The occupation of Iraq was characterized by a large United States military deployment on Iraqi territory, beginning with the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003 which overthrew the Ba'ath Party government of Saddam Hussein and ending with the departure of US troops from the country in 2011. Troops for the occupation came primarily from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, but 29 other nations also provided troops, and there were varying levels of assistance from Japan and other countries, as well as tens of thousands of private military company personnel.
Ayatollah al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Muhsin al-Hakim at-Tabataba'i, also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia Islamic Scholar and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Al-Hakim spent more than 20 years in exile in Iran and returned to Iraq on 12 May 2003. Al-Hakim was a contemporary of Ayatollah Khomeini, and The Guardian compared the two in terms of their times in exile and their support in their respective homelands. After his return to Iraq, al-Hakim's life was in danger because of his work to encourage Shiite resistance to Saddam Hussein and from a rivalry with Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of the late Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, who had himself been assassinated in Najaf in 1999. Al-Hakim was assassinated in a bomb attack in Najaf in 2003 when aged 63 years old. At least 75 others in the vicinity also died in the bombing.
Muqtada al-Sadr is an Iraqi Shia Muslim cleric, politician and militia leader. He is the leader of the Sadrist Movement and the leader of the Peace Companies, a successor to the militia he had previously led during the American military presence in Iraq, the "Mahdi Army." In 2018, he joined his Sadrist political party to the Saairun alliance, which won the highest number of seats in the 2018 and 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections.
Baqubah is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some 50 km (31 mi) to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 467,900 people.
Events in the year 2004 in Iraq.
Following the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, a protracted insurgency began and lasted for the duration of the Iraq War. The initial outbreak of violence was triggered by the fall of Saddam Hussein and preceded the establishment of the new Iraqi government by the Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF–I), which was led by the United States. From around 2004 to May 2007, Iraqi insurgents largely focused their attacks on MNF-I troops, but later shifted to targeting the post-invasion Iraqi security forces as well.
After the invasion of Iraq was completed and the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in May 2003, the Iraqi insurgency began. The 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency lasted until early 2006, when it escalated from an insurgency to a civil war, which became the most violent phase of the Iraq War.
Events in the year 2005 in Iraq.
The following lists events that happened during 2006 in Iraq.
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion of Iraq by the United States-led coalition that overthrew the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued for much of the next decade as an insurgency emerged to oppose the coalition forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. US troops were officially withdrawn in 2011. The United States became re-involved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition, and the insurgency and many dimensions of the armed conflict are ongoing. The invasion occurred as part of the George W. Bush administration's war on terror following the September 11 attacks.
The term militia in contemporary Iraq refers to armed groups that fight on behalf of or as part of the Iraqi government, the Mahdi Army and Badr Organization being two of the biggest. Many predate the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, but some have emerged since, such as the Facilities Protection Service. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 undermined the internal order in the country and brought about, among other things, the establishment of several pro-Iranian militias affiliated with the IRGC's Quds Force. The militias were set up with the purpose of driving the U.S. forces out of Iraq and establishing Iranian involvement in the country. Prominent among the militias are Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah and Harakat al-Nujaba.
The 2004 Iraq spring fighting was a series of operational offensives and various major engagements during the Iraq War. It was a turning point in the war; the Spring Fighting marked the entrance into the conflict of militias and religiously based militant Iraqi groups, such as the Shi'a Mahdi Army.
Events in the year 2007 in Iraq.
Events in the year 2008 in Iraq.
The Anbar campaign consisted of fighting between the United States military, together with Iraqi security forces, and Sunni insurgents in the western Iraqi governorate of Al Anbar. The Iraq War lasted from 2003 to 2011, but the majority of the fighting and counterinsurgency campaign in Anbar took place between April 2004 and September 2007. Although the fighting initially featured heavy urban warfare primarily between insurgents and U.S. Marines, insurgents in later years focused on ambushing the American and Iraqi security forces with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), large scale attacks on combat outposts, and car bombings. Almost 9,000 Iraqis and 1,335 Americans were killed in the campaign, many in the Euphrates River Valley and the Sunni Triangle around the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
The 2012–2013 Iraqi protests started on 21 December 2012 following a raid on the home of Sunni Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi and the arrest of 10 of his bodyguards. Beginning in Fallujah, the protests afterwards spread throughout Sunni Arab parts of Iraq. The protests centered on the issue of the alleged sectarianism of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Pro-Maliki protests also took place throughout central and southern Iraq, where there is a Shia Arab majority. In April 2013, sectarian violence escalated after the 2013 Hawija clashes. The protests continued throughout 2013, and in December Maliki used security forces to forcefully close down the main protest camp in Ramadi, leaving at least ten gunmen and three policemen dead in the process.
The Islamic State of Iraq, previously referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq, is a militant Salafist jihadist group that aimed to establish an Islamic state in Sunni, Arab-majority areas of Iraq during the Iraq War and later in Syria during the Syrian Civil War.
The following lists events the happened in 2013 in Iraq.
The Iraqi conflict refers to a near-continuous series of events that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which led to the fall of erstwhile Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. During the Iraq War, the Multi-National Force (MNF–I) of the United States helped to establish a Shia-dominated federal government under Iraqi politician Nouri al-Maliki. Around this time, the Iraqi insurgency had emerged with a predominant focus on fighting the occupying MNF–I troops and the new Iraqi government. However, the insurgency also involved inter-Iraqi sectarian violence, primarily between Shias and Sunnis. In 2011, the MNF–I withdrew from Iraq, leading to renewed sectarian violence from 2011 to 2013. During this period, the Islamic State (IS) emerged, triggering a a renewed war and an American-led intervention in 2014. In 2017, full-scale fighting in the country came to a close after the Islamic State was defeated by the Iraqi government and its allies, but a low-level IS insurgency remains ongoing in the rural northern parts of the country.
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