Iraq 2013:
a year of
carnage

A series of explosions kills 22 people and injures around 50. The violence strikes the northern and ethnically-mixed provinces of Kirkuk, Diyala and also in Babil, a province to the south of Baghdad.

Two attacks kill eight people and injure 20 others. A car laden with explosives blows up in a Shiite neighborhood at a bus stop as commuters gather to catch rides to various parts of Baghdad.

Iraqi Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi survives an assassination attempt in Fallujah. He has had a turbulent political career and this is not the first time he has survived an attempt on his life. He had regularly called for the resignation of Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki, saying he’s trying to build a dictatorship. Two days later, a suicide bomber killed a prominent Sunni MP Ifan Saadoun al-Isaawi and six others in the same city.

A suicide bomber detonates a truck full of explosives next to the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kirkuk, killing 26 and leaving 204 injured. A similar attack against another Kurdish office in Tuz Khormato kills 5 and wounds 40. Roadside bombings and shootings throughout the country leave at least 24 more people dead.

At least 17 people are killed and more than 50 wounded in Baghdad after the city is rocked by three blasts.

Iraqi soldiers kill five people after opening fire on an anti-government protest in an attempt to disperse it. Troops clash with thousands of Sunni Muslims in Fallujah, protesting against Iraq’s Shiite PM, Nouri al-Maliki.

A suicide car bombing at the provincial police HQ in the northern city of Kirkuk kills at least 36 and injures 105 others, including the city's chief of police. Three other attackers are killed after the blast when they attempt to lob grenades at security forces. A dozen more causalities result from various other attacks across central Iraq that day.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq carries out its second major suicide attack against Iraqi security personnel in two days in Taji, a city just north of Baghdad. A suicide bomber attacks a government building in the city, killing 22 and injuring 44 others. Nineteen of the victims were members of the Sahwa militia, who were waiting for their monthly salaries, while the other 3 were Iraqi soldiers. The Sahwa or Awakening was formed by Sunni tribes to fight Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A pair of car bombs kill 17 and injure 45 others at a market in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district. Two similar attacks kill 16 and wound 44 in Shomali, 70 km south of Hillah. A blast outside Karbala kills 5 and injures 16, while an Iraqi soldier is wounded by sniper fire in Fallujah.

A series of car bombs strikes the capital, killing at least 37 and injuring more than 130 others. Most of the attacks take place in Shiite parts of the city, including Sadr City.

The militants perform a carefully planned assault on the Iraqi Justice Ministry, with car bombs and gunmen disguised as police officers killing 24 people to once again demonstrate the country’s vulnerability to terrorist attacks.

The 10th anniversary of the beginning of the US-led invasion of Iraq is marred with violence.

Al-Qaeda fighters prove they are serious about keeping their promise, with 27 people losing their lives during the day.

Over 50 people are killed in the first 10 days of April by roadside bombs and sporadic gun shots. Ten years after the fall of Baghdad, Iraq is a country divided by roadblocks and barriers. RT’s Lucy Kafanov travels to Kirkuk - a city north of the capital to which Baghdadis and Kurds both lay claim. She says that one of the key challenges of reporting from Iraq is actually getting from A to B. Fear of repression from Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime has been replaced by fear of the unknown.

The series of attacks throughout the day shows the appalling scale of the violence now engulfing the country. At least 75 people are killed and 350 others are injured. Forty separate incidents take place in 20 different cities. The majority of the attacks are car bombings, and both Sunni and Shiite areas are targeted.

RT’s Lucy Kafanov has traveled to a former bastion of Al-Qaeda, Iraq’s Anbar Province, to cover protests there ahead of the elections, despite a ban on media entering the area or working there.

Events on April 23 were the catalyst for a spate of bombing and violence which would follow. Forty people were killed in clashes between the army and Sunni militants.

Nearly 50 people are killed in clashes in the city of Mosul when Sunni gunmen take control of northern parts of the city after using a loudspeaker on a mosque to rally Sunnis to join the battle. This is in response to the army raid two days before.

At least 9 members of Sahwa, the government-backed paramilitary group are killed in the town of Garma, near Fallujah. A suicide bomber detonates his explosives belt after mixing with a group of fighters queuing to receive their monthly pay. A car bomb explosion also goes off nearby.

Up to 12 people die when a suicide bomber driving a tanker truck crammed with explosives rams into the house of intelligence officer, General Ismail Al-Jubouri, in the northern town of Shirqat.

Militants using guns with silencers attack a row of Christian-owned alcohol stores in Baghdad. The gunmen allow customers to leave and then shoot the vendors. At least 12 people die during the lightning-quick hit and run. The shops have just been rebuilt after suffering a bomb attack the year before.

43 people die when two bombs explode outside a Sunni mosque in Baquba, as Sunni worshippers are exiting after their weekly prayers. In a tried and tested tactic, a second bomb goes off just as people rush to help people after the first blast. Nineteen people die after a roadside bomb explodes in a busy shopping area in Baghdad.

This is the bloodiest day of attacks during the whole month, with at least 95 killed and hundreds more wounded.

Gunmen burst into a brothel in the religiously-mixed Zayouna neighborhood of Baghdad – the same area where the alcohol stores were attacked earlier the same month.

A series of blasts rip through Iraq’s capital, killing more than 70 and leaving many wounded. Approximately twelve different blasts strike markets and shopping districts in Baghdad’s Shiite areas.

A wedding party in the tense, mixed Sunni-Shiite Al-Jihad neighborhood in Baghdad is caught in a blast. At least 16 people die in the explosion. Earlier in the year, Al-Jihad’s Sunnis received a letter from a Shiite radical group telling them to leave the neighborhood or risk losing their lives.

A convoy of at least 14 border policemen are killed, with two of the bodies burned, as insurgents set up a fake checkpoint in western Iraq and laid an ambush. The attack takes place at about 11:00 am local time (08:00 GMT) not far from the town of Nukhayb on a main highway connecting Iraq and neighboring Saudi Arabia.

A wave of major attacks across mostly Sunni areas of Iraq sees at least 70 killed, and over 230 injured. The deadliest attack is carried out in the northern city of Mosul, where five car bombs targeting security forces leave 29 dead and 80 wounded, officials say. A curfew is imposed, following the violence. Other Sunni area attacks include Saddam Hussein’s birthplace of Al-Awja, as well as the towns of Dour and Taji, where 13 people have been killed.

Across Iraq, bomb attacks targeting mostly Shiite Muslims leave at least 32 people dead – another string of assaults apparently carried out by Sunni Islamist militants. Two car bombs explode in the southern city of Basra, 420 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, leaving at least five dead and 10 wounded, according to police estimates.

A protest by Iraq’s Shiite Turkmen minority in the northern city of Tuz Khormato is disrupted by two suicide bombers. Ironically, the Turkmen set up tents in the main square in protest at the lack of security in the region, following a fatal bombing two days earlier. As many as 22 people are killed, including one of the leaders of the Turkmen Front and a senior government official.

A bomb planted at a football pitch in Baghdad kills 12 people, most of them children younger than 16 in the spate of attacks targeting Iraqis playing and watching sports.

A number of deadly attacks, particularly in the capital, Baghdad mars this day. Twin blasts in the Shabb neighborhood kill 9 and wound 24, while another double attack kills 12 and injures 38 at a market in Shula. In the city of Fallujah, gunmen assassinate Iraq’s national bodybuilding champion and another blast injures three civilians.

Thirty-nine people are killed by a suicide bomber at a cafe attack in northern Iraq on July 12. The blast took place in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk to the north of Baghdad.

65 people are killed and 190 wounded. The bombs strike when dozens of Baghdad residents are in cafes after a meal which breaks the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Hundreds of terrorists including senior Al-Qaeda leaders break out of Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons after a military-style raid by Sunni militants.

Militants in Iraq shot 14 Shia tanker drivers at a makeshift roadblock while checking their identity documents.

17 car bombs explode in Shia areas killing 60 and injuring over 100; all the bombs are hidden in parked cars.

The security forces invoke regulations which determine who may and who may not hold a demonstration. Police detain 13 people who attempted to protest against widespread corruption and Iraq’s slide into chaos. Soldiers retain three protesters and hold them for 36 hours before releasing them. They also arrest another ten people and charge them with “disobeying police orders”; a court later throws out the charges.

A series of car bombs kills 35 and wounds 90. One of the attacks hits a square in central Baghdad killing five and wounding 18. On the northern outskirts of the capital another bomb explodes in a crowded market. Such coordinated attacks have become more common in Iraq.

A wave of bombings marks the Eid celebrations. 74 people are killed in a string of attacks, in what again appears to show a level of coordination, as many of them occur within an hour of each other. In the Shiite city of Karbala four people are killed by car bomb near a café at night.

A suicide bomber attacks a crowded park in northern Baghdad, in another day of bloodshed that sees 36 people killed. There has been an increase in attacks on so-called soft targets, such as parks, coffee shops and markets, where the death count is guaranteed to be high.

Another day of extreme violence leaves at least 47 people dead. The biggest attack takes place in Baquba, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, when a car bomb goes off near a housing complex, killing 11 people and wounding 34.

Some 98 people die after a string of bombings, with 80 killed in Baghdad alone. More than 260 people are also injured in the reportedly coordinated 18 car bomb explosions. On the same day, gunmen kill six members of al-Sahwa at a checkpoint 40 km south of Baghdad and a further seven members of the same family are killed in a home invasion close to the besieged checkpoint in Latifiya. Nine are also killed by improvised explosive devices in the northern city of Mosul.

At least 60 people are killed in a string of car bomb attacks and shootings in predominately Shia districts of Baghdad, one of the worst hit areas is the suburb of Husseiniy, where 9 people are killed by two explosions. Another 19 are killed by blasts in Talbiya, while seven people are shot dead by gunmen in the south of Baghdad. Baghdad is one of the areas that have been worse affected by the violence. All the attacks are believed to be the work of Sunni militants.

Sunday sees another wave of bloodshed in further car bombings and shootings, in what has become an almost daily event. 36 people are killed with no group claiming responsibility but with suspicion again falling on Sunni Islamist militants, as the attacks appear to be co-ordinated.

A series of car bombings strike the capital, central and northern regions of Iraq, with at least 107 people dead and 200 wounded.

A wave of violence kills 73 people across Iraq, including two journalists. At least 49 of them die when a suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in a predominantly-Sunni Azamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. Up to 75 people are injured in the explosion.

29 people including 12 children are killed in suicide bombings. Two suicide bombers detonate explosive rigged vehicles at an elementary school and a police station. In the attack on the school, a suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the playground; the ensuing explosion causes part of the single-story building to collapse, which may have trapped more people inside, witnesses say. No one is reported dead in the attack on the police station.

A string of what appeared to be coordinated attacks kills 38 people in Baghdad. The blasts are mainly in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of the city, but there is also an explosion in a predominately Sunni Muslim neighborhood called Doura.

Another wave of attacks timed to coincide with the Muslim Eid festival celebrations kills at least 51 people. Fifteen members of the Shabak minority are killed and 52 injured in the village of Muwaffaqiya. They were forced to leave their homes in Mosul after receiving threats. Previously, Sunni Islamist militants have targeted Shia Shabaks.

Over 50 people are killed in bombings across Iraq. In the most deadly attack, a suicide bomber rams his explosive-laden car right into a busy Baghdad café packed with young people who are watching football killing 38 and injuring at least 39.

A mix of suicide bombings and armed attacks kill 16 members of the security forces and wounded a further 35 in the western Anbar province. Elsewhere one policeman is killed and another six are injured in a car bomb explosion in the province of Babel. In total, 17 people are killed and 45 injured.

Sixty-six people are killed as a total of 11 car bombs rip through Iraq. Nine of the blasts go off in mainly Shiite Muslim districts in and around Baghdad. Back-to-back car bombings in the town of Nahrawan kill seven and injure 15 more. Attacks in the northern Shaab and southern Abu Dshir neighborhoods of Baghdad kill another six people.

Violence sweeps through Iraq again on October 29 and 30, killing 35 people in two days. Attacks in Sunni districts of Baghdad left nine dead and 20 injured. The deadliest is in Abu Ghraib, where two people are killed in a roadside bomb. There are also attacks in Baquba, Fallujah, a former bastion of Sunni insurgency, Mosul, Kirkuk and Tikrit.

In Kirkuk, a city in the north of Iraq, a cab bomb goes off next to a Turkmen television station killing a civilian and wounding five others. But most of the 13 people killed on that day are security personnel.

Bombings across Iraq kill at least 12 people. The deadliest assault is in the city of Mosul, where eight people are killed when a car bomb explodes in the city center.

At least 67 people are killed and 152 wounded while participating in the Shiite Ashura holiday rituals. Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Huessein and symbolizes the schism between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. The conflict between the two branches of Islam is one of the reasons for the bloodshed in Iraq.

At least 26 people are killed and 35 wounded in a series of bombings that target cafes and markets.

At least 29 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in mainly Shia areas of the city. The deadliest attack is in the Sadriya district, where a car bomb is detonated at a crowded market. There are also bombs in the Shaab, Tobchi, Karrada, Azamiya and Amil areas of the city.

A truck bomb in Sadiyah, north east of Baghdad kills 31 people and wounds 45 at a crowded market. The driver reportedly asked workers to unload vegetables from it and left the vehicle.

Five people, including a television journalist are killed in a series of bombings and shootings across Iraq. In the deadliest attack a bomb explodes near an outdoor market in Baghdad’s Shaab district killing two people and wounding seven.

At least 33 people are killed and more than 70 wounded in bomb attacks and separate shootings across Iraq. Ten people die and dozens are wounded by a suicide bomber at a funeral in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. In the north west of the capital, attackers shoot dead a family of five.

Seventy six people are killed as explosions and gunfire tear through 14 different towns and cities in Iraq. Four suicide bombers detonate their explosive vests in a social welfare building in Tikrit, some 170 kilometers north west of Baghdad. Along with other improvised explosive device attacks and gunfire, the death toll in the city stands at 34. Ten people are killed in the capital, Baghdad, six of whom die in a car bomb blast in Bayaa, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of west Baghdad. Two policemen are killed in a car bomb attack in Samarra and a mayor is gunned down in Muqdadiya, 100km north east of the capital.

Suicide bombers and gunmen lay siege to police intelligence headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. Seven people die, and dozens more are left wounded in the attack’s aftermath. The gun battle rages for two hours. On the same day, two people are killed in Baghdad as the result of gunfire, and three separate adhesive explosive device (AED) and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks nationwide combined with gunfire led to the deaths of 13 more.

The attack on Kirkuk’s police intelligence complex sees further deaths after violence spilled over into a nearby shopping mall. The shopping center is ransacked by security forces to put an end to the standoff. Eleven hostages are released unharmed, but nine were killed, including eight officials and five militants. Nineteen were killed in gunfire across Baghdad, Mosul and Qara Tappa, southeast of Mosul.

Bomb blasts devastate Baghdad through the day, killing 45 across the capital. The car bombs which have been primarily responsible for the explosions also injured nearly a hundred others. The assailants had specifically targetted crowded commercial areas of the city to ensure maximum damage. The attack with the most severe consequences takes place in the shi’ite district of Bayaa, where seven die and 14 are injured. Across the rest of the nation, 13 died in both gunfire and explosive attacks.

Buhriz, a Sunni-majority town located just 60 km northeast of Baghdad is the site of a major car bomb blast which resulted in the deaths of 13 people in the ethnically diverse province of Diyala. A car bomb explodes near a cafe, which has been the target of dozens of militant attacks over recent months, along with other busy commercial areas.

The northern Iraqi city of Mosul has become a deadly place for journalists too - the previous day TV presenter Nawras al-Nuaimi was gunned down. Many have fled the city.

Baghdad is subject to another round of bomb blasts killing 82, making it one of the bloodiest days of violence in recent months. Suicide bombings and car and roadside bombs left a trail of destruction throughout the capital, killing 43 people. Nearly as many again are killed across the rest of the country. Mosul is rocked by gunfire as shiite pilgrims are attacked by terrorists opening fire on their vehicle. Unidentified gunmen also blow up the home of an MP on the same day. However, no casualties resulted from the explosion. In the rest of Iraq, 26 die, the majority in clashes, gunfire and blasts.

Three suicide bombers detonate their explosive belts as they waylay 36 Shiite pilgrims. The spike in attacks on pilgrims in December is because Shiites are setting off on journeys to Karbala for Arbaeen, an important religious holiday in the Shiite religious calendar which commemorates Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.

Bombings and shootings across northern Iraq kill 14. Two roadside bombs explode in a yard for auctioning cattle in the northern town of Kuz Khurmato, 170 km north of Baghdad, leading to the deaths of nine people and the wounding of 24.

34 people are killed in Christmas bomb attacks in Christian areas of Baghdad Wednesday. In the deadliest attack, 24 people, most of them Christians are killed as they are leaving a church in the Doura district of southern Baghdad.