Iraqi Civil War (2006–2008)

Iraqi Civil War
Part of the Iraq War
Aftermath of a car bombing in Baghdad in December 2007
Date 22 February 2006 – 15 May 2008[3] (2 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) Location Iraq Result Short-term Iraqi government and allied victory[4] Ethnic cleansing of Sunnis and Shiites in cities including Baghdad 4 million people displaced U.S. Troop Surge in January 2007 Ceasefire signed with Mahdi Army Al-Qaeda in Iraq militarily defeated Presence of British and American troops in advise and assist roles until 2011[5] Continued Al-Qaeda insurgency in Iraq[6] Resurgence of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later becomes known as ISIL or ISIS following the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2011[7]
Belligerents
Sunni factions: Mujahideen Shura Council al-Qaeda in Iraq (until October 2006) Islamic State of Iraq Ansar al-Sunna Islamic Army in Iraq Sunni tribes Iraqi Ba'ath Party Loyalists Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order	Shi'ite factions: Mahdi Army Special Groups Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Kata'ib Hezbollah Promised Day Brigades Badr Brigades Rogue elements among the Iraqi security forces Soldiers of Heaven Shia tribes Other militias	Public stability: Iraqi security forces United States United Kingdom[1] Other coalition forces Private Security Contractors Peshmerga Sons of Iraq[2]
Commanders and leaders
Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i (POW)  (POW) Ishmael Jubouri Abu Omar al-Baghdadi † Abu Musab al-Zarqawi † Abu Ayyub al-Masri †	Muqtada al-Sadr Abu Deraa Qais al-Khazali (POW)  † Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim † Abdul Aziz al-Hakim Hadi al-Amiri Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim † Ahmed Hassani al-Yemeni †	Jalal Talabani Ibrahim al-Jaafari Nouri al-Maliki Tommy Franks Masoud Barzani Abdul Sattar Abu Risha † Ahmed Abu Risha
Strength
Sunni insurgents: 70,000 (2003–2007)[8] Foreign Mujahedeen: 1,300[9]	Mahdi Army: 60,000 (2003–2008)[10] Badr Organisation: 20,000[11] Soldiers of Heaven: 1,000[12] Special Groups: 7,000 (2011)[13]	Iraqi Security Forces 618,000 (805,269 Army and 348,000 Police)[14] Coalition ~49,700 Contractors ~7,000[15][16] Awakening Council militias 103,000[17]
69,760 recorded civilian deaths (2006–2008)[18] 151,000–1,033,000 Iraqi deaths (2003–2008)

The Iraqi Civil War was a civil war fought mainly between the Iraqi government along with American-led coalition forces and various sectarian armed groups, mainly Al Qaeda in Iraq and the Mahdi Army, from 2006 to 2008. In February 2006, sectarian tensions in Iraq escalated into a full-scale civil war after the bombing of the Al-Askari Shrine (which is considered one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam) by the Sunni organization Al-Qaeda in Iraq. This set off a wave of reprisals by Shia militants on Sunni civilians, followed by Sunni counterattacks on Shia civilians.^[19]

In a 10 January 2007 address to the American people, President George W. Bush stated that "80% of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles (48 km) of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shakes the confidence of all Iraqis.".^[20] The conflict escalated over the next several months until by late 2007, the National Intelligence Estimate described the conflict as having elements of a civil war.^[21] In 2008, during the Sunni Awakening and the U.S. troop surge, violence declined dramatically.^[22][23] However, an insurgency by Al-Qaeda in Iraq continued to plague Iraq following the U.S. withdrawal from the country in late 2011.^[24] In June 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the successor of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, launched a major military offensive in Iraq and declared a self-proclaimed worldwide Islamic caliphate, leading to a full-scale war mainly between Iraq and ISIL from 2013 to 2017 in which Iraq declared full victory against the terrorist group.^[25]

In October 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iraqi government estimated that more than 370,000 Iraqis had been displaced since the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, bringing the total number of Iraqi refugees to more than 1.6 million.^[26] By 2008, the UNHCR raised the estimate of refugees to a total of about 4.7 million (~16% of the population). The number of refugees estimated abroad was 2 million (a number close to CIA projections^[27]) and the number of internally displaced people was 2.7 million.^[28] The Red Cross stated in 2008 that Iraq's humanitarian situation was among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources.^[29]

According to the Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Iraq was one of the world's top 5 unstable states from 2005 to 2008.^[30] A poll of top U.S. foreign policy experts conducted in 2007 showed that over the next 10 years, just 3% of experts believed the U.S. would be able to rebuild Iraq into a "beacon of democracy" and 58% of experts believed that Sunni–Shi'a tensions would dramatically increase in the Middle East.^[31][32] Two polls of Americans conducted in 2006 found that between 65% to 85% believed Iraq was in a civil war;^[33][34] however, a similar poll of Iraqis conducted in 2007 found that 61% did not believe that they were in a civil war.^[35]

Participants[]

A multitude of groups formed the Iraqi insurgency, which arose in a piecemeal fashion as a reaction to local events, notably the realisation of the U.S. military's inability to control Iraq.^[36] Beginning in 2005 the insurgent forces coalesced around several main factions, including the Islamic Army in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.^[37] Religious justification was used to support the political actions of these groups, as well as a marked adherence to Salafism, branding those against the jihad as non-believers. This approach played a role in the rise of sectarian violence.^[38] The U.S. military also believed that between 5-10% of insurgent forces were non-Iraqi Arabs.^[36]

Independent Shi'a militias identified themselves around sectarian ideology and possessed various levels of influence and power. Some militias were founded in exile and returned to Iraq only after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, such as the Badr Organization. Others were created since the state collapse, the largest and most uniform of which was the Mahdi Army established by Muqtada al-Sadr and believed to have around 50,000 fighters.^[36]

Conflict and tactics[]

Non-military targets[]

Attacks on non-military and civilian targets began in earnest in August 2003 as an attempt to sow chaos and sectarian discord. Iraqi casualties increased over the next several years.^[39][40]

Bomb and mortar attacks[]

Bomb attacks aimed at civilians usually targeted crowded places such as marketplaces and mosques in Shi'a cities and districts.^[41][42] The bombings, which were sometimes co-ordinated, often inflicted extreme casualties.

For example, the 23 November 2006 Sadr City bombings killed at least 215 people and injured hundreds more in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, sparking reprisal attacks, and the 3 February 2007 Baghdad market bombing killed at least 135 and injured more than 300. The co-ordinated 2 March 2004 Iraq Ashura bombings (including car bombs, suicide bombers and mortar, grenade and rocket attacks) killed at least 178 people and injured at least 500.

Suicide bombings[]

Since August 2003, suicide car bombs were increasingly used as weapons by Sunni militants, primarily al-Qaeda extremists. The car bombs, known in the military as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs), emerged as one of the militants' most effective weapons, directed not only against civilian targets but also against Iraqi police stations and recruiting centers.

These vehicle IEDs were often driven by the extremists from foreign Muslim countries with a history of militancy, such as Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, and Pakistan.^[43]

Death squads[]

Death squad-style killings in Iraq took place in a variety of ways. Kidnapping, followed by often extreme torture (such as drilling holes in people's feet with drills^[44]) and execution-style killings, sometimes public (in some cases, beheadings), emerged as another tactic. In some cases, tapes of the execution were distributed for propaganda purposes. The bodies were usually dumped on a roadside or in other places, several at a time. There were also several relatively large-scale massacres, like the Hay al Jihad massacre in which some 40 Sunnis were killed in a response to the car bombing which killed a dozen Shi'a.

The death squads were often disgruntled Shi'a, including members of the security forces, who killed Sunnis to avenge the consequences of the insurgency against the Shi'a-dominated government.^[45]

Iraq Body Count project data shows that 33% of civilian deaths during the Iraq War resulted from execution after abduction or capture. These were overwhelmingly carried out by unknown actors including insurgents, sectarian militias and criminals. Such killings occurred much more frequently during the 2006–07 period of sectarian violence.^[46]

Attacks on places of worship[]

On 22 February 2006, a highly provocative explosion took place at the al-Askari Mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam, believed to have been caused by a bomb planted by al-Qaeda in Iraq. Although no injuries occurred in the blast, the mosque was severely damaged and the bombing resulted in violence over the following days. Over 100 dead bodies with bullet holes were found the next day, and at least 165 people are thought to have been killed. In the aftermath of this attack the U.S. military calculated that the average homicide rate in Baghdad tripled from 11 to 33 deaths per day.^[36]

Dozens of Iraqi mosques were afterwards attacked or taken over by the sectarian forces. For example, a Sunni mosque was burnt in the southern Iraqi town of Haswa on 25 March 2007, in revenge for the destruction of a Shi'a mosque in the town the previous day.^[47] In several cases, Christian churches were also attacked by the extremists. Later, another al-Askari bombing took place in June 2007.

Iraq's Christian minority also became a target by Al Qaeda Sunnis because of conflicting theological ideas.^[48][49]

Sectarian desertions[]

Some Iraqi service members deserted the military or the police and others refused to serve in hostile areas.^[50] For example, some members of one sect refused to serve in neighborhoods dominated by other sects.^[50] The ethnic Kurdish soldiers from northern Iraq, who were mostly Sunnis but not Arabs, were also reported to be deserting the army to avoid the civil strife in Baghdad.^[51]

Timeline[]

For more information on events in a specific year, see the associated timeline page.

Civilian deaths attributable to insurgent or military action in Iraq, and also to increased criminal violence. For the period between January 2006 and February 2008 as rendered by the Congressional Research Service for the Department of Defense. Many of these types of civilian deaths were not reported, and this image only reports from 2006 on. Other methods of estimating civilian deaths come up with much higher numbers. See also: Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003.

Growth in refugee flight[]

By 2008, the UNHCR raised the estimate of refugees to a total of about 4.7 million, with 2 million displaced internally and 2.7 million displaced externally.^[28] In April 2006 the Ministry of Displacement and Migration estimated that "nearly 70,000 displaced Iraqis, especially from the capital, are living in deteriorating conditions," due to ongoing sectarian violence.^[52] Roughly 40% of Iraq's middle class is believed to have fled, the U.N. said. Most were fleeing systematic persecution and had no desire to return.^[53] Refugees were mired in poverty as they were generally barred from working in their host countries.^[54][55] A 25 May 2007 article noted that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq had been granted refugee status in the United States.^[56]

Use of "civil war" label[]

The use of the term "civil war" has been controversial, with a number of commentators preferring the term "civil conflict". A poll of over 5,000 Iraqi nationals found that 27% of polled Iraqi residents agreed that Iraq was in a civil war, while 61% thought Iraq was not.^[35] Two similar polls of Americans conducted in 2006 found that between 65% to 85% believed Iraq was in a civil war.^[33][34]

In the United States, the term has been politicized. Deputy leader of the United States Senate, Dick Durbin, referred to "this civil war in Iraq"^[57] in a criticism of the President's Address to the Nation by George W. Bush's on 10 January 2007.^[58]

Edward Wong on 26 November 2006 paraphrased a report from a group of American professors at Stanford University that the insurgency in Iraq amounted to the classic definition of a civil war.^[59]

An unclassified summary of the 90-page January 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, titled Prospects for Iraq's Stability: A Challenging Road Ahead, states the following regarding the use of the term "civil war":

The Intelligence Community judges that the term "civil war" does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shi'a-on-Shi'a violence, al-Qa'ida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence. Nonetheless, the term "civil war" accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization, and population displacements.^[60]

Retired United States Army General Barry McCaffrey issued a report on 26 March 2007, after a trip and analysis of the situation in Iraq. The report labeled the situation a "low-grade civil war."^[61] In page 3 of the report, he writes that:

Iraq is ripped by a low-grade civil war which has worsened to catastrophic levels with as many as 3000 citizens murdered per month. The population is in despair. Life in many of the urban areas is now desperate. A handful of foreign fighter (500+)—and a couple thousand Al Qaeda operatives incite open factional struggle through suicide bombings which target Shia holy places and innocent civilians. ... The police force is feared as a Shia militia in uniform which is responsible for thousands of extra-judicial killings.

See also[]

• Iraq conflict (2003–present)
• Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003
• Shi'a–Sunni relations
• Iraqi insurgency
• Refugees of Iraq

Events:

• 2 March 2004 Iraq Ashura bombings
• 23 November 2006 Sadr City bombings
• 22 January 2007 Baghdad bombings
• 3 February 2007 Baghdad market bombing
• Hay al Jihad massacre

General:

• Ethnic cleansing
• Ethnic conflict
• Sectarianism
• Religion in Iraq
• Religious war

Films

• Iraq in Fragments, documentary (2006)

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Iraq Study Group, The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward – A New Approach (2006)
• Nir Rosen, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq (2006)

External links[]

• Refugees Report "The Iraqi Displacement Crisis" Refugees International, March 2008.
• United States Dept. of Homeland Security Fact Sheet on admitting Iraqi refugees to the United States March 2008.
• Sami Ramadani interview "Iraq is not a civil war" International Socialism, Spring 2007.
• Taheri, Amir. "There is no Civil War in Iraq, Gulf News, 6 December 2006.
• Phillips, David L., "Federalism can prevent Iraq civil war^{[dead link]}", 20 July 2005.
• Hider, James, "Weekend of slaughter propels Iraq towards all-out civil war", The Times, 18 July 2005.
• Ramadani, Sami, "Occupation and Civil War", The Guardian, 8 July 2005.
• Phelps, Timothy M., "Experts: Iraq Verges on Civil War". Newsday, 12 May 2005.
• Strobel, Warren P., and Jonathan S. Landay, "CIA Officers Warn of Iraq Civil War, Contradicting Bush's Optimism", Knight-Ridder, 22 January 2004.
• "US exit may lead to Iraqi civil war", Sydney Morning Herald, 19 November 2003.
• Dunnigan, James, "The Coming Iraqi Civil War", 4 April 2003