Iraq is a country in West Asia that largely corresponds with the territory of ancient Mesopotamia. The history of Mesopotamia extends from the Lower Paleolithic period until the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region came to be known as Iraq. Encompassed within Iraqi territory is the ancient land of Sumer, which came into being between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period of Mesopotamian history, and is widely considered the oldest civilization in recorded history. It is also the historic center of the Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian empires, a succession of local ruling dynasties that reigned over Mesopotamia and various other regions of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Tikrit is a city in Iraq, located 140 kilometers (87 mi) northwest of Baghdad and 220 kilometers (140 mi) southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. As of 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000.
The Saladin, Salah ad Din, or Salah Al-Din Governorate is one of Iraq's 19 governorates, north of Baghdad. It has an area of 24,363 square kilometres (9,407 sq mi), with an estimated population of 1,042,200 people in 2003. It is made up of 8 districts, with the capital being Tikrit. Before 1976 the governorate was part of Baghdad Governorate.
Fedayeen Saddam was a paramilitary Fedayeen organization intensely loyal to the Ba'athist Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The name was chosen to mean "Saddam's Men of Sacrifice". At its height, the group had 30,000–40,000 members. The Fedayeen operated completely outside the law, above and outside political and legal structures.
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was an Iraqi politician and army field marshal. He served as Vice Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and was regarded as the closest advisor and deputy under President Saddam Hussein. He led the Iraqi insurgent group Naqshbandi Army.
The following is a timeline of major events during the Iraq War, following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
An Iraqi insurgency began shortly after the 2003 American invasion deposed longtime leader Saddam Hussein. It is considered to have lasted until the end of the Iraq War and U.S. withdrawal in 2011. It was followed by a renewed insurgency.
After the 2003 invasion of Iraq was completed and the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in May 2003, an Iraqi insurgency began that would last until the United States left in 2011. The 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency lasted until early 2006, when it escalated from an insurgency to a Sunni-Shia civil war, which became the most violent phase of the Iraq War.
Events in the year 2005 in Iraq.
The 1920 Revolution Brigades was a Sunni militant group in Iraq, which included former members of the disbanded Iraqi army. It was established by the members of the former Ba'ath army of Saddam Hussein in 2003 following the American invasion. The group had used improvised explosive devices, and armed attacks against U.S.-led Coalition forces and comprises the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement. The group was named in reference to the Iraqi revolt of 1920.
Mahmoudiyah is a rural city south of Baghdad. Known as the "Gateway to Baghdad," the city's proximity to Baghdad made it central to the counterinsurgency campaign.
Ghazaliya is a neighborhood in the western outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, in the city's Mansour district. To the north of Ghazaliya is the neighborhood of Al-Shu'ala, to the east is Al-Adel, to the south is Al Khadhraa, and to the west is Abu Ghraib. It is a working-class neighborhood of about 100,000 residents. Ghazaliya is situated around six major streets that all end at farms that formerly belonged to Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi insurgency was an insurgency that began in late 2011 after the end of the Iraq War and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, resulting in violent conflict with the central government, as well as low-level sectarian violence among Iraq's religious groups.
The Northern Iraq offensive began on 4 June 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, assisted by various insurgent groups in the region, began a major offensive from its territory in Syria into Iraq against Iraqi and Kurdish forces, following earlier clashes that had begun in December 2013 involving guerillas.
The First Battle of Tikrit was fought for the Iraqi city of Tikrit following the city's capture by the Islamic State and Ba'athist Loyalists during the 2014 Northern Iraq offensive. The battle took place between 26 and 30 June 2014.
The following lists events the happened in 2013 in Iraq.
The Salahuddin Campaign was a military conflict in the Saladin Governorate, located in north-central Iraq, involving various factions fighting against a single common enemy, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The province exited Iraqi government control during ISIL's Northern Iraq offensive when large swathes of the north of the country were captured by the militant group with the Iraqi national army quickly disintegrating in the path of its advance. In light of the sweeping gains of the militants, Nouri Al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq at that time, attempted to declare a state of emergency though the Iraqi Parliament blocked his efforts to do so.
Sunni Islam in Iraq is the second-largest sect of Islam in Iraq after Shia Islam. The majority of Iraqi Sunni Muslims are Arabs. Iraqi Sunni Muslims mainly inhabit the northern half of Iraq. Sunni Arabs primarily inhabit the Sunni Triangle, Upper Mesopotamia and the desert areas, such as Al-Anbar Governorate in the Arabian Desert and Syrian Desert. The Sunni Kurds inhabit the mountainous Iraqi Kurdistan region.
The Iraqi conflict is a series of violent events that began with the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq and deposition of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the most recent of which is the ISIS conflict, in which the Iraqi government declared victory in 2017.
