List of massacres in Iraq

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   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   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   Northern Kingdom of Iraq, notably at Simele Simele massacre Several hundred (British estimate)[6][7][8]
3,000–6,000 (Assyrian estimate)[9][10]
  Royal Iraqi Army (led by Bakr Sidqi, Arab and Kurdish tribes the Iraqi army massacred 600–3,000 Assyrian Christians [11]
1935–1936   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   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   Kirkuk Gavurbağı massacre 16-20 Iraqi police Turkmen protestors were massacred [14]
January 1948   Baghdad Al-Wathbah uprising 300-400   Iraqi Police It is estimated that 300 – 400 demonstrators were killed
April 1950 – June 1951   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   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   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   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   Najaf Najaf purges[citation needed] 100   Ba'athist regime Over 100 Shi’ite clerics killed and 1250 arrested. [citation needed]
4-9 February 1977   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   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   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   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   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][30][31]
8 July 1982   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   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   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. [32][33][34][35]
16 March 1984   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. [36]
23 February - 6 September 1988   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 causalities. Use of enforced disappearances, mass deportation and detention camps were also present. The operation is recognized as a genocide by Human Rights Watch. [37][38][39]
16 March 1988   Halabja, Kurdistan Region Halabja massacre 3,200–5,000[40]   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.[40] [41]

[45]

After 2003

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References

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  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.
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