2005 in Iraq


Events in the year 2005 in Iraq.

Incumbents

January

  • January 4 – Governor Ali Al-Haidri, governor of Baghdad province, is assassinated along with two of his bodyguards.
  • January 6 – Seven national guards killed when IED strikes Bradley fighting vehicle.
  • January 21 – A suicide car bomb blows up outside a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad killing 14 worshipers and wounding 40.
  • January 26 – Thirty-one U.S. Marines are killed in a helicopter crash near the Jordan border.
  • January 27 – Iraq's expatriates start voting for the Iraqi National Assembly election, 2005
  • January 28 – The insurgency continues with several dozen Iraqi deaths. Seven U.S. soldiers killed, three in a helicopter crash.
  • January 29 – About 17 people died from car bombs on the eve of the elections. A rocket hit the U.S. Embassy compound inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, killing two people and wounding at least four. According to the embassy spokesman, all of them are Americans.
  • January 30 – Ghazi Yawer was one of the first people to vote in the Iraqi National Assembly election. Up to 15 British military personnel were killed in Iraq when an air force transport plane crashed northwest of Baghdad. Meanwhile, at least 35 people die in attacks at polling places.
  • January 31 – Nine RAF personnel and one soldier are KIA after a British Hercules plane comes down north-west of Baghdad.

    February

  • February 4 – Paul Wolfowitz announces that 15,000 U.S. troops whose tours of duty had been temporarily extended will be withdrawn by the next month.
  • February 7 – Two suicide bombers strike in Mosul and Baquba, claiming at least 27 lives, mostly police recruits.
  • February 8 – At least 21 people are killed in a blast at an Iraqi army recruitment centre in Muthenna airfield in west Baghdad.
  • February 9 – At least nine Iraqis die including a correspondent for a U.S.-funded Arabic TV station.
  • February 10 – At least 50 Iraqis are killed when rebels attack targets across the country. Meanwhile, the election results are postponed because of a limited recount.
  • February 11 – More than 20 Iraqis are killed in attacks near a Shia mosque and on a Baghdad bakery.
  • February 12 – A car bomb attack blast outside a hospital kills at least 17 people in the town of Musayyib.
  • February 13 – Limited election results are announced.
  • February 17 – Full results are announced in the national legislative election. The United Iraqi Alliance wins a slight majority.
  • February 19 – At least 40 people are killed and more than 100 wounded in attacks by suicide bombers in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq during festival of Ashoura.
  • February 22 – Two policemen and two civilians are killed and another 30 police are injured in a suicide attack against a convoy of security forces in Baghdad.
  • February 24 – A car bombing attack in the Iraqi city of Tikrit reportedly kills up to 15 people. Another 25 are injured in an attack on a police station.
  • February 25 – Three US troops are killed and eight others injured in a bomb explosion in Tarmiyah just north of Baghdad.
  • February 27 – Five people are killed in a bomb blast in Hammam Alil. In another incident, a US soldier is shot and killed in Baghdad while manning a traffic checkpoint.
  • February 28 – 127 Iraqis are killed by a suicide car bomb outside a medical center in Hilla, south of Baghdad. The bomber, who later turned out to be a U.S. educated Jordanian lawyer from al Qaeda targeted a large crowd of mainly teachers and police recruits outside a health clinic. It was the deadliest single blast in Iraq's history.

    March

  • March 2 – Judge Barwez Mohammed Mahmoud al-Merwani and his son Aryan Barwez al-Merwani are murdered in the Azamyiah district. Also 10 people are killed in attacks on an Iraqi army base and a checkpoint in Baghdad.
  • March 3 – Two car bombs exploded near Iraq's Interior Ministry killing at least five policemen. In total 17 people are killed in various incidents.
  • March 4 – Four U.S. soldiers are killed in Al Anbar Governorate. An Italian hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena is hurt by friendly fire shortly after her rescue, and an Italian secret service agent escorting her, Nicola Calipari, is killed.
  • March 7 – 33 people are killed and dozens wounded as Iraqi insurgents attack in Baqouba and Baghdad.
  • March 9 – A suicide car bomb attack reportedly carried out by a group linked to al-Qaeda kills three and injures more than 20 people in Baghdad.
  • March 10 – At least 47 people are killed by a suicide bomber who blows himself up at a Shia funeral service in the northern city of Mosul.
  • March 20 – A gun battle between Iraqi insurgents and US troops near Baghdad leaves 24 rebels dead. Earlier, a suicide bomber kills the head of the police anti-corruption department in the northern city of Mosul. Insurgents then attack his funeral, killing at least two other people.

    April

  • April 2 – The Battle of Abu Ghraib was an attack on US forces at Abu Ghraib prison, which consisted of heavy mortar and rocket fire, under which armed insurgents attacked with grenades, small arms, and two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.
  • April 6 – Jalal Talabani is elected President of Iraq by the Iraqi National Assembly, becoming the first President elected under the country's new Constitution.
  • April 9 – Tens of thousands of demonstrators loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr march through Baghdad denouncing the US occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Insurgents also kill 15 Iraqi soldiers traveling in a convoy south of Baghdad.
  • April 14 – Two car bombs kill 18 in Baghdad neighborhood.
  • April 15 – At least four people are killed in bombings in the Iraqi city of Samarra and in the capital Baghdad.
  • April 16 – Three American soldiers are killed when a Marine base comes under indirect fire near Ramadi, west of Baghdad.
  • April 17 – A roadside bomb near the central city of Samarra kills two Iraqi soldiers. Also other bombs kill an American soldier and two civilians.
  • April 18 –
  • *Iraqi security forces numbering in the hundreds launch an operation to "root out" Sunni insurgents at the tip of Iraq's "Triangle of Death".
  • *In Baghdad, gunmen ambush a senior Defence Ministry adviser, Major General Adnan al-Qaraghulli, killing him and his son.
  • April 19 – Two American soldiers are killed and four wounded in a car bombing. Another suicide car bomb outside an Iraqi army recruitment center and other attacks in the country kills a dozen people and wounds more than 50.
  • April 20 –
  • *Iraq's prime minister Iyad Allawi escapes an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber in a car attacks his convoy near his home. The attack kills two policeman and wounds four.
  • *60 bodies are fished out of the Tigris river south of Baghdad; the bodies appear to not be from a single region or date. Also insurgents execute 19 Iraqi soldiers in a football stadium in Haditha.
  • April 21 –
  • *A commercial helicopter is shot down about north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing all 11 people on board. One survivor is shot by insurgents who rush to the site.
  • *Two foreign contractors are killed in a roadside bomb on the road to Baghdad airport.
  • April 22 – A car bomb explodes outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 20.
  • April 23 – At least 19 people including nine Iraqi and four US soldiers were killed when US and Iraqi convoys were attacked by insurgents near Baghdad.
  • April 24 – At least 22 people are killed and 57 more were wounded in twin bombings in a market near the Ahl al-Beit mosque in Shula, north of Baghdad.
  • April 29 – At least 29 people are killed and more than 100 injured in a wave of car bomb attacks targeting Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad.
  • April 30 – Insurgents launch attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq killing at least 11 Iraqis and wounding more than 40.

    May

  • May 1 – A suicide attack targets a Kurdish funeral in the northern town of Talafar, near Mosul leaves at least 25 people dead and injures more than 30 others. Earlier, at least five policemen and four civilians are killed in two separate attacks in Baghdad.
  • May 2 – Nine people die in a blast in a busy shopping area of Baghdad. At least three people are killed in an explosion in the east of the capital and four more died in two blasts in the northern city of Mosul.
  • May 3 – Clashes in the Iraqi city of Ramadi left 12 insurgents, two Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi soldier dead.
  • May 4 – At least 60 people killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing at the offices of a Kurdish party in Irbil, northern Iraq.
  • May 5 – At least 24 people die in wave of attacks in Baghdad.
  • May 6 – A suicide car bomber strikes a vegetable market in Suwayra, killing at least 58 people and wounding 44. 9 more Iraqi die in another attack.
  • May 7 – Two suicide car bombs explode in a central Baghdad square killing 22 people.
  • May 11 – At least 71 people are killed and more than 160 wounded as suicide bombers rip through a crowded market and a line of security force recruits in a wave of explosions and gunfire across Iraq.
  • May 12 – Police General Iyad Imad Mehdi was shot by unidentified gunmen as he was driving to work.

    June

  • June 12 –
  • * French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi were freed after five months of captivity in Iraq.
  • * 28 bodies, believed to mainly be Sunni Arabs, have been found in Baghdad sidestreets.
  • * Four US Soldiers die from two roadside bombs in Baghdad, bringing the total death toll of US troops to over 1,700.
  • * Kurdish parliament in Northern Iraq elects Masoud Barzani as a president of the region
  • June 14 – 22 people died following a suicide bombing in Kirkuk, northern Iraq.
  • June 15 – Douglas Wood, an Australian hostage residing in California is released in Iraq after 47 days in captivity, and is now being moved to a secret location.
  • June 16 – Five U.S. Marines die from a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Western Iraq.
  • June 20 – A Suicide bomber in Iraq kills 13 policemen, and injured more than 100 people, in the city of Irbil, northern Iraq.