2007 in Iraq

Events in the year 2007 in Iraq.

Incumbents President: Jalal Talabani Prime Minister: Nouri al-Maliki Vice President: Tariq al-Hashimi, Adil Abdul-Mahdi Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (autonomous region) President: Massoud Barzani Prime Minister: Nechervan Barzani

Events

January January 6 – Battle of Haifa Street begins; in the next three days more than 120 people are killed, mostly insurgents. January 10 – President Bush announces new strategy that includes an additional 20,000 troops, eliciting vocal resistance from the US House and Senate.CNN, 8:27 CST A Moldovan cargo plane mysteriously crashes in Balad. The official cause is fog, but there are claims it was shot down. January 15 – Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court; and Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, were both executed by hanging before dawn in Baghdad. Ibrahim was beheaded by the noose, sparking anger from Sunnis who claim his body was "mutilated". January 16 – Sixty-five people are killed in a suicide car bomb explosion outside the Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriya University, one of a series of attacks across Iraq that killed at least 109, the deadliest day in weeks. January 18 – The first in the series of 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq; a failed chemical attack results in 16 deaths from explosives. January 20 – The third deadliest day for US troops in Iraq occurred, with at least 25 US soldiers killed. Twelve were killed when a US helicopter was shot down northeast of Baghdad, four more were killed in Anbar province, and three were killed in separate roadside bombings. Five of the soldiers were killed during the Karbala provincial headquarters raid, in which about a dozen militiamen—who spoke English, wore US military uniforms, carried US-issued arms and drove vehicles used by dignitaries—attacked the governor's compound and kidnapped and later executed some of the American soldiers located inside in what is considered one of the most sophisticated attacks of the war. January 21 – Moqtada al-Sadr announces his political bloc will return to parliament, ending his two-month boycott. January 22 – Two powerful car bombs ripped through a market in central Baghdad, killing at least 88 people and wounding 160 others. The blasts at the Baghdad market were aimed at a Shiite area and seemed timed to inflict maximum damage, occurring at noon local time, one of the busiest times of day. In addition to the market attacks, a bombing in a Shiite town north of Baghdad killed 15 people. Later that same day, a Sunni mosque in the Dura section of Baghdad was blown up; there were no reports of casualties. January 23 – Five US civilians working for Blackwater USA are killed in Baghdad when their helicopter came under fire and crashed. The helicopter was coming to the aid of a US Embassy convoy that had come under fire, a US diplomatic official said. NBC News reports that four of the contractors were shot execution style. Two Sunni insurgent groups claimed responsibility for the attack. January 25 – Two mortars slam into the Green Zone and a suicide car bomb detonates in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least 26 and injuring 54. A second explosion in Baghdad occurred later. The attacks came hours after a pledge from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the upcoming security crackdown in Baghdad will track down militants and make the city safer. January 28 – Battle of Najaf (2007), more than 280 people are reported killed. First of the 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq happens in Ramadi killing 16 people.

February

February 2 – National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq released by U.S. intelligence. February 3 – A large truck bomb exploded in a busy market in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The suicide attack killed at least 135 people and injured a further 339 others. The bomb brought down at least 10 buildings and coffee shops and obliterated market stalls in a largely Shiite enclave less than a half a mile from the Tigris River. February 5 – A car bomb in Baghdad at a petrol station killed 15 people and wounded 65 in the Saidiya district. February 6 – A US Marine CH-46E helicopter from HMM-364 was shot down with a MANPAD over Karmah, Iraq, killing 7, including one Marine from HMM-262. It was the fifth US helicopter to crash in two weeks. A car bomb at a market in Fallujah killed 10 people, including two children, and injured 30 others. February 7 – The much-awaited security crackdown was implemented in Baghdad. A car bomb killed 20 and injured 45 others at a market in Aziziya. February 12 – Three car bombs explode in Baghdad, killing about 76 and wounding some 150 people. The bombings coincided with the first anniversary, according to the Muslim lunar calendar, of the destruction of the Shiite Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra. February 14 – Operation Law and Order, a joint Coalition-Iraqi security plan conducted throughout Baghdad, begins. February 15 – Operation Shurta Nasir, the attack on the town of Hīt by Iraqi and U.S. troops, begins and ends in an allied victory.Doyle, Bill: Behind Enemy Lines February 18 – Three suicide bombs detonate in Baghdad, killing 63 and injuring more than 129. Operation Sinbad ends with the partial stabilisation of Basra, eventual British troop withdrawal.

March March 1 – At Amaryit al Fallujuh, a village in western Anbar province where local tribes had opposed al Qaeda, Iraqi forces killed some 80 militants and arrested 50 more. March 5 – A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded book market in Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad killing at least 38 people and injuring 105. Thirty bullet-ridden bodies showing signs of torture were found across Baghdad. Blamed on Shiite death squads, the figure was the highest in weeks. March 6 – Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims streaming toward the holy city of Karbala killing at least 120 people and injuring more than 190. As many as 300 al Qaeda-led militants attacked Mosul's Badoush prison and freed up to 140 prisoners, mostly believed to be insurgents. Twelve US soldiers were killed in one of the deadliest days suffered by American forces in Iraq since the start of the war. March 7 – A March 7, 2007 survey of more than 2,000 Iraqis commissioned by the BBC and three other news organizations found that 51% of the population consider attacks on coalition forces "acceptable", up from 17% in 2004 and 35% in 2006. Also: 64% described their family's economic situation as being somewhat or very bad, up from 30% in 2005. 88% described the availability of electricity as being either somewhat or very bad, up from 65% in 2004. 69% described the availability of clean water as somewhat or very bad, up from 48% in 2004. 88% described the availability of fuel for cooking and driving as being somewhat or very bad. 58% described reconstruction efforts in the area in which they live as either somewhat or very ineffective, and 9% described them as being totally nonexistent.Iraq Poll conducted by D3 Systems for the BBC, ABC News, ARD German TV and USA Today. More than 2,000 people were questioned in more than 450 neighbourhoods and villages across all 18 provinces of Iraq between February 25 and March 5, 2007. The margin of error is + or – 2.5%. March 11 – Three blasts in Baghdad aimed at the returning Shiite pilgrims killed at least 47 people and injured 35. In the most deadly attack, a suicide car bomber hit a flatbed truck killing at least 32 and injuring 24. This latest violence occurred just one day after Baghdad hosted a conference on security, attended by the US, Syria and Iran. March 16 – Three suicide truck bombers detonated their chlorine-laden vehicles in Al Anbar province, killing two policemen and leaving 350 civilians and six US soldiers sick from poisoning. March 22 – Insurgents attempt to assassinate United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his visit in Baghdad. The rocket attack caused no injuries but rattled the heavily guarded Green Zone. It struck right after Prime Minister al-Maliki, standing next to Ban, had finished telling reporters that Ban's visit was a sign that Iraq was on the road to stability. March 27 – Insurgents have blown up two trucks in the Iraqi town of Talafar, killing 85 people and injuring 183. It was one of the largest attacks in Talafar since US President George Bush used the town to illustrate progress in Iraq. March 28 – Gunmen are reported to have killed at least 70 Sunni men in the north-western Iraqi border town of Talafar, in reprisal for the forementioned bombings on March 27. March 29 – A series of deadly bomb attacks kills more than 100 people in Shia areas of Baghdad and the town of Khalis. Earlier, more than 40 people died and 80 were injured in three co-ordinated blasts in Khalis. The US Congress passed supplemental funding authorization bills to pay $122 billion for emergency war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, including requirements that the US withdraw its troops from Iraq by August 2008. Bush threatened to veto any bill including such a withdraw provision. March 30 – The United States Senate approved on March 30, 2007 the goal, not a requirement, of getting all combat soldiers out by March 31, 2008.

April April 1 – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says the Shia militia known as the Mehdi Army has stopped its activities on the orders of its leader, Moqtada al-Sadr. April 3 – Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for George W. Bush's re-election campaign in 2004, told The New York Times that his son was about to be deployed to Iraq, and partly for that reason he now opposed U.S. policy there and backs a withdrawal. Bush dismissed Dowd's opinion in an April press conference, calling him "obviously intensified" and "emotional". April 7 - Du'a Khalil Aswad, a Yazidi girl is mass stoned to death in a lynching captured on cellphone cameras in Bashiqa, Ninawa for converting to Islam to marry a Sunni boy. April 11 – In April, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve for sixteen months, instead of the twelve month tours they expected. "Without this action, we would have had to deploy five Army active-duty brigades sooner than the 12-month at-home goal", Gates said. Statistics released in April indicated that more and more soldiers have been deserting their duty, a sharp rise from the years before. April 12 – Suicide truck bombs destroyed the al-Sarafiya bridge over the Tigris River, killing at least 10. The bridge was reportedly over 75 years old and constructed by the British. A suicide bomber detonated a bomb inside a cafeteria outside the Iraqi Parliament chamber, killing one member of Parliament (down from eight killed, including three members of Parliament, as previously reported), and wounding 22 in the 2007 Iraqi Parliament Bombing. Seven of the wounded were members of Parliament. The building where the bombing occurred was inside the heavily fortified Green Zone. April 14 – Insurgents detonated a car bomb inside at a bus station in Karbala, killing at least 37 and wounding more than 150. A bomb detonated on a bridge in Baghdad spanning the Tigris River, killing 10, the second in two days. The bridge was only slightly damaged. April 16 – Moqtada al-Sadr's Parliament bloc resigns again in protest of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal. April 18 – Four bombings occur in Baghdad, killing at least 198 in the April 18, 2007 Baghdad bombings.

May May 6 – Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks in Diyala province and Baghdad as sectarian tension rises. In all, at least 95 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide.