2004 Iraq spring fighting
The 2004 Iraq spring fighting was a series of operational offensives and various major engagements during the Iraq War. It was a turning point in the war; the Spring Fighting marked the entrance into the conflict of militias and religiously based (Shi'a and Sunni) militant Iraqi groups, such as the Shi'a Mahdi Army.
April fighting[edit]
Baghdad and the Shia south[edit]
The Mahdi Army forces began an offensive in Najaf, Kufa, Kut, and Sadr City on April 4, 2004. They began by taking control of public buildings and police stations. In Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraqi police were expelled from three stations. Members of the newly arrived 1st Cavalry Division and the 759th Military Police Battalion were sent out to retake them. Militiamen ambushed the U.S. forces and eight U.S. troops were killed, and 51 more wounded in the bloody battle.[14] U.S. forces subsequently regained control of the police stations after running firefights with Mahdi rebels that killed 35 Mahdi Army militiamen. Mahdi Army members still maintained some influence over many of the slum areas of Sadr City, however. The fighting was not only in Sadr City, instead, it spread to other parts of Baghdad throughout the month. The highway linking Baghdad with the western province of Anbar was cut by the insurgents and resupplies for Marines in the province could only be delivered by helicopter.
The militants gained partial control of Karbala after fighting there. Other coalition forces came under attack: in Nasiriyah two Italian armored vehicles were destroyed, and British forces came under fire in Amarah and Basra. Muqtada al-Sadr militiamen took control of government, police and spiritual sites in Najaf, on April 6, 2004. The main coalition base there came under mortar fire.[15] Kut was seized on the next day after clashes with Ukrainian troops, mainly on the Tigris River bridge. On the same day, Karbala came under full Mahdi Army control.[16][17] Spanish troops killed seven al-Sadr insurgents in several ambushes in south-central Iraq the following week, before being ordered to withdraw by the new-elected Spanish government.[18]
By April 9, 2004, exactly a year to the day after the statue of Saddam Hussein was symbolically torn down, the US-led forces lost control of all the parts of Iraq that had been gained in the year since that event.[19] The same day, an American fuel convoy of the 13th Corps Support Command came under attack near the Baghdad International Airport. In what was described as a 5-mile long ambush, the 26-vehicle column was pummeled by gunfire, mortar rounds and RPGs, disabling many of the civilian fuel tankers and Army vehicles. A total of 12 people from the convoy were killed: 2 American soldiers, 7 American private truck drivers and 3 Iraqi truck drivers. One American soldier, PFC Keith Matthew Maupin, and an American truck driver, Thomas Hamill, were captured. Hamill managed to escape from his captors on May 2, 2004, while Maupin was executed and his remains recovered four years later.
After sporadic clashes, Coalition forces temporarily suppressed most militia activity in Nasiriyah, Amarah, and Basra. On April 16, Kut was retaken by US forces, and several dozen Mahdi Army members were killed in the battle. However, the area around Najaf and Kufa, as well as Karbala remained under the control of Sadr's forces. Sadr himself was believed to be in hiding in Najaf. Coalition troops put a cordon of 2,500 troops around Najaf, but reduced the number of forces to pursue negotiations with the Mahdi Army. At the beginning of May, coalition forces estimated that there were 200-500 militants still present in Karbala, 300–400 in Diwaniyah, an unknown number still left in Amarah and Basra, and 1,000-2,000 still holed up in the Najaf-Kufa region.
Operations in May[edit]
On May 4, following a breakdown in negotiations, coalition forces began a counter-offensive to eliminate the Mahdi Army in southern Iraq. The first wave began with simultaneous raids in Karbala and Diwaniyah on militia forces.
It was followed by a second wave on May 5 in Karbala, and more attacks which seized the governor's office in Najaf on May 6. Four U.S. soldiers and an estimated 86 militiamen were killed in the fighting. Several high-ranking militia commanders were also killed in a separate raid by US Army Special Operations units.
On May 8, U.S. forces launched a follow-up offensive into Karbala, launching a two-pronged attack into the city. U.S. tanks also launched an incursion into Sadr City. At the same time, perhaps as a diversionary tactic, hundreds of Mahdi Army insurgents swept through Basra, firing on British patrols and seizing parts of the city. Two militants were killed and several British troops were wounded.
On May 24, after suffering heavy losses in weeks of fighting, Mahdi Army forces withdrew from the city of Karbala. This left the Najaf-Kufa region the only area still under firm Mahdi control, though it was also under sustained American assault. Several hundred Mahdi Army rebels in total were killed in clashes with American forces. Unfazed by the fighting, Muqtada al-Sadr regularly gave Friday sermons in Kufa throughout the uprising.
On May 30, American forces withdrew from the interior of the city of Samarra, and encircled it. Insurgents took full control of the city. On the same day, insurgents also took control of Latifiya and Yusufiyah south of Baghdad, effectively cutting Highway One between Baghdad and Karbala, and the Americans responded by rerouting traffic onto Highway Eight to maintain contact with the south of the country.
Close of operations[edit]
On June 6, 2004, Muqtada al-Sadr issued an announcement directing the Mahdi Army to cease operations in Najaf and Kufa, but the fighting in the south continued until June 24, 2004. Coincidentally, just as the Shi'a and Sunni offensives started together on the same day, they ended on the same day. On the day that the fighting ceased in the south, a massive coordinated attack by insurgents was underway in the Sunni territories. In five cities - Ramadi, Baghdad, Mahmudiya, Baquba and Mosul - attacks were underway. In Baghdad a suicide bomber killed four Iraqi soldiers, but the attacks in Mosul were the bloodiest. Four suicide bombers killed fifty-six civilians, eight Iraqi policemen and two American soldiers. The most intense fighting was in Baquba, where, with precise and strategic attack, the insurgents attacked and took control of the main police station and city hall, and burned down the home of the police chief. American and Iraqi troops withdrew from the city, but after a few hours American bomber planes hit insurgent positions in the city at city hall, the police station and at the football stadium. After the air strikes, the American forces entered the city without resistance. Twenty-one members of the Iraqi security forces, two American soldiers and thirteen civilians were killed during the street fighting in Baquba. The only gain by the insurgents on this day was in Ramadi, where insurgent forces managed to take control and laid siege to Marine bunker positions. The city was under insurgent control by the end of the day. Some additional fighting was also reported around Fallujah, where nine civilians were said to have been killed. During the insurgent offensive on June 24, 2004, one hundred twenty-nine Iraqis and four American soldiers were killed. The number of insurgent casualties is unknown.[22]
Aftermath[edit]
The United States estimated that around 1,342 Sunni and Shi'a fighters were killed, and approximately 430 insurgents were captured. The USA, Iraq, and other allied forces suffered 383 killed. Approximately 2,500 American soldiers were wounded during this period. The results were indecisive. Most of Al-Anbar province (including Ramadi and Fallujah) as well as some Sunni territory north and south of Baghdad, including Samarra, were effectively left under insurgent control. The United States forces managed to maintain control of Baghdad and other major cities in the Shi'a south as well as some in the north. Another uprising of the Mahdi Army occurred a month and a half later, and a bloodier battle for the city of Najaf unfolded. Also in November the Second Battle of Fallujah occurred, when US forces carried out Operation Phantom Fury, which left ninety-five percent of the city in ruins. Four days after the end of the Spring Fighting on June 28, 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority transferred control to a new Iraqi government. With this, the occupation was officially over, but coalition forces remained in large numbers in the country. On the day that the transfer of authority occurred, three American Marines were killed in Baghdad and one British soldier was killed in Basra.