The Timeline of the War in Iraq covers the War in Iraq, a war which erupted that lasted in Iraq from 2013 to 2017, during the first year of armed conflict.
Chronology
January Fall of Fallujah and Battle of Ramadi (2013–2014): ISIL militants were in control of more than half of the Iraqi city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Tribesmen held parts of the other half, according to an interior ministry official. A witness in the city west of Baghdad said that militants had set up checkpoints each manned by six to seven people in central and south Fallujah. "In Ramadi, it is similar – some areas are controlled by ISIL and other areas are controlled by" tribesmen, the interior ministry official said, referring to the Al Anbar Governorate capital, which lies farther to the west. A journalist in Ramadi saw dozens of trucks carrying heavily armed men driving in the city's east, playing songs praising ISIL. Clashes broke out in the Ramadi area as security forces tore down the country's main Sunni Arab anti-government protest site, and continued for two more days. On Wednesday, militants in the city sporadically clashed with security forces and torched four police stations, but the clashes had subsided by Thursday, the Agence France-Presse journalist said. The violence also spread to Fallujah, where police abandoned most of their positions on Wednesday and militants burned some police stations. Minister of the Interior Nouri al-Maliki said that Iraqi soldiers would depart restive cities in Anbar Province, but reversed that decision the following day. Army forces on Thursday remained outside Ramadi. ISIL militants advanced into gained ground and took over several police stations in Fallujah. In early morning, ISIS fighters advanced into areas in central Ramadi and deployed snipers on one street. A police colonel said the army had re-entered into areas of Fallujah, between Ramadi and Baghdad, but that around a quarter of it remained under ISIL control. Soldiers and armed tribesmen held the rest and had also surrounded the city, he said. However, another senior officer, a police lieutenant colonel, said that while soldiers had deployed around the city they had yet to enter Fallujah. Iraqi government lost control of the city of Fallujah to ISIL militants, a senior security official in Al Anbar Governorate said. Fallujah is under the control of ISIL. Earlier on Friday, more than 100 people were killed as Iraqi police and tribesmen battled Al-Qaeda–linked militants who took over parts of two cities in Anbar, declaring Fallujah an Islamic state. On the same day, the Iraqi Army shelled the western city of Fallujah with mortar bombs overnight to try to wrest back control from Sunni Muslim militants and tribesmen, killing at least eight people. Fallujah has been held since by militants linked to Al-Qaeda and by tribal fighters united in their opposition to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, in a serious challenge to the authority of his Shi'ite-led government in Anbar province. Medical sources in Fallujah said another 30 people were wounded in shelling by the army. At least 20 people killing in new wave of bombings which hit on the Iraq's capital, Baghdad. Iraqi missile strikes on Ramadi killed 25 militants. Also in same day, unidentified gunmen killed seven police officers, including a captain, in an attack at a security checkpoint north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The deadly incident took place on a highway north of the city of Samarra. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but police officials say the main suspects are militants linked to Al-Qaeda. Gunmen attacked a military site north of the Iraqi capital, killing 12 soldiers and wounding four. The militants stormed a building at the site in the Al-Adhim area, then bombed it. Militants opposed to the Iraqi government frequently target members of the security forces with bombings and shootings. A suicide bomber killed 23 Iraqi Army recruits and wounded 36 in Baghdad on Thursday, officials said, in an attack on men volunteering to join the government's struggle to crush Al-Qaeda–linked militants in Anbar province. Brigadier General Saad Maan, spokesman for the Baghdad Security Operations Centre, said the bomber blew himself up among the recruits at the small Muthenna Airbase, used by the army in the capital. Maan put the death toll at 22 but health ministry officials said morgue records showed 23 had died. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he would eradicate the "evil" of al Qaeda and its allies. A car bomb exploded outside a bus station in central Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding 16. No group immediately claimed responsibility for attack on bus terminal Alawi al-Hilla. Also on Sunday, bombing targeting a general in northern Iraq outside his home in eastern Sulaimaniyah, damaged his vehicle but left him unharmed. Four car bombs killed at least 25 people in Shi'ite Muslim districts of Baghdad, in violence that coincided with a visit to the Iraqi capital by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Although no group claimed responsibility, the bombings appeared to be part of a relentless campaign by al Qaeda linked Sunni Muslim militants to undermine Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government. Bombings and shootings killed at least eight people in and around the Iraqi capital, including a judge. Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire at the judge, killing him and his driver. Later in the afternoon a sticky bomb attached to a mini-bus exploded in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing three passengers and wounding eight. Bomb attacks and shootings killed at least 75 people in Iraq, police and hospital sources said, making it one of the bloodiest days in months, but troops reclaimed a town west of Baghdad. The bodies of 14 Sunni Muslim tribesmen were found in date palm groves north of Baghdad, a day after they were kidnapped by uniformed men in security forces vehicles. The victims, all from the Albu Rawdas tribe, had been abducted while they were attending a funeral in the town of Tarmiya, 25 km (16 miles) north of the Iraqi capital. Five bombings in Baghdad, including an attack on a glitzy new shopping mall in the west of the capital, killed 14 people and wounded several others. The blasts struck in the neighbourhoods of Mansur, Nahda, Taubchi, Sarafiyah and Amriyah—all across the capital. Seven bomb explosions killed 26 people and wounded 67 in the Iraqi capital, as security forces battled Sunni Muslim militants around the western cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. On same day, a senior Iraqi official claims ISIL fighters hunkered down in a city they seized late last month west of Baghdad have enough heavy weapons to allegedly take the country's capital. Two soldiers and three would-be suicide bombers were killed and 18 other soldiers wounded in separate violent attacks in eastern and central Iraq. On the same day, security forces thwarted coordinated predawn attacks by ISIL militants in eastern Diyala Governorate when the troops came under arms fire near the provincial capital city of Baqubah, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, prompting a fierce clash with the attackers, killing three of them and seized three of their explosive vests. Iraqi Armed Forces in Al Anbar Governorate killed scores of ISIL militants as the army continues its fight against terrorists. According to Iraqi Defense Ministry, the air forces carried airstrikes to bases Takfiri militants in western Anbar province and killing scores militants. January 25 – Three mortar shells landed in the village mainly populated by Shia Muslims near the Iraqi city of Baqubah killed six people. On the same day, double bombing has killed a soldier and his entire family in their home in town Muqdadiyah in 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. At least four people were killed and 14 wounded in the afternoon when almost simultaneously three car bombs detonated in northern Iraq, in city Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad. On the same day, head of a city council and two of councillors were killed by gunmen who attacked their convoy near the town of Wajihiyah in eastern Diyala Governorate also in al-Rashdiyah northern suburb Baghdad, gunmen killed an ex-officer of Saddam Hussein's army and his wife. Seven members of Iraq's security forces killed on during an armed attack north of Baghdad, the latest in a surge in violence fuelling fears the country is slipping back into all-out conflict. At least 13 people were killed and 39 others wounded in violent attacks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. According to UNAMI in Iraq in 2013 were killed a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel. Security officials said militants stormed an office of Ministry of Human Rights (Iraq) in northeast Baghdad and took a number of civil servants hostage. The attack was mounted by eight armed men. Later, security forces kill to all attackers and free hostages.
February During the first month of war (January), in terrorist attacks and other violence across Iraq, 1,013 people, including 795 civilians, 122 soldiers and 96 policemen, were killed during some form of violence. At least 20 people were killed and 68 others wounded in violent attacks in and around the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The deadliest attack occurred in the area of Abu Dusher in southern Baghdad when two car bombs exploded, leaving four people killed and 16 others wounded. At least 16 people were killed in a string of bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. On the same day, Iraqi officials said up to 32 people were also killed during two more attacks in crowded places in Baghdad. Iraqi officials said at least nine people were killed and 22 were wounded in a string of car bombings that hit commercial areas in the Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Jamila and northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah. Attacks in Baghdad and north of the capital killed nine people, including a supporter of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who was standing in parliamentary elections to be held in April. On the same day, another five were also killed and dozens more injured in Tuz Khurmatu, east of Tikrit in Saladin Governorate. At least 19 people were killed and 19 wounded in violent attacks across Iraq. Attacks occurred at a marketplace in the Shiite district of Sadr City in the eastern part of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, as well as in the town of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad. Violence also claimed lives in the southwestern part of city of Baqubah, capital of Diyala Governorate. At least 22 insurgents, including a suicide bomber were killed and 15 injured when a car bomb mistakenly went off in a militant compound north of Baghdad. 15 soldiers were killed in a pre-dawn assault on an army camp guarding an oil pipeline near Hamam al-Alil in the north of Nineveh Governorate, one of the most violent parts of Iraq. At least 17 civilians, including soldiers, were killed across Iraq by car bombs and roadside explosives. No terrorist groups claimed responsibility for these attacks. Talib Hameed Mustafa, mayor of the city Sulaiman Bek, reported that gunmen seized the town, some 90 km east of Tikrit after clashes with security forces. Talib Mohammed mayor of the city Sulaiman Bek said, that Iraqi troops backed by helicopter gunships regained ground in the northern town of Sulaiman Bek, a day after parts of it were overrun by ISIL militants. At least 12 ISIL militants were killed by the army. 17 soldiers and policemen were killed and 12 others wounded in separate attacks targeting the security forces across Iraq. At least 13 people were killed and 65 injured in consequence of the explosion of seven car bombs in central Iraq.