List of massacres of the Iraq War
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The following is a list of
massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
s that have occurred in the area of modern
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
.


Pre-20th Century

* In 1258, the
Siege of Baghdad (1258) The siege of Baghdad was a siege that took place in Baghdad in 1258, lasting for 13 days from January 29, 1258 until February 10, 1258. The siege, laid by Ilkhanate Mongol forces and allied troops, involved the investment, capture, and sack of ...
: estimates range from 200,000–2,000,000 civilian deaths.


Pre-Saddam 20th Century

* May 4, 1924, Massacre of 4th May, 1924;
Assyrian Levies The Assyrian Levies (also known as the Iraq Levies) were the first Iraqi military force established by the British in British controlled Iraq. The Iraq Levies originated in a local Arab armed scout force raised during the First World War. After I ...
massacre an estimated 200 people after a Turkmen shop keeper and Assyrian soldier get into an argument. * August 1933, the
Simele massacre The Simele massacre, also known as the Assyrian affair, was committed by the Kingdom of Iraq, led by Bakr Sidqi, during a campaign systematically targeting the Assyrians in and around Simele in August 1933. An estimated 600 to 6,000 Assyrians ...
in Northern Iraq: the Iraqi army massacred 600–3,000 Assyrian Christians. * June 1–2, 1941,
Farhud ''Farhud'' ( ar, الفرهود) was the pogrom or "violent dispossession" carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Iraq, on June 1–2, 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots occurred in a ...
,
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
; 175-780 deaths, considered "the beginning of the end of the Jewish community of Iraq". * July 14, 1959, Kirkuk massacre of 1959; Kurdish members of the Iraqi Communist Party target Turkmens leaving an estimated 20 dead. This was followed by Kurdish soldiers from the Fourth Brigade targeting Turkmen residential areas with
mortars Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a villag ...
, causing the destruction of 120 homes. Between 31-79 Turkmen were killed with 130 wounded. The Iraqi government referred to the incident as a "massacre".


Saddam Era

* January 27, 1969 Baghdad hangings. * September 16, 1969, the Iraqi military headed by Liutenant Abdul Karim al-Jahayshee massacred 47 people in the Assyrian village of Soriya (Ṣawriyā) including the Chaldean priest Ḥannā Yaʻqūb Qāshā and left 22 wounded. * 1975, Najaf purges. Over 100 Shi’ite clerics killed and 1250 arrested. * February 5 1977, Safar uprising. Despite brutally enforced ban on public religiousness, thousands of people defy it and head to Karbala during the Arba'een Pilgrimage. Hundreds were killed and thousands arrested by the regime. * 1978 - 1979
Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in North Iraq The Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq involved Arabization and ethnic cleansing of minorities (primarily Kurds, as well as Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, and Shabaks), in line with settler colonialist policies, to shift the demo ...
; 2,500''Routine calculations do not count as original research, provided there is consensus among editors that the result of the calculation is obvious, correct, and a meaningful reflection of the sources. Basic arithmetic, such as adding numbers, converting units, or calculating a person's age are some examples of routine calculations. See also Conversion templates.'' https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB14.1C.GIF row 1313 and 1314
1,000,000 and 10,000 to 2,000,000 and 100,000 Kurds were displaced and killed respectively between 1963 and 1987; 250,000 of them in 1977 and 1978. If deaths are proportional to the displacement then 2,500 to 12,500 Kurds would have died during this period depending on the scale of overall displacement and deaths used.
to 12,500 * 50,000 to 70,000 Shi'a, and 50,000 opposition activists, communists, Kurds and other minorities disappeared into Iraqi prisons in the 1980s * May 7, 1980, Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein, Nationwide; 15,000–25,000 Feyli Kurds were targeted genocide via exportation and forced relocations. * July 8, 1982,
Dujail Massacre The Dujail massacre was a mass killing of Shia rebels by the Ba'athist Iraqi government on 8 July 1982 in Dujail, Iraq. The massacre was committed in retaliation to an earlier assassination attempt by the Shia Iranian supported Islamic Dawa ...
,
Dujail Dujail ( ar, الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a town in Saladin Governorate, Iraq. It is situated about north of Baghdad, and has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, who are mostly Shia. It was the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre ...
; 148 deaths. * May 10, 1983. Saddam ordered further arrest of all Hakim family. Hundreds were killed and buried in mass graves. * In July and August 1983, on the orders of President
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
over 8,000 men and boys of the
Barzani Kurds The Barzani tribe ( ku, Eşîra Barzanî) is a term for both the Kurdish Barzani tribe and for the confederation of various neighboring tribes inhabiting Barzan in Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Barzanis are mostly Naqshbandi and one of the mo ...
, some as young as 13, were killed by the Ba'athist Iraq. * 1984, Abu Ghraib prison massacre,
Baghdad Governorate Baghdad Governorate ( ar, محافظة بغداد ''Muḥāfaẓät Baġdād''), also known as the Baghdad Province, is the capital governorate of Iraq. It includes the capital Baghdad as well as the surrounding metropolitan area. The governorat ...
; 4,000 executed in purge * 1986–1989,
Anfal genocide The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted ru ...
, Nationwide: 50,000GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
Human Rights Watch, 1993
-182,000
PBS Frontline
Kurds and other Iraqi minorities killed during
Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...
. * March 16, 1988,
Halabja poison gas attack The Halabja massacre ( ku, Kêmyabarana Helebce کیمیابارانی ھەڵەبجە), also known as the Halabja chemical attack, was a massacre of Kurdish people that took place on 16 March 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War ...
,
Halabja Halabja ( ku, هەڵەبجە, Helebce, ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about northeast of Baghdad and from the Iranian border. The city lies at the base of what is often referred to ...
: 5,000+ deaths; Iraqi government used chemical weapons on Kurdish town; condemned as an act of genocide (The aforementioned Anfal genocide). *13 February 1991,
Amiriyah shelter bombing The Amiriyah shelter bombing was an aerial bombing attack that killed at least 408 civilians on 13 February 1991 during the Persian Gulf War, when an air-raid shelter ("Public Shelter No. 25") in the Amiriyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, was ...
, 408 civilians killed by US airstrike. * March 1 – April 5, 1991 Iraqi uprisings, Nationwide: 25,000–180,000 killed (mostly civilians).


2000s

* August 29, 2003, Imam Ali mosque bombing, 95 civilians including senior Shia cleric killed by Sunni extremists. * May 19, 2004,
Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre The Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre ( ar, مجزرة حفلة عرس مكر الذيب) refers to the U.S. military's attack on a wedding party in Mukaradeeb, a small village in Iraq near the border with Syria, on 19 May 2004. 42 civilians wer ...
; 42 Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. airstrikes during a wedding. * August 1, 2004, 2004 Iraq churches attacks,
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
and
Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
; 12 died, 71 injured. * October 24, 2004 Massacre of New Iraqi Army recruits by Sunni insurgents, 49 killed. * November 19, 2005
Haditha killings The Haditha massacre (also called the Haditha killings or the Haditha incident) was a series of killings on November 19, 2005, in which a group of United States Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. The killings occurred in Haditha, a cit ...
,
Haditha , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Inbound3292807512093856589نواعير حديثة.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption ...
24 Iraqi civilians were killed by
United States Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...
. * March 12, 2006
Mahmudiyah killings The Mahmudiyah rape and killings were war crimes involving the gang-rape and murder of 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the murder of her family by United States Army soldiers on March 12, 2006. It occurred in the family' ...
on by U.S. Army soldiers, 4 killed. * March 15, 2006, the Ishaqi incident, where four women and five children, one aged five months were allegedly killed by U.S. Forces. This was denied by the Americans, who said a building collapsed during a firefight, killing four people—a suspect, two women and a child. *March 2006, US troops killed 4 Iraq prisoners. * Between May 7 and 8, 2006, 51 bodies were found in Baghdad, all handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and abdomen. * July 9, 2006,
Hay al Jihad massacre The Hayy Al-Jihad massacre occurred on July 9, 2006 in the Hayy Al-Jihad neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. An estimated 40 Sunni civilians were killed in revenge attacks by Shia militiamen from the Mahdi Army for the previous unpro ...
on by Shia militia, 40 killed. * March 27, 2007
2007 Tal Afar bombings and massacre The 2007 Tal Afar bombings took place on March 27, 2007, when two truck bombs targeted Shia areas of the Turkmen town of Tal Afar, Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێرا ...
,
Tal Afar Tal Afar ( ar, تَلْعَفَر, Talʿafar, ) is a city in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, located 63 km (39 mi) west of Mosul, 52 km (32 mi) east of Sinjar2007 Mosul massacre The 2007 Yazidi massacre was a massacre of Yazidis that took place on April 22, 2007, in Mosul, in northern Iraq. Massacre At around 2PM (GMT+3), a bus carrying workers from the Mosul Textile Factory en route to Bashiqa, Al-Hamdaniya District ...
,
Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second larg ...
; 23 died; the murders were considered to be a reprisal for the honor killing of a 17-year-old Yazidi girl. * On April 17, 2007, 51 bodies of Iraqi civilians and military personnel, who were killed in the previous two years, were found in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. * June 29, 2007, Al Ahamir Massacre, Al Ahamir, 10-14 Iraqi civilians were killed by Al Qaeda. * On June 30, 2007, 35 to 40 bodies were recovered from a recently dug mass grave in the town of Ferris, south of Fallujah, most likely victims of sectarian violence. * July 16, 2007, massacre of Shiite villagers in a village in Diyala province on by Sunni insurgents, 29 killed. * August 14, 2007, Qahtaniya bombings by Sunni insurgents, 796 killed. * September 16, 2007,
Nisour Square massacre The Nisour Square massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Constellis), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilia ...
,
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
: Blackwater Baghdad shootings by a
private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...
, 17 killed. The
private military company A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military ...
, Blackwater Security Consulting, shot at Iraqi civilians killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square, Baghdad while escorting a US embassy convoy. * Following the conclusion of the 2007 Diyala province military campaign dozens of mass graves were found. It is unclear who was responsible although Al-Qaeda is suspected.


2010s

* April 4, 2010, insurgents dressed as US and Iraqi soldiers killed 25 people including 5 women in a village south of
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
. They were linked to the Awakening movement. They were handcuffed and shot in the head or chest. Seven were found alive in handcuffs. Major General Qassim Atta spokesman for the Iraqi security forces' Baghdad operations said Al-Qaeda in Iraq was behind this. * October 31, 2010, Baghdad church attack,
Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
; 58 died;
Islamic State of Iraq The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; ar, دولة العراق الإسلامية '), commonly referred to as al-Qaeda in Iraq ( ar, القاعدة في العراق '), is a militant Salafist jihadist group that aimed to establish an Islamic stat ...
attacked a Catholic church. * April 8, 2011, Camp Ashraf raid,
Camp Ashraf Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City was a camp in Iraq's Diyala Governorate, having the character of a small city with all basic infrastructure, and headquarters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The population used to be around 3,400 in 2012, b ...
; 34 unarmed members of the
People's Mujahedin of Iran The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) ( fa, سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران, sâzmân-e mojâhedīn-e khalq-e īrân), is an Iranian pol ...
were killed by Iraqi security forces. 300+ injured. * September 1, 2013, 2013 Camp Ashraf massacre,
Camp Ashraf Camp Ashraf or Ashraf City was a camp in Iraq's Diyala Governorate, having the character of a small city with all basic infrastructure, and headquarters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The population used to be around 3,400 in 2012, b ...
; 52 died; Members of Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
helped plan and direct the assault on the camp and then two of Iran's Iraqi-based proxies,
Kata'ib Hezbollah Kata'ib Hezbollah ( ar, كتائب حزب الله, lit=Battalions of the Party of God)—or the Hezbollah Battalions—is a radical Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces backed by Iran. During the Ir ...
and Asaib Ahl al-Haq carried out the attack. * June 12–15, 2014,
Camp Speicher massacre The Camp Speicher massacre occurred on 12 June 2014, when the Islamic State killed between 1,095 to 1,700 Iraqi cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. At the time of the massacre, there were between 5,000 and 100,000 unarmed c ...
in
Tikrit Tikrit ( ar, تِكْرِيت ''Tikrīt'' , Syriac: ܬܲܓܪܝܼܬܼ ''Tagrīṯ'') is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. , it h ...
; the Islamic State with the help the Sunni local tribes killed at least 1,700 unarmed Iraqi Air Force cadets. They were separated by sect: Sunnis were allowed to repent for their military service, while Shiites were lined up for firing squads. The soldiers were separated into small groups, executed and buried in mass graves; some of the victims were shot and thrown into the river * June 10, 2014 – Badush prison massacre, over 670 Shia prisoners were executed by ISIL. * June 10, 2014 – August 8 2015,
Mass Executions in ISIS Occupied Mosul This article lists the mass executions in ISIL-occupied Mosul. Mosul, which is located in the Nineveh Governorate of Iraq, was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the Fall of Mosul on June 10, 2014, until the libera ...
where over 6,539 people have been killed. * August 2014 - Sinjar massacre, about 5,000
Yazidis Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...
massacred by ISIS. * January 28, 2015 – Barwana massacre, 70 unarmed boys and men by Shia militas (allegedly). * September 1, 2016 - Islamic State reportedly executed nine Mosul youths with a chainsaw for being part of an opposing group. * March 17, 2017 – an airstrike by American-led bombing of Western Mosul that killed over 278+ civilians has been referred to as a massacre.


2020s


References

{{massacres
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
Massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
*
Massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
Massacres A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...