War in Iraq (2013–2017)
The war in Iraq was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State. Following December 2013, the insurgency escalated into full-scale guerrilla warfare following clashes in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in parts of western Iraq, and culminated in the Islamic State offensive into Iraq in June 2014, which lead to the capture of the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and other cities in western and northern Iraq by the Islamic State. Between 4–9 June 2014, the city of Mosul was attacked and later fell; following this, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a national state of emergency on 10 June. However, despite the security crisis, Iraq's parliament did not allow Maliki to declare a state of emergency; many legislators boycotted the session because they opposed expanding the prime minister's powers.[60] Ali Ghaidan, a former military commander in Mosul, accused al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul.[61] At its height, ISIL held 56,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory, containing 4.5 million citizens.[62]
For the war that lasted from 2003 to 2011 following the U.S. invasion, see Iraq War. For other wars in Iraq, see Iraq War (disambiguation).The war resulted in the forced resignation of al-Maliki in 2014, as well as an airstrike campaign by the United States and a dozen other countries in support of the Iraqi military,[63] participation of American and Canadian troops (predominantly special forces) in ground combat operations,[64][65] a $3.5 billion U.S.-led program to rearm the Iraqi security forces,[66] a U.S.-led training program that provided training to nearly 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and police,[67] the participation of the military of Iran, including troops as well as armored and air elements,[68] and military and logistical aid provided to Iraq by Russia.[63] On 9 December 2017, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced victory over the Islamic State.[69][70][71][72] The Islamic State switched to guerrilla "hit and run" tactics in an effort to undermine the Iraqi government's effort to eradicate it.[73][74][75] This conflict is interpreted by some in Iraq as a spillover of the Syrian Civil War. Other Iraqis and observers see it mainly as a culmination of long-running local sectarianism, exacerbated by the 2003–2011 Iraq War, the subsequent increase in anti-Sunni sectarianism under Prime Minister al-Maliki, and the ensuing bloody crack-down on the 2012–2013 Iraqi protests.[76]
Human rights[edit]
Nearly 19,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in ISIL-linked violence between January 2014 and October 2015.[210] ISIL executed up to 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets from Camp Speicher near Tikrit on 12 June 2014.[211] The genocide of Yazidis by ISIL has led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidi people from their ancestral lands in northern Iraq.[212]
According to Newsweek, Amnesty International claimed that "Iraqi government forces and paramilitary militias have tortured, arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and executed thousands of civilians who have fled the rule of the Islamic State militant group".[213] The report, titled Punished for Daesh's crimes', alleges that thousands of Sunni men and boys have been forcibly disappeared by Iraqi government forces and militias.[214]
