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.
Background
Iraqi Sunni minority traditionally held power in Iraq, but the Sunni-dominated Ba'ath party was overthrown by the United States Armed Forces during the 2003 invasion, and Shia majority gained power. The majority of Iraqis are Shiites.
Unlike the protests in 2011, which revolved around issues of corruption and national security, the new protests were driven by Sunni Arabs who felt marginalized in the post-Saddam Iraq, and who claimed that anti-terrorism laws were allegedly being abused and used to arrest and harass Sunnis. The growth of the protests, however, led the initial demands to be expanded, and eventually one of the main requests of the protesters was the resignation of Prime Minister Maliki. Other issues often cited were the alleged abuse of De-Baathification laws and unfair confiscation of property of former Baathists, and alleged Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs.Iraqi Speaker Comments On Protests, Syria – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Timeline
2012
December
21–27 December The protests began on 21 December 2012 following a raid on the home of Sunni Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi and the arrest of some of his bodyguards.
Following the arrest several thousand protesters took to the streets of Fallujah following Friday prayers to condemn the arrests. The protesters blocked a highway in Fallujah and demanded Prime Minister Maliki's resignation, waving banners reading: "Resistance is still in our veins." 23 December also saw protesters begin the barricading of the main highway at Ramadi, thereby disrupting a key Iraqi trade route to Jordan and Syria. The protests also spread from Al Anbar Governorate to other Sunni parts of Iraq including Mosul, Samarra Tikrit, and the Adhimiya district of Baghdad. As the protests in Anbar grew, delegations were sent to support to the protests from Baghdad and Saladin Governorate, with smaller delegations coming from the southern Iraqi governorates of Maysan and Basra. In order to try to prevent the further spread of the protests, the Iraqi Army established a cordon in Nineveh Governorate on 27 December.
28 December "Friday of Honour" 28 December saw the protests increase in size, with tens of thousands taking part in the "Friday of Honour" protests against perceived government sectarianism.
29 December – 4 January In their second week, the protests spread to Saladin and Diyala Governorates for the first time. During the week protests took place in Mosul, Kirkuk, Baiji, Tikrit, al-Daur, Ishaqi, Samarra, Jalawla, Dhuluiyah, Baquba, Ramadi, Fallujah, Baghdad, Albu Ajil, and Nasiriyah. The sit-in at Ramadi, blocking the highway, continued, and was visited from Amman by Sunni Iraqi Cleric Abdul Malik al-Saadi on 28 December. Tribal delegations traveled to Ramadi from Kirkuk, Karbala, and Muthanna, to support the protests. On 4 January the Baghdad Operations Command ordered the 6th Division to secure the Adhamiyah bridge to prevent sympathetic demonstrators from West Baghdad joining the anti-government demonstrations in the Adhamiyah district of East Baghdad. There were also reports of Iraqi Army units preventing delegations and media personnel from visiting Anbar from Baghdad.
On 30 December Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni and critic of Maliki, travelled to Ramadi to attempt to address the protesters. Mutlaq's convoy was pelted with bottles and stones, and protesters chanted for him to leave, with some being angry that Mutlaq had taken a week to support the protesters, believing that he had come to undermine the protests. Bodyguards for Mutlaq wounded two people when they fired warning shots. Mutlaq's office described the incident as an attempted assassination by rogue elements.
2013
January
5–11 January The week of 5 January saw continuing anti-government protests in Mosul, Kirkuk, Tikrit, al-Daur, Samarra, Dhuluiyah, Ramadi, Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, and the Baghdad districts of Adhamiya and Ghazaliyah. The week also saw the emergence of pro-government protests, taking place in Baghdad, along with the southern Shiite cities of Karbala, Kut, Najaf, Diwaniyah, Samawa, and Basra. The week also witnessed renewed government efforts to contain and deter protests, mostly through heightened security and deployments of military units.
Since the beginning of the protests, the Ninewa Operations Command of the Iraqi Army had been attempting to close Ahrar square, which was the site of the majority of anti-government protests in Mosul. Clashes between protesters and army units erupted on 7 January when army vehicles ran over several protesters, wounding 4, in an attempt to disperse the protester in the square. On 8 January four more protesters were wounded when Iraqi military units opened fire in the square. The clashes led to security for eastern Mosul being taken from the military and given to the Iraqi Federal Police 3rd Division.
The Baghdad Operations Command also implemented a cordon in Al Tarmia, a town north of Baghdad, on 7 January in order to prevent protesters from blocking either highway leading north from Baghdad. The Baghdad to Mosul highway was eventually closed near Taji on January 11 by Iraqi army units. The Baghdad Operations Command deployed units on the eastern edge of Fallujah on 9 January. Security within the Adhamiya district of Baghdad was also tightened on 11 January in an effort to deter protests. The 11th Iraqi Army Division was deployed north of Tikrit by the Tigris Operations Command on January 11 to prevent protests in Hawija.
In the west of Iraq units from the 29th Mechanised Brigade of the 7th Army Division closed the Jordan-Iraqi border crossing at Trebil due to unspecified security concerns.
Thousands of pro-Maliki demonstrators took to the streets in at least 5 governorates on Tuesday 8 January to voice support for Maliki and oppose an attempts to change the de-Baathification laws. Protesters also voiced opposition to any return of the Baath party or the dividing of Iraq along sectarian or ethnic lines. Protests took place in Basra, Diwaniyah, Karbala, Al Muthanna and Babil Governorate.
25 January "No Retreat Friday" On 25 January, several protests were held across Anbar Governorate, with other protests also appearing in Samarra, Baqubah, Kirkuk, Mosul, Baghdad, and Hawija, as part of "No Retreat Friday." The protests turned deadly in Fallujah, as soldiers opened fire on a crowd of rock-throwing demonstrators, killing 7 and injuring more than 70 others. Three soldiers were later shot to death in retaliation for the incident, and clashes erupted in Askari, on the eastern outskirts of Fallujah. Security forces were placed on high alert as a curfew and vehicle ban were brought into effect. In a statement, Maliki urged both sides to show restraint and blamed the incident on unruly protesters. He also warned that it could lead to a "rise in tension that al-Qaida and terrorist groups are trying to take advantage of".
Thousands of people attended the funerals of the slain protesters on 26 January, some carrying Saddam-era Iraqi flags. The government responded to the shooting by pulling out most Army forces from the city and replacing them with federal police. In a statement read at Fallujah's main square, Sheikh Ahmed Abu Risha announced that the tribal leaders had given the government one week to bring the perpetrators of the shooting to justice. If this demand is not met, the Sheikh, who is the chairman of the Anbar Salvation Council, promised to "launch jihad against army units and posts in Anbar".
February
22 February "'Iraq or Maliki" On 22 February thousands of protesters took to the streets of Ramadi, Baghdad, Mosul, and Fallujah following Friday prayers in order to continue the demonstrations against the Iraqi government, calling for Maliki to step down.
The day also saw seven members of a Sahwa militia (originally moderate Sunni tribal groups) killed in Tuz Khormato by armed men wearing military uniforms, presumably al-Qaeda-linked fighters. The assailants asked a local militia leader to accompany them to a checkpoint manned by a Sahwa militia, at which point the uniformed group overpowered the leader and members of the Sahwa militia before executing them.
March
8–10 March On 8 March police fired on Sunni demonstrators in Mosul, killing 1 protester and injuring 5 others. Police claimed that they fired into the air to disperse stone throwing protesters. In response to the shooting the Minister of Agriculture, Izz al-Din al-Dawla, hosted a televised news conference where he announced his resignation from his cabinet post to protest the killings. Dawla therefore became the second minister of resign as part of the protests, after Rafi al-Issawi.
On 10 March Bunyan Sabar al-Obeidi, an anti-government protest organiser and spokesman for the Sunni protests in Kirkuk, was shot and killed whilst driving his car in Kirkuk in a drive-by shooting by unknown gunmen. Obeidi had escaped an assassination attempt the previous week.
April
Sunni uprising and backlash
Following four months of protests, on Friday 19 April, an Iraqi officer was killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in Hawija, a town west of Kirkuk. Following the refusal of residents to hand over suspected perpetrators the security forces sought; Hawija was then put under siege.
On the morning of 23 April, a security forces operation in Hawija resulted in the deaths of about 20 protesters and 3 Iraqi soldiers. Over a hundred people were injured.Rayburn 2013, pp. 237–238. The clashes erupted after security forces entered the area that was being used as a sit-in by Sunni protesters against the government. Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Asi, a Sunni provincial official, said the violence resulted from the security forces entering the area and trying to make arrests. There was also retaliatory violence in the surrounding Sunni-majority region where other gunmen attacked police checkpoints in Riyadh and Rashad until a military counterattack a few hours later. On the same day, at least 21 others were killed as they left Sunni mosques in Baghdad and Diyala. Following the raid, Sunni tribal leaders called for a revolt.
The next day revenge attacks continued against the police action. The north of the country featured more violence between security forces and protesters. In Sulaiman Bek, north of Baghdad, gunmen killed five soldiers and wounded five of their colleagues, while gunmen attacked a Sahwa militia checkpoint in Khales and killed four of the militiamen and wounding another person. Total deaths over the two days are believed to be over 100. The Iraqi government also set up a commission to investigate the previous day's incidents, that is to be led by Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq. On 25 April, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned of a sectarian war and blamed "remnants of Baath Party for violence."