2019 in Iraq
Events of 2019 in Iraq.
Incumbents
Events
January
- 24 January – Iraqi parliament approves the yearly budget after weeks of deadlock.
- 26 January – After a 16 months ban, Türkiye allows flights to the city of Sulaimaniyah to resume.
March
- 11 March – Iranian president Rohani visits Iraq for the first time since becoming president in 2013.
- 21 March – Mosul ferry sinking in the Tigris river results in about 100 dead revelers who were celebrating the Kurdish the new year and Iraqi mothers day.
April
- 17 April – The Iraqi parliament votes on a bill to ban several video games, such as PUBG and Fortnite, accusing them of being harmful and too violent.
May
- 20 May – A rocket lands near US embassy in Baghdad with no casualties.
June
- 27 June – Iraqi protesters storm the embassy of Bahrain in Baghdad over the country hosting a US sponsored workshop on Palestine. Bahrain responded by recalling their envoy to Iraq.
July
- 5 July – The ancient ruins of Babylon are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list after decades of campaigning.
August
- 20 August – Popular Mobilization, a Shia-dominated military group, blames the United States and Israel for an explosion at Balad airbase in Salahuddin province, about 80 km north of Baghdad.
September
- 10 September – 31 people killed and 100 injured due to a stampede that occurred during Ashura commemorations in the city of Karbala.
- 20 September – A bomb planted in a bus explosion kills 12 and wounds several others outside the city of Karbala.
- 30 September – Iraq reopens a border-crossing with Syria after 8 years of closure.
October
- 1 October – anti government Protests break out all across Iraq. The Iraqi government declared a curfew in few cities as well as limit social media and internet access in an attempt to suppress the protests.
- 9 October – The death toll of classes between security forces and protesters rises to around 110 with 6,000 wounded since the beginning of the protests. Iraq's prime minister declares 3 days of mourning for those killed.
- 11 October – Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s senior Shia cleric demands the Iraqi government investigate the violence against demonstrators.
- 25 October– A fresh wave of protests is met with violence leaving 40 dead and hundreds injured.
- 28 October – The Iraqi government institutes a curfew as the total death toll of the protests climbs to 200 since their start on the 1st of October. Protesters defy the curfew and refuse to disband.
November
- 4 November – Iraqi protesters storm the Iranian consulate in Karbala, 3 people are killed as security forces fire on the protesters to disperse them.
- 17 November – The protest expand as protestors seal of several bridges and vital roads in Baghdad contracting traffic. Thousands of students join the protests as calls for a general strike continued.
- 27 November – Iraqi protesters storm and burn down the Iranian consulate in southern city of Najaf.
- 28 November – 34 protesters are killed in the city of Nasiriyah, and another 18 are killed in Najaf, in what was described as the deadliest day of the protests.
- 30 November – Iraqi prime minister Adel Abd al- Mehdi formally submits his resignation to the parliament.
December
- 1 December – Iraqi parliament accepts the prime minister's resignation during an emergency session, without naming a replacement.
- 6 December – Unidentified gunmen open fire on protesters camped at Al-Tahrir square in Baghdad, killing 25 and wounding another 130 protesters.
- 29 December – The united states launch airstrikes at a base associated with the Kataib Hezbollah Iraqi militia, killing 25 people.
- 31 December – Iraqi protesters, angry at the American airstrikes, attack the US embassy compound in Baghdad.
Deaths
- 18 January- Lamia Al-Gailani Werr, 80, Iraqi archaeologist.
- 28 January- Tahseen Said, 86, Iraqi politician, Emir of the Yazidis .
- 2 February - Alaa Mashzoub, 50, Iraqi novelist and writer, expert on the History of the Jews in Iraq, shot.
- 3 May - George Hanna, 90, Iraqi-American basketball player.
- 13 May - Kochavi Shemesh, 75, Iraqi-born Israeli lawyer and social activist, leader of the Black Panthers protest movement.
- 26 May - Qays Abd al-Hussein al-Yasiri, 78, Iraqi media scholar, academic and poet.
- 7 July- Mohammad Hussaini Shahroudi, 93, Iraqi Marja'.
- 29 October - Safaa Al Sarai, 26, activist