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List of massacres in Iraq

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in the area of modern Iraq, and does not include collateral damage, especially from raids and airstrikes, which were due to mistaken identity or unfortunately getting caught in the line of fire.

Pre-20th Century

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Date City Attack Deaths (Alleged) Perpetrator Notes Source
29 January – 10 February 1258 Baghdad Siege of Baghdad (1258) 200,000 – 2,000,000  Ilkhanate Mongol Empire
Kingdom of Georgia
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia 		estimates range from 200,000 to 2,000,000 civilian deaths [1][2]
21 April 1802 Ottoman Empire Karbala Wahhabi sack of Karbala 2,000-5,000 Emirate of Diriyah About 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attack and sack Karbala, kill between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plunder the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Pre-Saddam 20th Century

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Date City Attack Deaths (Alleged) perpetrator Notes Source
4 May 1924 Iraq Kirkuk Kirkuk Massacre of 1924 200[3]-300 Assyrian Levies Assyrian Levies massacre an estimated 200-300 people after a Turkmen shop keeper and Assyrian soldier get into an argument. [4][5]
7 August 1933 – 11 August 1933 Iraq Northern Kingdom of Iraq, notably at Simele Simele massacre Several hundred (British estimate)[6][7][8]
3,000–6,000 (Assyrian estimate)[9][10] 		Iraq Royal Iraqi Army (led by Bakr Sidqi, Arab and Kurdish tribes the Iraqi army massacred 600–3,000 Assyrian Christians [11]
1935–1936 Iraq Kingdom of Iraq 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts 200 Kingdom of Iraq, Iraqi Shia tribesmen, Ikha Party Series of Shia tribal uprisings in the mid-Euphrates region against the Sunni dominated authority of the Kingdom of Iraq. In each revolt, the response of the Iraqi government was to use military force to crush the rebellions with little mercy
1–2 June 1941 Iraq Baghdad Farhud ~180 to 1,000+ Jews killed[12]
~300–400 pogromists killed during suppression 		Rashid Ali, Yunis al-Sabawi, al-Futuwa youths, and Iraqi mobs Considered "The Beginning of The End of The Jewish Community of Iraq [13]
12 July 1946 Kingdom of Iraq Kirkuk Gavurbağı massacre 16-20 Iraqi police Turkmen protestors were massacred [14]
January 1948 Iraq Baghdad Al-Wathbah uprising 300-400 Iraq Iraqi Police It is estimated that 300 – 400 demonstrators were killed
April 1950 – June 1951 Iraq Baghdad 1950–1951 Baghdad bombings 3–4 Iraqi Zionist agents,
Israeli Mossad agents,
Iraqi Istiqlal Party agents 		Series of bombings of Jewish targets in Baghdad [15]
14 July 1959 Iraq Kirkuk Kirkuk massacre of 1959 71-79 Iraqi Communist Party,
Fourth Brigade 		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, causing the destruction of 120 homes. Between 31 and 79 Turkmen were killed with 130 wounded. The Iraqi government referred to the incident as a "massacre". [16]
27 January 1969 Iraq Baghdad 1969 Baghdad hangings 14 Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Iraqi authorities hanged 14 Iraqis for allegedly spying for Israel during a public execution in Baghdad; nine were Jewish, three were Muslim and two were Christian [17]
16 September 1969 Iraq Surya Surya massacre 47 Ba'athist regime The Iraqi military headed by Lieutenant 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. [18][19][20]
1975 Iraq Najaf Najaf purges[citation needed] 100 Ba'athist regime Over 100 Shi’ite clerics killed and 1250 arrested. [citation needed]
4-9 February 1977 Iraq Najaf and Karbala 1977 Shia uprising in Iraq unknown Ba'athist regime 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.

Saddam Era

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Date City Attack Deaths (Alleged) Perpetrator Notes Source
22 July 1979 Iraq Khuld hall 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge 21 Ba'athist regime organized by Saddam Hussein Internal purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party after the new president Saddam Hussein assumed power and alleged a Syrian back coup d'etat. 68 people were arrested, of which 21 were executed by firing squad.
1968–2003 Iraq Ba'athist Iraq Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq 2,500[21] to 12,500[21][22]  Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Between 1968 and 2003, the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of the Iraqi Republic perpetrated multiple campaigns of demographic engineering against the country's non-Arabs. While Arabs constitute the majority of Iraq's population as a whole, they are not the majority in parts of northern Iraq, and a minority in Iraqi Kurdistan. In an attempt to Arabize the north, the Iraqi government pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing, killing and forcefully displacing a large number of Iraqi minorities—predominantly Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Armenians, among others—and subsequently allotting the cleared land to Arab settlers
1980s Iraq Ba'athist Iraq Persecution of Shi'a muslims and political dissidents under Saddam Hussein 50,000-70,000 Shi'a and 50,000 dissidents disappeared. Full death toll unknown. Saddam Hussein 50,000 to 70,000 Shi'a, and 50,000 opposition activists, communists, Kurds and other minorities disappeared into Iraqi prisons in the 1980s [23]
1970-2003 Iraq Nationwide Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein 15,000-25,000 disappeared Saddam Hussein May 7, 1980, Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein, Nationwide; 15,000–25,000 Feyli Kurds were targeted in a genocide via exportation and forced relocations. [24][25][26][27][28][29]
8 July 1982 Iraq Dujail Dujail massacre 148 Iraqi Ba'ath Party Judicial reprisal targeting Shia Muslims following a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein by the Islamic Dawa Party. Saddam would eventually be executed for crimes against humanity in relation to the massacre.
10 May 1983 Iraq Specific location unknown Massacre of the Hakim family Hundreds Saddam Hussein Saddam ordered further arrest of all Hakim family. Hundreds were killed and buried in mass graves.
July-August, 1983 Iraq Kurdistan Region Repression of Barzani Kurds under Ba'ath regime 8000 Saddam Hussein In July and August 1983, on the orders of President Saddam Hussein, over 8,000 men and boys of the Barzani Kurds, some as young as 13, were killed by the Ba'athist Iraq. [30][31][32][33]
16 March 1984 Iraq Abu Ghraib prison Abu Ghraib purge 4000  Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region A mass grave was discovered at the Abu Ghraib prison, containing the bodies of thousands following a purge. Estimated 4000 dead. [34]
23 February - 6 September 1988 Iraq Kurdistan Region Anfal Campaign 50,000-182,000 Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein Rashid Counter insurgency operation during the Iran Iraq War targeting primarily Kurds, as well as other minority groups that had allegedly collaborated with the Iranian Army. During the campaign, the Iraqi government made extensive use of chemical weapons which resulted in thousands of casualties. Use of enforced disappearances, mass deportation and detention camps were also present. The operation is recognized as a genocide by Human Rights Watch. [35][36][37]
16 March 1988 Iraq Halabja, Kurdistan Region Halabja massacre 3,200–5,000[38]  Iraqi Republic Iraqi government used chemical weapons on Kurdish town, At least 3,200–5,000 people died as an immediate result of the chemical attack and it is estimated that a further 7,000-10,000 people were injured or suffered long-term illness.[38] [39]
March 1 - April 5, 1991 Iraq Nationwide 1991 Iraqi uprisings 25,000–180,000 killed (Predominantly civilians)  Iraqi Republic, MEK (Allegedly, denied) In response to multiple insurrections led by a variety of Kurdish, Leftist and Shia Islamist groups, the Iraqi government violently repressed the rebellion. Chemical weapons and nerve agents such as Mustard Gas, Sarin and Phosgene were allegedly used, though this has been disputed. [40][41][42][43][44][45]

After 2003

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References

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  1. ^ Andre Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Vol. 2, (Brill, 2002), 13.
  2. ^ The different aspects of Islamic culture: Science and technology in Islam, Vol.4, Ed. A. Y. Al-Hassan, (Dergham sarl, 2001), 655.
  3. ^ Anderson, Liam D.; Stansfield, Gareth R. V. (2009). Crisis in Kirkuk: The Ethnopolitics of Conflict and Compromise. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4176-1.
  4. ^ "4 de maio na história - TRT Portuguese". Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (in Portuguese). 5 May 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Salihi, Levi Katliamı'nın 97. yıl dönümü için bir mesaj yayımladı - www.tarihistan.org". www.tarihistan.org (in Turkish). 5 May 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  6. ^ Sykes, Percy (1934). "A summary of the history of the Assyrians in 'Iraq, 1918–1933". Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. 21 (2): 255–268. doi:10.1080/03068373408725306. "At other villages batches of men were killed, the total number aggregating 550."
  7. ^ Zubaida, S (July 2000). "Contested nations: Iraq and the Assyrians" (PDF). Nations and Nationalism. 6 (3): 363–382. doi:10.1111/j.1354-5078.2000.00363.x. Retrieved 23 September 2011. The total number of Assyrian victims of these events was estimated by British officials at about 600, but Assyrian sources put it at several thousand.
  8. ^ Llewellyn-Jones, Rosie (2019). "The Assyrians in World War One and the 1933 Massacre: New Discoveries in the Rsaa Archives". Asian Affairs. 50 (4): 569–587. doi:10.1080/03068374.2019.1672427. S2CID 211652462. "Nearly 1,000 men, women and children were killed by Iraqi armed forces – and their villages were looted by Kurdish tribesmen."
  9. ^ Benjamen, Alda (2022). Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-108-83879-5.
  10. ^ Donabed, Sargon (2010). Iraq and the Assyrian Unimagining: Illuminating Scaled Suffering and a Hierarchy of Genocide from Simele to Anfal. University of Toronto. pp. 69–72.
  11. ^ Bulut, Uzay (5 August 2021). "Resolution in US House Would Recognize Simele Massacre against Assyrians in Iraq - Providence". providencemag.com. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Farhud memories: Baghdad's 1941 slaughter of the Jews". BBC News. June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
  13. ^ REICH, AARON (1 June 2022). "On This Day: The Farhud pogrom begins against Iraq's Jews 81 years ago - The Jerusalem Post". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  14. ^ "ميسون نعيم الرومي: الى العامل في عيده - الأخبار" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 6 May 2018. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
  15. ^ Marozzi, Justin (17 June 2023). "A shocking claim about the Baghdad bombings of 1950 and 1951 - The Spectator". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Turkmen man recalls 1959 massacre in Iraq's Kirkuk - Politics". www.yenisafak.com. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  17. ^ Stutland, Ilana (1 March 2019). "Baghdad hangings: When Jews were snatched and accused of spying for Israel". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  18. ^ Donabed, Sargon George. (2016). Reforging a forgotten history : Iraq and the Assyrians in the twentieth century. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-1212-4. OCLC 1044658876.
  19. ^ HMML Hill Museum & Manuscript Library
  20. ^ "Massacre Crime in the village of Surya- 1969". kgna.krd. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  21. ^ a b 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 Category: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.
  22. ^ Farouk-Sluglett, M.; Sluglett, P.; Stork, J. (July–September 1984). "Not Quite Armageddon: Impact of the War on Iraq". MERIP Reports: 24.
  23. ^ Greitens, Sheena Chestnut (16 August 2016). Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and State Violence. Cambridge University Press. p. 289. ISBN 9781316712566.
  24. ^ "Scars that won't heal: Iraq recognises Fayli Kurd persecution as 'genocide'". ekurd.net. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  25. ^ Marsh, Robin. "International Recognition of the Kurdish Genocide - Concerning the Faili Kurds". www.uk.upf.org. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  26. ^ Jaffar Al-Faylee, Zaki (2010). Tareekh Al-Kurd Al-Faylyoon. pp. 485, 499–501.
  27. ^ Al-Hakeem, Dr. Sahib (2003). Untold stories of more than 4000 women raped killed and tortured in Iraq, the country of mass graves. pp. 489–492.
  28. ^ "33-Year Post Faili Kurds Genocide". ekurd.net. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  29. ^ "The Faili Kurds of Iraq: Thirty Years Without Nationality - Iraq". ReliefWeb. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  30. ^ "Saddam Hussein confirms the execution of the Barzanis". YouTube.
  31. ^ "FROM BLUEPRINT TO GENOCIDE?" (PDF). drmohammedihsan.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-09.
  32. ^ "Iraqi tribunal rules Barzani killings in 1983 were genocide". ekurd.net.
  33. ^ "Various waves of Kurdish genocide". uk.gov.krd. Archived from the original on 2017-09-01.
  34. ^ Chauhan, Sharad S. (2003). War on Iraq. APH Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 9788176484787.
  35. ^ GENOCIDE IN IRAQ Human Rights Watch, 1993
  36. ^ The Crimes of Saddam Hussein – 1988 The Anfal Campaign PBS Frontline
  37. ^ "Remembering Anfal: 36 years since the Kurdish genocide in Iraq - [İLKHA] Ilke News Agency". ilkha.com. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  38. ^ a b "Halabja, the massacre the West tried to ignore". The Times. Archived from the original on 28 January 2010. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  39. ^ Menmy, Dana Taib (17 March 2024). "Halabja massacre survivors seek compensation from Iraqi gov". The New Arab. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  40. ^ "2 Mass Graves in Iraq Unearthed". Los Angeles Times. June 5, 2006.
  41. ^ "'Chemical Ali' on trial for brutal crushing of Shia uprising". The Guardian. August 22, 2007.
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  43. ^ "The Cult of Rajavi". Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved August 3, 2009.
  44. ^ Graff, James (December 14, 2006). "Iran's Armed Opposition Wins a Battle — In Court". Time. Archived from the original on April 28, 2011. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  45. ^ "Behind the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MeK)". Archived from the original on 11 August 2003. the MeK was alleged to have assisted the Iraqi Republican Guard in suppressing Shiite and Kurdish uprisings, although this has always been denied by the MeK
  46. ^ "Leaders condemn Iraq church bombs". BBC News. 2004-08-02. Archived from the original on January 5, 2007. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  47. ^ "Iraqi Insurgents Massacre 49 Iraq Recruits". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  48. ^ Suek, Barbara; Mohammed, Faris (January 25, 2012). "Iraqi town says justice failed victims of US raid". action news. Associated Press, WPVI-TV/DT. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
  49. ^ "US ex-soldier guilty of Iraq rape". BBC News. 2009-05-07. Archived from the original on 2009-05-09. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
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  53. ^ Partlow, Joshua; al-Izzi, Saad (10 July 2006). "Scores Of Sunnis Killed in Baghdad". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2010-12-05. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  54. ^ Bassem Mroue (6 April 2015). "New Village Massacre Reported in Iraq". Newsvine. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  55. ^ [1] Archived April 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
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  57. ^ "Iraq's Emo killings: A horror story out of control?". BBC News. 21 March 2012.
  58. ^ Williams, Carol J. (19 September 2013). "Envoys urge U.N. probe of massacre at Iranian exile camp in Iraq". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  59. ^ "Iraq: ISIS Executed Hundreds of Prison Inmates". Human Rights Watch. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  60. ^ "Survivors from the Speicher massacre: We were 4000 unarmed soldiers fell into the hands of ISIS". Buratha News Agency (in Arabic). 7 September 2014. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  61. ^ Spencer, Richard (14 October 2014). "Isil carried out massacres and mass sexual enslavement of Yazidis, UN confirms". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  62. ^ Silva, Cristina (1 September 2016). "ISIS Kills Children With Chainsaws: Islamic State Brutal Killings On The Rise Amid Airstrike Campaign". International Business Times.
  63. ^ "Iraq: Armed attack in Al-Azim District, Diyala Province, early Jan. 21". Crisis24. January 21, 2022. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
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