Iraq Occupation Timeline
July-September 2005
An unprecedented wave of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings leads to the fear that civil war has broken out. Diplomats from Egypt and Algeria are kidnapped and murdered, and another member of Parliament and two appointees to the constitution committee are assassinated. Academics are also targeted. Twelve journalists are killed, bringing the total number of reporters killed in Iraq to more than those killed during the entire Vietnam War.
Al-Qaida Iraq declares war on Iraqi Shia, and ethnic and sectarian militias fight battles across the country. The Kurdish Pesh Merga are used in an assault that destroys the Turkoman town of Tal Afar. The Badr Brigade sweeps through Sunni neighborhoods and battle the Sadr Army in the south.
In an extraordinary show of strength, 12 car bombings in Baghdad kill 180 people, and three attacks kill 85 in Balad. An estimated 1,000 Shia pilgrims plunge to their deaths when a religious procession breaks into panic at a rumor of a suicide bomber. During this period, 2,682 civilians and 819 security forces are killed, including 188 U.S. soldiers. Many Iraqis depart for neighboring countries; more than 2 million are estimated to be in Jordan and Syria alone.
Electricity output plunges to two hours a day in Baghdad, and gasoline is in such short supply that a ration system is imposed. The World Food Programme issues two urgent alerts about lack of money for its emergency food system in Iraq. The United States announces the halt of construction work on some water and sewer projects due to lack of money, in spite of the fact that less than half the funds pledged for reconstruction in Iraq have been spent.
The political debate focuses on the new constitution, creation of long-term U.S. bases, and growing reality of civil war. Key concerns emerge: decline in basic services, increase in sectarian militias, increased influence of Iran, growing isolation from the international community, human rights violations from security forces, and the confused role of U.S. and multinational forces.
July 4
The Eyes Wide Open exhibit draws more than 80,000 people at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the holiday weekend.
July 7
Al-Qaida in Iraq kills Egyptian Ambassador Ihab al-Sherifa, after kidnapping him. He was head of the diplomatic delegation to Iraq.
July 8
Speaking at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in Scotland, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirms he will begin withdrawing Italy's 3,000 troops from Iraq in September.
July 11-17
The Eyes Wide Open is displayed in Des Moines, Iowa, before the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. The 233 pairs of boots represent the National Guard members who died in Iraq. Attached to each pair is a tag with the name, year of death, and home state of the service person. The governors are responsible for allowing the National Guard units from their states to be deployed.
July 16
A suicide bomber in a fuel truck near a Shiite mosque in Mussayib near Kerbala kills 98 people.
July 17
Iraq's fledgling government is accused of leaving its citizens defenseless after three days of suicide attacks that kill at least 150 people and wound more than 260.
July 19
Mijbil Sheikh Issa, a law professor from the northern city of Kirkuk, is assassinated along with Thamen Hossein Obeidi, a Sunni Arab legal scholar advising the 71-member constitution committee. Issa was among a group of 15 Sunni Arabs added to the committee last month. Minutes earlier in an interview he stated, "I'm not the resistance; I'm a politician. But I speak the same language as the resistance."
July 27
Two Algerian diplomats are killed. The leading U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, states that a "fairly substantial" pull-out of U.S. troops could take place next spring and summer. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari calls for the troops' speedy withdrawal.
August 3
A roadside bomb kills 14 U.S. Marines near the Syrian border. The same battalion was attacked three days earlier, killing six reservists. Forty-three U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in the last 10 days. U.S. journalist Steven Vincent is killed in Basra.
August 6
Cindy Sheehan and members of Gold Star Families for Peace begin a vigil at the Bush ranch in Crawfordville, Texas, in memory of her son Casey who died in Iraq last year. She vows to stay until Bush meets with her or until his month-long vacation ends. He does not meet with her. The protest receives national and international media attention, highlighting the growing antiwar movement.
August 11
Shia leaders demand an autonomous region for the Shia-dominated south. It raises fears about the country fracturing into ethnically and religiously controlled regions with a weak central government.
August 15
The Iraqi Parliament extends a deadline for the new constitution after talks fail to bridge differences between the main ethnic and sectarian groups. The scheduled national vote on the constitution is October 15, two months away.
August 28
Reporters Without Borders issues a study finding Iraq is the world's most dangerous place for journalists. Sixty-seven journalists and media assistants have been killed since the March 2003 invasion.
August 31
Trampled and crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, an estimated 1,000 Shiite pilgrims die when a procession across a Baghdad bridge is engulfed in panic at rumors about a suicide bomber. Earlier in the day, seven people were killed and 37 wounded in three separate mortar attacks against the pilgrims.
September 1
Just before dawn, more than 5,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops begin an assault in Tal Afar, the largest in an Iraqi city since the siege of Fallujah.
September 6
U.S. troops withdraw from Najaf, home of the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, transferring the city to Iraqi military responsibility. U.S. troops will be stationed nearby and continue in an advisory role.
September 7
A long-awaited report on the handling of the multimillion-dollar Iraq Oil-for-Food Program is published, accusing the UN of "corrosive corruption" and blaming UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan, for mismanagement.
September 8
The UN documents mounting violence in Iraq, blamed on pro-government militias, and urges authorities to look into reports of systematic torture in police stations. The report also notes that "mass arrests" by U.S. and Iraqi forces and long detentions without charge could damage support for the new political system.
September 14
A dozen coordinated explosions rip through Baghdad killing 182 people. One bombing campaign kills 110 Shiite day laborers gathered to search for work in the district of Kadhimiyah.
September 19
Unprecedented clashes erupt between the British military in Basra and Iraqi police, after two undercover officers are arrested, found in the custody of militants. A British army tank blasts through the walls of Basra's Jamiat Prison to take the men, while another is pelted with petrol bombs and stones. Five days later an Iraqi judge issues an arrest warrant for them, saying they are wanted in connection with deaths of several Iraqis and could face death sentences. Faris Nasir Hussein, a member of Parliament with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, is assassinated with his brother and driver in an ambush fifty miles north of Baghdad.
September 22
Pres. George W. Bush insists that U.S. forces will not withdraw from Iraq "on my watch."
September 24-26
More than 100,000 people converge in Washington, D.C., to demand an end to the Iraq war and withdrawal of U.S. troops. The event is cosponsored by United for Peace & Justice and International ANSWER. In the largest action of nonviolent resistance since the Vietnam War, 374 people are arrested on the sidewalk in front of the White House.
September 26
Gunmen kill five Shia primary school teachers and a driver in a school in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad.
September 29
Eighty-nine people are killed in three coordinated car bomb attacks in the mixed Shiite and Sunni Arab town of Balad north of Baghdad.
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