War in Iraq (2013–2017) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids War in Iraq (2013–2017)
Part of the Iraqi conflict, the war on terror, spillover of the Syrian civil war and the war against the Islamic State
Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) Humvee on the street of Mosul, Northern Iraq, 16 November 2016 during the Battle of Mosul
Date 30 December 2013 – 9 December 2017 (3 years, 11 months, 1 week and 2 days) Location Iraq Result Iraqi and allied victory
Main belligerents
Iraq Government Iraqi Armed Forces Iraqi Ground Forces Iraqi Air Force CTS-ISOF Popular Mobilization Forces Assyrian Forces (Iraqi command) Allied groups:  Iraqi Turkmen Front Iraqi Communist Party Various self-defense groups  Iran  Hezbollah  Syria Kurdistan Region Peshmerga CTG Kurdistan Parastin u Zanyari Assyrian Forces (Kurdish command) Kurdish National Council Sinjar Alliance PKK  Rojava CJTF–OIR  United States  United Kingdom  Canada  Australia  France  Italy  Netherlands  Finland  Denmark	Islamic State Naqshbandi Army (2013–15)
Commanders and leaders
Haider al-Abadi Nouri al-Maliki Massoud Barzani	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Units involved
See order	See order
Strength
Iraqi security forces 600,000 (300,000 Army and 300,000 Police) Popular Mobilization Forces: 60,000–90,000 Badr Brigade: 10,000 Turkmen Brigades: 30,000 Awakening Council militias: 30,000 Contractors: 7,000 Peshmerga: 200,000 US Forces: 5,000 Canadian Forces: 600 French Forces: 500 Italian Forces: 500 British Forces: 500	Islamic State: 100,000–200,000 fighters
Casualties and losses
Iraqi security forces and militias: 19,000+ killed and 29,000+ wounded Peshmerga fighters: 1,837 killed 10,546 wounded 62 missing or captured Kurdistan Workers' Party: 180 killed (2014–Jan. 2016) IRGC: 43 killed Liwa Zainebiyoun: 3 killed CJTF–OIR: 57 killed (44 non-hostile), 58 wounded 1 killed (non-hostile) 1 killed (friendly fire) 1 killed 1 killed (non-hostile) Total: 21,124 dead and 39,546 wounded	Islamic State 129,000+ killed
67,376 civilians killed (Iraq body count figures) 5,625,024 displaced (IOM Iraq figures) Total killed: 217,500+

The War in Iraq (2013–2017) was an armed conflict between Iraq and its allies and the Islamic State.

Belligerents

The Iraqi Armed Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga and various Turkmen Muslim, Assyrian Christian, Yezidi, Shabaki, and Armenian Christian forces faced the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Although some 35,000 Kurdish Peshmerga were incorporated into the Iraqi Armed Forces, most Peshmerga forces operated under the command of the President of Iraqi Kurdistan in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq. Assyrian forces included: Nineveh Plain Protection Units, Nineveh Plain Forces, Babylon Brigades, Kataib Rouh Allah Issa Ibn Miriam, Qaraqosh Protection Committee and Dwekh Nawsha.

Overview

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. 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. At its height, ISIL held 56,000 square kilometers of Iraqi territory, containing 4.5 million citizens.

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, participation of American and Canadian troops (predominantly special forces) in ground combat operations, a $3.5 billion U.S.-led program to rearm the Iraqi security forces, a U.S.-led training program that provided training to nearly 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and police, the participation of the military of Iran, including troops as well as armored and air elements, and military and logistical aid provided to Iraq by Russia. On 9 December 2017, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced victory over the Islamic State. The Islamic State switched to guerrilla "hit and run" tactics in an effort to undermine the Iraqi government's effort to eradicate it. 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.

Human rights

Nearly 19,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq in ISIL-linked violence between January 2014 and October 2015. ISIL executed up to 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets from Camp Speicher near Tikrit on 12 June 2014. 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.

Images for kids

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  Iraqi army tank, south of Kirkuk, in June 2014

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  ISIL territory (red) in Iraq and Syria by mid-2014

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  Captured ISIL militant is guarded by PMF fighters after counter-insurgency operations in Saladin Governorate, April 2015

See also