, 6/16/11)
2011 Jun 17, In Iraq hundreds
rallied in Baghdad's Tahrir Square in dueling pro- and
anti-government demonstrations.
(AP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 20, In Iraq a roadside
bomb exploded next to a French Embassy convoy traveling through
downtown Baghdad, wounding seven Iraqis. Nearly an hour later, a
parked car bomb targeted a passing police patrol in the northeastern
Shaab neighborhood, killing one policeman and wounding four others.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, In Iraq suicide
bombers detonated two explosives-laden vehicles near a government
compound by Diwaniyah Gov. Salim Hussein Alwan’s home, killing at
least 27 people and wounding dozens. In Baghdad, a bomb attached to
a minibus killed the driver while the bus was traveling in the
capital's western Harithiya neighborhood. Two soldiers were killed
and five other people were wounded when a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi
army patrol in Baghdad's eastern Palestine Street.
(AP, 6/21/11)(SFC, 6/22/11, p.A3)
2011 Jun 21, Iraqi Kurdistan
approved a draft law banning female genital mutilation by the
regional government. The Family Violence Bill has to be ratified by
the regional president, Massud Barzani.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jun 22, Iraqi lawmakers
said they are trying to figure out what happened to about $17
billion that was supposed to be used for reconstruction. Gunmen
attacked an Iranian oil delegation visiting Baghdad. A series of
attacks in Baghdad during rush hour left one person dead and 30
others wounded.
(AP, 6/22/11)(Reuters, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 22, Iraq said it would
donate 10 million dollars in disaster relief to Japan and offered
oil sales, as Tokyo struggles with the devastation of a March 11
tsunami.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Iraq 3 bombs
ripped through Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing 24 people in
the worst violence the capital has seen in months. An American
civilian aid specialist working to improve education in Iraq was
killed in a separate attack.
(AP, 6/24/11)(AFP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Iraq Hasna Ali
Yahya, the Yemeni wife of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was convicted and
sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism-related charges.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 24, French junior
transport minister Thierry Mariani said French engineering group
Alstom is in exclusive talks to build a high-speed rail line between
Baghdad and Basra in Iraq.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, In Iran Pakistani
Pres. Asif Ali Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai
attended an international anti-terrorism conference alongside
Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir, Iraqi Pres. Jalal Talabani and Tajik
Pres. Emomali Rahmon. The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and
Pakistan agreed to join forces in combating militancy.
(AP, 6/25/11)(AFP, 6/25/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Iraq a suicide
bomber in a wheelchair blew himself up at the entrance to a police
station in Tarmiyah, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, killing 3
people and wounding 18 others. An American soldier died in southern
Iraq in an incident that was not related to combat. On July 19
the Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted on its website
that it was behind the suicide bombing in Tarmiyah.
(AFP, 6/26/11)(AP, 6/27/11)(SFC, 6/27/11,
p.A2)(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jun 29, An Iraqi judiciary
official said a Baghdad court has handed a life jail sentence to the
widow of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, Al-Qaeda's top chief in Iraq, who was
killed last year in a joint US-Iraqi military raid. A rocket attack
on a US base near the border with Iran killed three American
soldiers. The strike was blamed on a Shiite militia linked to
Tehran.
(AP, 6/29/11)(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jun 30, In northern Iraqi
two police officers were killed in a late night ambush at a fake
checkpoint in Wana.
(AP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jun, UN Statistics
Division said 70 territories would be holding censuses in 2011. Only
Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, Somalia, Uzbekistan and Western Sahara would
fail to hold a count in this ten-year round.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.71)
2011 Jul 1, In central Iraq the
Al-Ahdab oil field, operated by China National Petroleum Corp, began
production with 60,000 barrels per day. The contract with CNPC,
signed in 2008, allows the Chinese company to develop the field for
23 years.
(AFP, 7/1/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Iraq gunmen
wearing police uniforms kidnapped and killed five Iraqi policemen in
Anbar province, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/3/11)
2011 Jul 4, In Iraq several
insurgent attacks around the country killed seven people and wounded
14. A late night rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green
Zone killed four people and wounded 10.
(AP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 5, In Iraq double
blasts from a car bomb and a roadside bombing at a parking lot
outside the Taji city council building north of Baghdad killed 37
people with 54 wounded. On July 19 the Islamic State of Iraq said in
a statement posted on its website that it was behind the double
bombings in Taji.
(AP, 7/5/11)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A2)(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Iraq two police
officers were killed in a suicide bombing outside a car dealership
in al-Hedaid, just outside Baqouba, Diyala province. Authorities
uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of
Diwaniyah, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted
dictator Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 7/6/11)(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 7, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed 2 US soldiers outside the main American military base in
Baghdad.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 8, In Iraq a roadside
bombing west of Baghdad killed two Iraqi army officers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Iraq 3 rockets
slammed into Baghdad's heavily-fortified Green Zone, wounding a
woman and her children, officials said, as US Defence Secretary Leon
Panetta began the second day of a visit to press Iraqi leaders on
security.
(AFP, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber killed five members of a government-backed Sunni militia at a
security checkpoint just outside Baghdad in the western suburb of
Abu Ghraib.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 15, In southern Iraq a
US soldier was killed while conducting military operations.
(AP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 16, In Iraq a bomb,
hidden in an empty rickshaw, blew up near Shiite pilgrims headed to
the holy city of Karbala, killing two people and wounding 26. In
Baghdad, a bomb in a minibus parked outside a restaurant and
nightclub in the Karradah neighborhood killed three passers-by and
wounded at least nine. Pediatrician Safi Harzan (48) was freed in a
village south of Kirkuk after spending three weeks in captivity
after his family paid $500,000 to kidnappers.
(AP, 7/16/11)(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting a security patrol killed one policeman and a
passer-by in western Baghdad. An American soldier died in Iraq in a
noncombat incident.
(AP, 7/17/11)(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 17, Several Iranian
Kurdish rebels based in Iraq were wounded in hours of clashes with
Tehran's forces along the two countries' border.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, Iran’s state news
said Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of
an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq and that "a
large number" of members of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group
PEJAK have been killed in fierce ongoing clashes over the past two
days. PEJAK claimed to have killed 53 Iranian soldiers and wounded
43 while only two PEJAK members were killed and seven wounded in
clashes.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 22, In Iraq separate
bomb and gun attacks killed five policemen and wounded 17 other
people in Baghdad and Baquba.
(AFP, 7/22/11)
2011 Jul 24, An Iraqi
anti-terrorism official said security forces have smashed an
Al-Qaeda network allegedly responsible for more than 100 killings in
Baghdad, including attacks on Oct 31, 2010, May 8 and May 26 this
year. The network consisted of 16 militants and had been led by
Wissam Yasin Alwan, also known as Abu Samir, who committed suicide
last week when police tried to arrest him in central Baghdad's Baab
al-Muadham district.
(AFP, 7/24/11)
2011 Jul 25, Iranian forces
shelled suspected rebel outposts in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish
region, killing two Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber and a car bomb struck an Iraqi bank in Tikrit where policemen
were picking up their paychecks, killing 12 and wounding 34 people.
An Iraqi Kurd boy (10) was killed in shelling by Tehran's forces of
Iranian Kurdish separatist bases in Battas, northern Iraq.
(AP, 7/28/11)(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 30, A US-Iraqi raid
north of Baghdad killed tribal sheikh Hamid Hassan and two of his
family members. Local leaders branded the attack as a "massacre" of
civilians. Hassan (65) was the leader of a branch of the Rufayat
tribe.
(AFP, 7/30/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Iraq a car bomb
outside the Syrian Catholic church in Kirkuk wounded 23 people.
Police discovered two more car bombs parked outside the Christian
Anglican church and the Mar Gourgis church, both in downtown Kirkuk.
Unidentified gunmen evening shot dead Iraqi army Lieutenant Colonel
Azad Mohammed Ahmed in the Khadra area in the south of Kirkuk while
he was driving to his house with one of his guards. 2 members of an
anti-Qaeda tribal militia, the Sahwa, which turned against Al-Qaeda
and sided with the US military from late 2006, were shot dead north
of the city of Baquba by unknown gunmen. Successive bombings
targeting an alcohol shop on Baghdad's western outskirts killed 2
policemen at the beginning of the holy Muslim fasting month of
Ramadan.
(AP, 8/2/11)(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 3, An Iraqi policeman
was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Al-Rusafa
prison complex. The interior ministry said 3 Iraqi translators
wounded and that two US soldiers were killed. A spokesman for US
forces said that there was an IED attack in the Rusafa area, but
that it did not result in any US casualties.
(AP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 5, In Iraq 4 prisoners
and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central city
of Hilla, during which 8 inmates escaped.
(AP, 8/6/11)
2011 Aug 7, In Iraq insurgents
killed at least two people and wounded 11 in an overnight bomb
attack on the home of a Shiite family in the mainly Sunni town of
Iskandiriyah.
(AFP, 8/7/11)
2011 Aug 11, In Iraq the
criminal court of Salaheddin issued a death sentence for a
lieutenant colonel, the former deputy commander of an oil protection
unit in Salaheddin province, for smuggling 116 tankers of kerosene,
saying he aimed to "finance terrorism" with proceeds from the
kerosene sales. 2 roadside bombs went off in Ramadi killing 3
people. 24 people were wounded in the attack, which appeared to
target worshippers as they came out of a mosque.
(AFP, 8/11/11)(AP, 8/12/11)
2011 Aug 13, In Iraq bombings
and shootings, including an attack near cafes and ice cream shops,
killed five Iraqis and wounded 14 in Baghdad and Al-Baghdadi, Anbar
province.
(AP, 8/13/11)
2011 Aug 14, In Iraq a pair of
bombs hit an Iraqi army patrol in north Baghdad, killing five
security personnel and injuring 10 other people.
(AP, 8/14/11)
2011 Aug 15, In Iraq bomb
blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities, killing at
least 89 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this
year. 7 explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province
alone. In Kut a bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold.
As rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded
killing 35 people with 64 injured. Gunmen wearing military uniforms
pulled seven people from a Sunni mosque in Youssifiyah and then shot
and killed them execution-style. After the killings, the gunmen
shouted they were fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq, a front
group for al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 8/15/11)(AP, 8/16/11)(SFC, 8/16/11,
p.A2)(Econ, 8/20/11, p.44)
2011 Aug 17, In Turkey Kurdish
PKK rebels ambushed a military convoy in Cukurca township near the
border with Iraq killing 9 soldiers. Officials vowed strong military
retaliation. Turkey's air force attacked 60 suspected Kurdish rebel
targets in northern Iraq. The military it vowed to continue the
assault until the guerrilla group is "rendered ineffective."
(AP, 8/17/11)(AP, 8/18/11)(Econ, 8/27/11, p.43)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Turkey
the PKK attacked police and military stations in simultaneous
overnight rocket strikes in Siirt province, killing two soldiers and
wounding three civilians. Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected
Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, in a second day of
cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 19, Al-Qaida in Iraq
vowed to carry out "100 attacks" across the country, starting in the
middle of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, to exact revenge for the
death of Osama bin Laden. Aug 15 marked the middle of Ramadan.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 19, Turkey's military
hit 85 rebel targets with artillery fire. Warplanes bombed 20
suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of
cross-border strikes.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Turkish airstrikes
on suspected rebel targets in northern Iraq killed seven Iraqi
civilians, including five children and a woman, in an attack on
Kortak mountain. Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse
Kurdish protesters who tried to march to a main square in Istanbul
to denounce the Turkish raids. In demonstrators marched to protest
the PKK.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 23, Turkey's military
said air strikes on suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq
this week have killed an estimated 90 to 100 guerrillas and warned
that it would press ahead with offensives against the group both
inside Turkey and across the border.
(AP, 8/23/11)
2011 Aug 24, Across Iraq 12
people, among them six policemen, were killed and 14 others wounded
in a series of attacks.
(AFP, 8/24/11)
2011 Aug 27, In Iraq 24 people,
all but one of them women and children, were killed when a bus
caught fire after being hit by a car in the northern city of Kirkuk.
3 more people were killed in the car.
(AFP, 8/27/11)(SSFC, 8/28/11, p.A6)
2011 Aug 27, National carrier
Egyptair resumed direct flights to Iraq after a break of 21 years.
(AFP, 8/27/11)
2011 Aug 28, In Iraq a pair of
bombs killed 2 people and wounded 5 in Shiite Muslim areas of
Baghdad. A suicide bomber killed 29 people at Baghdad's largest
Sunni mosque. He had disguised himself as an injured beggar and
attended prayers there for nearly a week.
(AP, 8/28/11)(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Aug 28, Nechirvan Barzani,
deputy chief of the most powerful political party in Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish region, called on separatist groups in the area
to lay down their arms in an interview published.
(AFP, 8/28/11)
2011 Aug 31, In Iraq car bomb
parked outside a shopping area in southwestern Baghdad killed 5
people and wounded 22.
(AP, 8/31/11)
2011 Sep 1, In Iraq 35 terror
suspects tunneled their way out of a detention facility in northern
Ninevah province. 21 were quickly recaptured. Within days police
arrested two fugitive prisoners and found four others drowned.
(AP, 9/1/11)(AFP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 3, A young Kurdish
shepherd was killed by an Iranian sniper on the Iraq-Iran border.
Iran also shelled the border area, appearing to target bases of the
Iranian Kurdish rebel group PEJAK, which has been involved in
sporadic cross-border clashes with Iranian forces in recent years.
(AP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 5, Iran said its
Revolutionary Guard soldiers have killed at least 30 members of
Kurdish opposition group in fighting outside the border city of
Sardasht in an operation that began on Sep 2. Inside Iraq a PEJAK
spokesman declared an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, which Iran
rejected.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 6, In Iraq gunmen
ambushed and killed 9 government soldiers as they were returning to
base after a midnight shift in Anbar province. US authorities
informed PM Nouri al-Maliki that the American military withdrawal
has officially begun. Under a 2008 agreement between Washington and
Baghdad, all US troops are slated to leave by Dec 31, 2011.
(AP, 9/6/11)(SFC, 9/7/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 8, Iraqi journalist
Hadi al-Mehdi (30), was shot by gunmen using silenced pistols in his
Baghdad home. He had criticized the government and helped organize
pro-reform protests.
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 10, In Iraq gunmen
attacked an army patrol, opening fire from speeding cars in the Bab
al-Muadham area of Baghdad. 3 soldiers were killed in the attack.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 11, Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region halted crude exports, nearly a week after it
rejected a new oil and gas law approved by the central government.
(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Sep 12, Iraq's former
anti-corruption chief, Rahim Hassan al-Uqailee (44), slammed the
nation’s leaders, describing graft as "part of the struggle for
power" in what international monitors say is one of the world's most
corrupt countries. 22 Shiite pilgrims were executed by gunmen who
hijacked their bus at a fake checkpoint in Anbar province.
(AFP, 9/12/11)(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 14, In Iraq attacks on
Iraqi security forces killed over 20 people and wounded more than 50
across the country. This included 16 people killed and 46 wounded by
a car bomb in the southern town of al-Shumali, Babel province.
(AP, 9/14/11)(SFC, 9/15/11, p.A3)
2011 Sep 15, Iraq’s anti-graft
watchdog published a statement, made public on Sep 17, saying Iraq
has recovered $116 million from bank accounts in France belonging to
an official from ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.
(AFP, 9/17/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Iraq thousands
of Al-Sadr followers rallied for more jobs and government aid in
demonstrations that showed his support among Shiites. Al-Sadr has
repeatedly demanded full withdrawal of US troops by the end of the
year, as required under a 2008 security agreement between Baghdad
and Washington. 41 experts, former lawmakers and top officials in
the administration of former President George W. Bush called on
Obama to keep far more than 4,000 troops in Iraq, a figure the White
House is reportedly considering.
(AP, 9/16/11)
2011 Sep 19, In Iraq 8 inmates
were killed in an early morning fire at Interior Ministry jail in
Baladiyat, a mostly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 20, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up in front of a government office in
Ramadi, Anbar province, killing four people and wounding eight
others.
(AP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 23, In Iraq five
people were killed in a series of blasts in western Baghdad.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 25, In Iraq a series
of 4 blasts killed at least 10 people and wounded scores more in
what a local official called a sectarian strike on Karbala, whose
residents are still reeling from being targeted in a deadly bus
hijacking in a Sunni region earlier this month.
(AP, 9/25/11)
2011 Sep 26, In northern Iraq
roadside bomb killed 3 people in Kirkuk. Gunmen in Baghdad
assassinated a senior finance ministry official and wounded a senior
judge.
(AP, 9/26/11)(SFC, 9/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Sep 27, In Iraq a late
night car bomb killed three people and wounding 10 others near a
popular restaurant in a Shiite neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 28, In Abu Ghraib,
Iraq, gunmen wearing military-style uniforms broke into the house of
Hameed al-Zobaie, a pro-government Sunni militiaman, and killed five
members of his family, including three children.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated his explosives-packed truck outside a bank in
Kirkuk killed at least two people.
(AFP, 9/29/11)
2011 Sep 30, In central Iraq a
car bomb ripped through a funeral procession near a mosque in Babil
province, killing at least 10 people. Three people were killed,
including a policeman, in multiple attacks in the restive province
of Diyala. In Baghdad a roadside bomb targeting a shop selling birds
in the Zafraniyah neighborhood killed at least one person.
(AP, 9/31/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Iraq two
roadside bombs killed four anti-al-Qaida Sunni militiamen In
Mishahda 30 km north of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Iraq 4
insurgents disguised as police officers seized control of a police
station in western Anbar province, taking dozens of hostages and
killing four of them before Iraqi forces swept in and ended the
standoff. 2 insurgents blew themselves up and 2 were killed by
police. Gunmen tried to attack another police station about 10 miles
(16 km) away, but were repulsed. Security forces killed two
insurgents and arrested another three.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 4, Iraqi leaders said
that they need US military trainers to stay beyond a year-end
deadline for American forces to leave but that the troops should not
be granted immunity from prosecution.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, In Iraq gunmen
killed two people and injured three while robbing gold shops in
southwestern Baghdad. A car bomb exploded next to a police patrol in
western Anbar province, killing one policeman.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 8, Production at
Iraq's biggest oil field was partially halted after two bombs at the
Rumaila field damaged a pipeline transporting crude. Iraq currently
produces around 2.9 million bpd, and says it will be capable of
output of 12 million by 2017.
(AFP, 10/8/11)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 8, In Iraq six members
of a demining team died when a controlled detonation of old land
mines went wrong.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Iraq’s Pres. Jalal
Talabani requested that over 5,000 US military trainers stay on past
the Dec 31 US withdrawal date. A string of explosions targeting
security officials killed at least 10 people in western Baghdad.
(SFC, 10/12/11, p.A2)(SFC, 10/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids
in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three
senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Iraq a slew of
bombings targeted Iraqi police in Baghdad, including blasts by two
suicide bombers who tried to ram their vehicles through police
station gates. 25 people died and over 70 were wounded in the
carnage.
(AP, 10/12/11)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 13, In Iraq 2 night
time explosions in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood of eastern
Baghdad, killed 17 people and wounded around 50 others.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign
minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on
his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their
commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 16, Iraqi Deputy PM
Hussein al-Shahristani called on a visiting Indian delegation to
make much-needed investments in Iraq's energy, industry and housing
sectors.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Iraq hundreds
rallied in the disputed town of Khanaqin to demand the reversal of a
central government ruling barring the flag of the autonomous Kurdish
region in official buildings.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled
northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of
Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began
the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and two
civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers,
air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into
northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and
wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO
both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more
than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite
Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish
rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making
it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three
years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept
up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight,
as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq.
Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian
wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit
by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki said that US troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine
years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any US
military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution
or lawsuits. Nearly 40,000 US troops remain in Iraq, all of whom
will withdraw by Dec 31. About 160 US troops will remain at the U.S.
Embassy in Baghdad to help oversee training plans.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military
said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish
rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also
pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Iraq two
separate attacks against traffic policemen left five people dead in
Baghdad.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed a traffic policemen in Baghdad, on the second morning in
a row in which traffic patrols appear to have been targeted by
insurgents. Armed men in a night attack killed Ali al-Massudi, the
Shiite mayor of the Iskandiriyah sub-district.
(AP, 10/25/11)(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In Iraq bomb and
gun attacks killed 8 people, including four soldiers and two family
members of a Shiite cleric, and wounded 29 others.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Iraq two
blasts, which took place at a music store in a Shiite neighborhood
in Baghdad, killed at least 32 people and wounded 71 others. Among
the dead were 8 security officers, including an army lieutenant
colonel, 4 women and at least 8 children.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said that 615 people have been detained in a security
sweep targeting members of the former ruling Baath Party.
(SSFC, 10/30/11, p.A9)
2011 Nov 2, In Iraq a triple
bombing in the southern oil port city of Basra killed seven people
sitting at nearby cafes.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Iraq a pair of
near-simultaneous bombings killed 5 security guards who were waiting
in line to pick up their paychecks outside an Iraqi military base
near Baqouba. 26 people were wounded. The dead all were members of
Sahwa, or Awakening Councils, Sunni militia that sided with US
forces against al-Qaida in a major turning point of the war. A
roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad's neighborhood of Karradah,
killing two passers-by. Police who rushed to the scene were hit with
a second blast, killing two policemen and wounding three others. An
American service member was killed while conducting military
operations in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/3/11)(AP, 11/4/11)(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 3, Top UN envoy to
Iraq, Martin Kobler, offered to broker the peaceful closing of out
of Camp Ashraf, a camp of Iranian exiles, before the government in
Baghdad forces its residents out at the end of the year.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Iraq Sunni widow
Suad al-Obaidi (47) was arrested along with her allegedly Al-Qaeda
boyfriend, after attacks on anti-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) militia in
Diyala province a day earlier. Her boyfriend had convinced her to
send her little boy (9) on a suicide mission, December 29, 2006, and
then failed to stop the attack after she had a change of heart.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Iraq four bombs
at the Taji home of anti-Qaeda militia leader Yassin Issa Daud,
killed five people and wounded 13 others. Border police Brigadier
General Mohammed Jalil Mansur was shot dead with a silenced weapon
while driving near Al-Shaab football stadium in eastern Baghdad. A
magnetic sticky bomb on a minibus in the Sadr City area of Baghdad
killed one person and wounded five others.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Iraq Anbar
officials considered joining other provinces to create an
semi-autonomous Sunni region. The governor of Anbar province, Qasim
al-Fahadawi, escaped unhurt after a roadside bomb hit his motorcade
as it headed to Baghdad.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Iraq US forces
handed Joint Base Balad, a sprawling base north of Baghdad that once
housed some 36,000 personnel, over to Iraqi control.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Iraq's PM Nuri
al-Maliki called on members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party
to declare their rejection of the party in writing, and threatened
prosecution if they do not.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes
bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Iraq two
Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite shrines were killed when a bomb
went off next to a minibus in which they were traveling.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Iraq executed a
Tunisian man convicted of the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine that set off the worst of the country's sectarian violence.
Yusri Fakhir was convicted earlier this year of the bombing on the
al-Askari shrine in Sunni city of Samarra.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, In Iraq four
people were killed when a car bomb went off next to an Iraqi
military patrol in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Iraq bombs
targeting security personnel killed 9 people including 5 family
members of a policeman in Saqlawiyah and 4 people in the Baghdad
suburb of Abu Graib.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 22, Iraqi and American
officials said the US has handed over all of the remaining detainees
in US custody in Iraq, except for Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Lebanese
Hezbollah commander linked to the death of four American troops.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A British court
ruled in favor of a group of more than 100 Iraqi civilians who have
demanded a new public inquiry into allegations of torture against
British soldiers. Some 128 Iraqis claim torture and inhuman and
degrading treatment by British soldiers and interrogators in Iraq
between March 2003 and December 2008.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Malaysia former
US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair
were found guilty at a mock tribunal for committing "crimes against
peace" during the Iraq war. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal,
part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad,
a fierce critic of the Iraq war, found the former leaders guilty
after a four-day hearing.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 24, Iraq executed 16
Al-Qaeda members convicted of involvement in the massacre of 70
people at a wedding in 2006, although they were officially put to
death for other murders. A string of bombings in Basra killed 19
people.
(AFP, 11/24/11)(SFC, 11/25/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 26, In central Iraq
bomb and gun attacks killed at least 16 people and wounded more than
20 others.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber slammed a car packed with explosives into the gate of al-Hout
prison north of Baghdad, killing at least 19 people in Taji. In
Baghdad, 5 people were killed by a suicide car bomb inside the Green
Zone. 2 civilian bystanders were killed and 5 others wounded by a
roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad.
(AP, 11/28/11)(SFC, 11/30/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 1, In Iraq 2 separate
attacks killed 17 people in northeastern Diyala province. The
attacks came as US Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi officials
on a trip designed to chart a new relationship between the two
countries ahead of the withdrawal of US forces by the end of this
year.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Iraq the Camp
Victory base complex, at its height was home to 46,000 people, was
handed over to the Iraqi government as part of American efforts to
move all US troops out of the country by the end of the year.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Iraq explosions
killed six people, including a father and son who were assembling a
makeshift bomb that accidentally detonated inside their home in
Kirkuk. In Baghdad a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi military convoy
in the capital's western suburb of Abu Ghraib. 4 soldiers were
killed.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Iraq 5 bomb
attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad killed some 30
people and wounded nearly 100 others during Ashura, an important
religious ritual for the Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/5/11)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 7, In Iraq a series of
attacks mainly targeting security forces killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 8, NATO informed Iraq
that it will withdraw its training mission at year-end after Baghdad
refused to grant it legal immunity, mirroring the nearly-complete
pullout of US forces.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Iraq a spate of
gun and bomb attacks across northern and central Iraq killed seven
people and left four others wounded.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Iraq pumping
from the southern Rumaila field fell following two explosions to
700,000 barrels per day, down from 1.4 million barrels. Oil exports
were not affected. The pipelines were expected to be repaired in
about a week.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 17, The secular
Iraqiya bloc, which won most of the votes of Iraq's disenchanted
Sunni Arab minority, walked out of parliament sparking a political
crisis days after US forces ended their mission.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 18, The last US
soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring
Kuwait at daybreak. The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more
than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the US Treasury.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In Iraq Baghdad
security said three of Sunni vice-president Tareq Hashemi's
bodyguards were arrested for "suspected terrorist activity," and the
vice president was briefly escorted off a domestic flight from
Baghdad to the autonomous Kurdish region's capital Arbil.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Iraqi officials
said judges have barred Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi from
travelling overseas.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 21, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki said he has granted a six-month extension on a deadline to
close Camp Ashraf, which has housed Iranian exiles for decades. The
six-month extension started in November. He also said the UN would
relocate 400 to 800 of the residents to other countries by end of
December. Al-Maliki also told Kurdish authorities to hand over Sunni
vice president Tariq Al-Hashemi, who fled to the semiautonomous
region to escape an arrest warrant on charges he ran hit squads
targeting government officials.
(AP, 12/21/11)(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 22, In Iraq a wave of
at least 14 morning bombings ripped across Baghdad, killing 69
people in the worst violence in Iraq for months. The bombings bore
all the hallmarks of al-Qaida's Sunni insurgents. 4 more bombings in
the evening killed 3 more people.
(AP, 12/22/11)(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A3)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 25, The Iraqi
government and the UN announced an agreement to relocate several
thousand Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, An Iraqi Shiite
militia group said it would join the political process. The Asaib
Ahel al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, was behind the kidnap of a
British consultant and his four bodyguards, and has been blamed for
the killing of US troops. A suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a
checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven
people and injuring 32 others. A roadside bomb hit a passing army
patrol in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers
and injuring two others.
(AFP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 27, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a police station in the town of Hawija, 150 miles (240
km) north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring another.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes
killed at least 34 people in an air strike on the Iraq border in an
attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre"
of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement
that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK
rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely
brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of
local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the
families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)
2012 Jan 3, Iraq’s Cabinet
voted to declare the missing Iraqiya ministers "on leave." That
decision sidesteps for now the possibility that boycotting ministers
would be replaced.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Iraq 6 roadside
bombs targeted the homes of police officers in Baqouba. Two children
died in the blasts and nine people were wounded. Gunmen stormed the
house of a leader in the anti al-Qaida militia in the predominantly
Sunni suburb of Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing him and his
wife.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, In Iraq explosions
struck two Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 27
people. Hours later a suicide attack hit Shiite pilgrims heading to
the holy Shiite city of Karbala, killing 45. A series of bombings
targeting members of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority claimed the lives
of at least 78 people.
(AP, 1/5/12)(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 6, The Iraqi official
in charge of reconciling with the country's armed groups said an
Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, that carried out
deadly attacks on US troops has agreed to lay down its arms and join
the political process. Roadside bombs killed two Shiite pilgrims.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 7, In Iraq a roadside
bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims killed two people and wounded eight
others south of Baghdad. In Basra about 400 people staged a protest
to denounce a decision by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to
shelter the country's top Sunni politician after an arrest warrant
was issued against him.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 8, Iraq's Shiite-led
government has formally demanded that authorities in the
semiautonomous Kurdish region hand over the country's top Sunni
official, who is wanted on terrorism charges. Vice President Tariq
al-Hashemi has denied the allegations and says he cannot get a fair
trial in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 9, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed two Shiite pilgrims walking to Karbala. 3 car bombs
killed at least 17 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/9/12)(SFC, 1/10/12, p.A4)
2012 Jan 11, In Iraq gunmen
ambushed a police station and killed three officers in a former
insurgent stronghold outside a police post in Qaim near the Syrian
border.
(AP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 13, Iraq's deputy
premier called for PM Nouri al-Maliki to step down and warned that
the country's festering political crisis risks sparking a wider
sectarian conflict. Sunni Deputy PM Al-Mutlaq's Sunni-backed Iraqiya
party has been boycotting parliament and Cabinet meetings since last
month to protest what it sees as efforts by al-Maliki to consolidate
power.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 14, In Iraq a bomb
killed at least 53 Shiite pilgrims near the town of Zubair as
pilgrims marched toward the Shiite Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts
of the town on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen.
(AP, 1/14/12)
2012 Jan 15, The Iraqi Supreme
Judicial Council said in a statement that the appeals court ruled
that Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi must stand trial in
Baghdad. Security forces battled 5 gunmen who detonated a car bomb
before blasting their way into a government compound and killing
seven policemen in Ramadi. All the attackers were killed.
(AP, 1/15/12)
2012 Jan 16, In Iraq car bombs
ripped through Mosul and Hillah, killing at least 11 people.
(AP, 1/16/12)
2012 Jan 17, In western Iraq
insurgents attacked a checkpoint killing five policemen in the Anbar
province town of Rutba.
(AP, 1/17/12)
2012 Jan 18, In Iraq suspected
insurgents killed a member of the government-allied Sunni militia
along with three of his sons in Latifiyah, about 20 miles (30 km)
south of Baghdad. Riyadh al-Adhadh, deputy chief of Baghdad
provincial council, was arrested while on his way to work in
connection with funding insurgent groups. Adhadh is a member of the
Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni grouping under the broader Iraqiya
coalition.
(AP, 1/18/12)(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 19, Iraq's presidency
approved the death penalty for 11 men, including Al-Qaeda militants,
convicted two years ago of being behind devastating attacks against
two ministries on Aug 19, 2009.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 21, Iraqi police said
gunmen attacked the house of a police officer near the northern
oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing one of his guards.
(AP, 1/21/12)
2012 Jan 22, Human Rights Watch
said Iraq’s Shiite-led government is turning the country into a
“budding police state” as security forces routinely abuse
protesters, harass journalist, torture detainees and intimidate
activists.
(SFC, 1/23/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 23, The Honein
jihadist forum posted a message vowing further attacks against Iraqi
Shiites.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 24, In Iraq a series
of car bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad. At least 19 people
were killed and over 60 injured as insurgents targeted day laborers,
government workers and a police captain. Mullah Nadhum al-Jubouri,
the leader of a Sunni militia that turned against al-Qaida in Iraq
and sided with the US troops, died in a drive-by shooting in western
Baghdad.
(AFP, 1/24/12)(AP, 1/25/12)(SFC, 1/25/12, p.A2)
2012 Jan 26, Iraq said it will
take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed
Iraqi civilians killed in a US raid in Haditha seven years ago.
Insurgents bombed a house belonging to two policemen and their
families in central Iraq early, killing 10 people inside. A
motorcycle bomb missed a passing police patrol in Kirkuk, but killed
two civilians and wounded five others. 7 people were killed in
attacks on Baghdad's s two mostly Sunni districts.
(AP, 1/26/12)(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Jan 27, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated an explosives-packed car near a funeral procession
in southeastern Baghdad, killing 33 people, half of them policemen
who were guarding the march. Minutes after the explosion, gunmen
opened fire at a checkpoint in Zafaraniyah, killing two police
officers.
(AP, 1/27/12)(AP, 1/29/12)
2012 Jan 28, Iraqi Kurdish
leader Massud Barzani backed minority Kurds in Syria, who have
rallied against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad during 10
months of nationwide protests. He spoke at a two-day conference of
Syrian Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Arbil.
(AFP, 1/28/12)
2012 Jan 29, An official with
Iraq's Sunni-backed political alliance said its leaders have decided
to end a parliament boycott, but the bloc's ministers will stay away
from Cabinet meetings to protest arrests and prosecution of Sunni
officials. A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in southeastern
Baghdad killed one person.
(AP, 1/29/12)
2012 Jan 30, Iraq said interior
ministry security forces have detained 16 members of Vice President
of the Republic Tareq al-Hashemi's guard, who were said to be
practicing assassinations with silenced rifles and pistols targeting
interior ministry officers and judges.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Jan 31, Iraqi MPs from the
secular Iraqiya bloc returned to parliament, ending a boycott begun
last month to protest the prime minister's alleged centralization of
power.
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2012 Feb 7, Ministers from
Iraq's Sunni-backed bloc ended their boycott of the Cabinet. Iraq
executed 14 people, most of them Al-Qaeda members, bringing to at
least 65 the number of executions so far this year.
(AP, 2/7/12)(AFP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 11, In Iraq a car bomb
seriously wounded Lt. Col. Salman Kadhim, a local police chief in
Jbala. Two of Kadhim’s guards were also wounded in the explosion.
(AP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 11, Turkish warplanes
bombed suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.
(AP, 2/12/12)
2012 Feb 13, In Iraq a police
commander Col. Saad al-Shameri, who for years hunted militants, was
ambushed and killed in a former insurgent stronghold west of
Baghdad. His driver was also killed.
(AP, 2/13/12)
2012 Feb 14, In Iraq 2 separate
attacks against Iraqi security forces in Mosul and Baghdad killed
three people and wounded 18 others.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 15, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military uniforms seriously wounded a policeman and killed
his wife and two children in an attack on his home in Jurf
al-Sakhar, south of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/12)
2012 Feb 16, An Iraqi judicial
panel said that Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and his
employees ran death squads that for years carried out deadly attacks
on security officials and Shiite pilgrims. Al-Hashemi was in Iraq's
northern Kurdish region, where he has sought refuge from the central
government in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 16, Iranian opposition
group the National Council of Resistance said it has agreed to begin
evacuating its long-time base in a camp in central Iraq to transfer
to a UN-approved site near Baghdad.
(AFP, 2/16/12)
2012 Feb 18, In Iraq some 400
members of an Iranian exile group reluctantly moved from Camp Ashraf
in the northwest to Camp Liberty, a deserted military base outside
Baghdad in what they called a show of good faith that they
eventually will be allowed to leave the country peacefully. It was
the first group to move of the more than 3,300 members of the
People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran who have lived at the camp
for three decades.
(AP, 2/18/12)
2012 Feb 19, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated his car as a group of police recruits left their
academy in Baghdad, killing 20 in the latest strike on security
officials that angry residents blamed on political feuding.
investigators in the southern port city of Um Qasr said a Shiite
mosque that was partially destroyed in an overnight fire was likely
an act of sabotage.
(AP, 2/19/12)
2012 Feb 20, Iraq's fugitive
Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi in a broadcast interview said his
bodyguards and other employees are being held in secret prisons and
subjected to torture.
(AFP, 2/20/12)
2012 Feb 22, Iraq's Interior
Ministry announced the capture of Waleed Khalid Ali, accused as a
top leader of the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group linked to al-Qaida.
The remains of US Staff Sgt. Ahmed al-Taie were turned over to Iraqi
authorities. He had been abducted on October 23, 2006, during a
visit to his wife and family on a Muslim holiday. He was killed
within a year.
(AP, 2/23/12)(AP, 2/27/12)
2012 Feb 23, In Iraq A rapid
series of attacks spread over a wide swath of Iraqi territory killed
55 people, targeting mostly security forces in what appeared to be a
vicious strike by al-Qaida militants bent on destabilizing the
country. 225 were wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq said in an
Internet message that it targeted security forces and government
officials in "revenge for the elimination and torture campaigns that
Sunni men and women face in the prisons of Baghdad and other
cities."
(AP, 2/23/12)(AP, 2/24/12)
2012 Feb 27, Iraqi Kurdistan
said it has granted refugee status to 30 Kurdish Syrian troops who
defected to the region in the first such instance in the revolt
against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 1, In Iraq American
gym teacher Jeremiah Small was shot and killed at a school in
Sulaimaniyah in the northern Kurdish region. Student Biyar Sarwar
(18) pulled out a gun and shot the teacher. Sarwar shot and killed
himself as his terrified classmates fled the room.
(AP, 3/1/12)(SFC, 3/2/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 5, In western Iraq a
gang of gunmen disguised in military-style uniforms and carrying
forged arrest warrants killed 27 police, then hoisted the battle
flag of al-Qaida in a carefully planned early morning shooting spree
in Haditha. 3 attackers were reported killed.
(AP, 3/5/12)
2012 Mar 6, Iraqi authorities
arrested four men in Salaheddin province in connection with a
shooting spree a day ago that left 27 policemen dead. One of the
terrorists blew himself up when they were surrounded.
(AFP, 3/6/12)
2012 Mar 7, In northern Iraq 2
bombs exploded in swift succession killing 13 people near a crowded
restaurant in Tal Afar. Separate car bombings in Baghdad killed four
people and wounded 14 in a Sunni area of the capital.
(AP, 3/7/12)
2012 Mar 8, Turkey's air force
carried out air strikes on border areas of north Iraq.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 10, Iraqi security and
hospital sources said at least 14 youths have been stoned to death
in Baghdad in the past three weeks in what appears to be a campaign
by Shi'ite militants against youths wearing Western-style "emo"
clothes and haircuts. Officials and human rights groups said Iraqi
teenagers widely perceived to be gay are being brutally killed in
Baghdad with Shiite militias distributing lists of targets warning
of further assaults.
(Reuters, 3/10/12)(AFP, 3/11/12)
2012 Mar 11, In Iraq gun and
bomb attacks north of Baghdad killed eight people, including Adnan
Hezbar, the bodyguard of the mayor of Tarmiyah, along with four of
Hezbar’s female relatives. In Baquba a roadside bomb set off in
front of a popular cafe killed two civilians and wounded another. A
bomb attached to a motorcycle also exploded near an Iraqi army
patrol in Saadiyah, killing one soldier.
(AFP, 3/11/12)
2012 Mar 12, In Iraq gunmen
killed eight people in an attack on a jewelry shop in Baghdad.
Gunmen also carried out two separate attacks in Tarmiyah, 45 km (30
miles) north of Baghdad. Three policemen were killed in an attack
carried out after midnight by unknown gunmen on the municipal
headquarters. Gunmen also attacked a police patrol in Tarmiyah this
morning, not far from the first attack, killing two more policemen.
(AFP, 3/12/12)
2012 Mar 15, In Iraq Amir
Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi (33), the bodyguard of Vice President Tareq
al-Hashemi, died while under government detention. Authorities later
said he died of kidney failure.
(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 17, In Iraq wearing a
US Army uniform and flanked by Iraqi lawmakers, an American citizen
announced that he was being released from more than nine months of
imprisonment by a Shiite militia that for years targeted US troops.
US-issued military and contractor ID cards identified him as Randy
Michael Hultz (59). He said the kidnappers were from the Promised
Day Brigade, a branch of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the
anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
(AP, 3/17/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Iraq a torrent
of bombings and shootings ripped across 20 towns and cities,
targeting police and Shiite pilgrims and killing 50 people with 255
wounded.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 21, In Iraq assailants
killed a Shiite mother and her three children after breaking into
their house in a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 21, Iraqi Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi, wanted by Baghdad on terror charges,
released photographs showing his bodyguard, Amir Sarbut Zaidan
al-Batawi, was tortured before his body was handed to his family. A
senior Iraqi general and a judicial spokesman, however, said Batawi
died of kidney failure and other conditions after refusing
treatment. Investigators reportedly filmed Batawi confessing to
criminal activity on January 14.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 22, Libya restored
full diplomatic relations with Iraq and plans to send an ambassador
to Baghdad more than eight years after cutting off ties.
(AFP, 3/23/12)
2012 Mar 22, Russia’s Lukoil
signed a $1 billion deal with South Korea's Samsung Engineering to
develop Iraq's second-biggest oil field, in which the energy giant
has a majority stake.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 23, In northern Iraq
19 detainees, including two men sentenced to death and members of
Al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna, escaped from Al-Tasfirat prison in
Kirkuk.
(AFP, 3/23/12)(AFP, 3/24/12)
2012 Mar 24, Iraq detained 22
policemen after 19 inmates, including two men on death row, escaped
from a prison in the northern city of Kirkuk a day earlier.
(AFP, 3/24/12)
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