← 2003 2002 2001 2004 in Iraq → 2005 2006 2007
Decades:	1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
See also:	Other events of 2004 List of years in Iraq

Events in the year2004 inIraq.

• Head of State -
  1. Government Administrator –L. Paul Bremer III (until June 28)
  2. President –Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (from June 28)
  3. Vice President –Ibrahim al-Jaafari (from June 1)
  4. Vice President –Rowsch Shaways (from June 1)
• Head of Government -
  1. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Adnan Pachachi (January 1 – January 31)
  2. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Mohsen Abdel Hamid (February 1 – February 29)
  3. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum (March 1 – March 31)
  4. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Massoud Barzani (April 1 – April 30)
  5. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Ezzedine Salim (May 1 – May 17)
  6. President of the Governing Council of Iraq –Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer (May 17 – May 28)
  7. Prime Minister of Iraq –Ayad Allawi, (from May 28)

• January 10 – Protests in the city ofAmarah because of an unemployment crisis. Police officers and soldiers open fire on demonstrators.
• January 15 – TheUnited Nations call direct elections in advance of July impractical, due to continuing disorder and other factors.
• January 18 – Asuicide bomber detonates apickup truck packed with 1,000 pounds ofexplosives outside the headquarters of the US led coalition killing about 20 people and injuring more than 60 – most of themIraqis.

• February 1 – During the Muslimeid,two suicide bombers kill 117 and wound 235 at twoKurdish buildings in the northern Iraqi city ofErbil. The bombers targeted the two offices for Iraq's main secular Kurdish parties packed with well-wishers. Sunni militant group Ansar al-Sunna claimed the attack.
• February 3 – TheCIA admits that there was no imminent threat fromweapons of mass destruction before the2003 invasion of Iraq.
• February 7 – The Prince of Wales (nowCharles III) begins a tour of theMiddle East, visiting troops inIraq.
• February 10 – At least 50 people killed in a car bomb attack on a police recruitment centre south ofBaghdad.
• February 11 – Up to 47 people killed in a car bomb attack on an army recruiting centre inBaghdad.
• February 21 – The U.S. permits theRed Cross to visitSaddam Hussein for first time since his capture in December.

• March 2 – In theAshoura Massacre almost 200 are killed in a series of bomb blasts inBaghdad andKarbala at the climax of theShi'a festival ofAashurah. A combination of suicide bombers and mortars hit large Shi'ite crowds mourning outside revered shrines in Kerbala and Baghdad's Kadhimiya shrine.
• March 8
  • The governing council unanimously approves the country's new interim constitution
  • Abu Abbas dies inU.S. custody from natural causes.
• March 31 – FourAmerican defense contractors are attacked and killed inFallujah and their burned bodies are hung openly from a bridge.^[1]

• U.S. GeneralTommy Franks reportedly estimated soon after the invasion that there had been 30,000 Iraqi casualties as of April 9, 2003.^[2] After this initial estimate he made no further public estimates.
• April 2 – Al Sadr gives a heated sermon, which leads to the uprising of the Mahdi army.
• April 3 – Polish-Bulgariandefense of Karbala's City Hall starts.
• April 4 –Operation Vigilant Resolve begins in response to the mutilation on March 31 inFallujah.^[1] U.S. coalition forces face tough opposition as the resistance uses Soviet-styledefense in depth tactics.
• April 5 – U.S. forces seal offFallujah
• April 6 – Defense of Karbala's City Hall ends with victory of Polish-Bulgarian troops
• April 7
  • U.S. forces fired upon amosque compound inFallujah. Officials claim that it was being used by insurgents to fireRPGs andmortars.Fox
  • After three days of fighting, the U.S. forces are only able to secure 15% ofFallujah inOperation Vigilant Resolve.
  • ar Ramadi is returned to the control of theIraqi Police Services andIraqi Civil Defense Corps.
• April 8 – The Mahdi army has taken full control in Kut and partial control of Najaf, Karbala and Kufa.
• April 9 – A civilian fuel convoy operated by private contractorsHalliburton andKellogg, Brown and Root is ambushed en route to Baghdad International Airport. TheMahdi Army is believed to be responsible for the attack. 7 civilians and several US Army Soldiers were killed in the attack. One of the truck drivers and one Soldier are still missing.
• April 10 – The U.S. forces declare a unilateral cease fire inFallujah. Although the U.S. forces fight when provoked, they do not move to take more area.
• April 16 – Kut is retaken by coalition forces, but Najaf, Karabla and Kufa remain under control by Al Sadr.
• April 20 – 12 mortar rounds were fired on Abu Ghraib Prison by insurgents. 22 detainees were killed and 92 wounded.[1]
• April 21 – At least 73 people were killed, including 17 children, along with 94 wounded in Iraq in suicide attacks on police stations inBasra andAz Zubayr.
• April 26 – TheIraq Interim Governing Council announced a newflag for post-Saddam Iraq. The flag is later abandoned among sentiments that it looks too much likeIsrael's flag.

• 

  April 28 – The program60 Minutes II, airing on the CBS channel, revels shocking and gruesome images of prisoners atAbu Ghraib prison in Iraq being abused and tortured at the hands of American soldiers.^[3]
• April 29
  • TheU.S. Marines announce it will pull out ofFallujah over a two- or three-week period and hand over control to the Iraqi army.
  • At least 600 civilians have been killed during the American attack onFalluja
  • 8 U.S. soldiers are killed and 4 wounded in a car bomb attack nearMahmudiyah, south ofBaghdad.

• May 17 – A suicide car bomb in Baghdad kills the head of Iraq's Governing Council Abdul-Zahra Othman Mohammad, a prominent Shi'ite politician from Basra also known as Izzedin Salim. More than a dozen others were also killed in the blast at the gates of the fortifiedGreen Zone in Baghdad.
• May 28 –Iyad Allawi is chosen as the prime minister for the interim Iraqi government. The handover is scheduled to take place on June 30.

• June 28 – Two days ahead of schedule, control and sovereignty ofIraq is handed over from theUnited States to an interim Iraqi government. Allawi becomes the prime minister, andPaul Bremer leaves the country. A slightly modified form of theflag is used.

• July 1 –Saddam Hussein goes on trial forwar crimes,arraigned before an Iraqi judge on seven preliminary charges.
• July 12 – At a press conference, Prime Minister Allawi announces the creation of theGeneral Security Directorate, a domestic intelligence agency.
• July 19 - FOB Chosin mortar attack, casualties listed in Stars and Stripes.

• August 5 – Marines from 1st Battalion 4th Marines begin battle in Najaf, Iraq. A new flag is created for the country.
• August 8 – United States Marine Jonathan Collins of Crystal Lake, Illinois was KIA in Al Ramadi, located in the Al Anbar Province.^{[citation needed]}

• September 12 - The Haifa Streethelicopter incident or theHaifa Street massacre was a controversial event inBaghdad,Iraq, on September 12, 2004. The fighting started before dawn on Haifa Street, whereinsurgents detonated two car bombs and attacked American troops with heavy gunfire. An AmericanBradley armored fighting vehicle was mobilized to support US troops, but it was struck by a car bomb around 6:30 a.m., wounding four American soldiers.

At around 8:00 a.m., an American helicopter fired two missiles and machine guns at the burningtank, killing 13 people and injuring about 60 others.

• September 14 – A car bomb near a crowded market and police station in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad kills at least 47 people and wounds 114.
• September 30 – Insurgents detonate three car bombs killing 41 people (34 of them children) in the Shi'ite Amil area of southern Baghdad. The blasts, which wounded 139, occurred shortly after U.S. troops had celebrated opening a new sewage system and distributed sweets to children.

• October 1 – An early morning coordinated invasion ofSamarra by 3,000 US troops and 2,000 Iraqi troops begins. Iraqis take two religious sites by force. Americans claim to have killed as many as 125 insurgents.
• October 5 - An American soldier is killed after driving over a landmine inLatifiyah.
• October 9 –Major-GeneralTim Cross is appointed the new General Officer Commanding, Theatre Troops, commanding all British forces deployed in the country.
• October 10 –Tawhid and Jihad claims responsibility for two car bombs in Baghdad, killing at least 11 people including an American soldier, and wounding at least 16.
• October 12 –Army of Ansar al-Sunna claims to have beheaded Alaa al-Maliki. They claim he was a spy for theUnited States andMuqtada Al Sadr.
• October 12 –Germany's defense minister,Peter Struck, indicated that Germany might deploy troops in Iraq if conditions there change. This gesture appears to provide backing forJohn Kerry, the US Democratic presidential challenger.
• October 13 -
  • A suicide attack and roadside bombings kills six American soldiers.
  • Brigades of Abu Bakr Al-Sidiq, believed to be linked toal-Zarqawi, release a video via internet showing the beheading of two Iraqis: Fadhel Ibrahim and Firas Imeil, believed to be members of the Iraqi National Intelligence.
  • In arefusal of orders, American Army reservists participating in the Iraq War refused an order to drive a convoy of fuel tankers lacking armour plates through Baghdad on a "suicide mission".
• September 28 -
  • U.S. troops swept into the Sunni stronghold ofRamadi and joined Iraqi police and National Guardsmen in raids inBaqouba.
  • Investigators uncovered more than 100 bodies in a mass grave near the northern Iraqi village ofHatra. The bodies were believed to beKurds killed during Saddam's crackdown in 1987–1988. The bodies includes those of small children and their mothers with bulletholes in their skulls.[2]
• October 14 -
  • Twosuicide bombers penetrate the highly guarded green zone inBaghdad and detonate bombs in their backpacks. 5 are killed, 4 of them Americans. 20 others are wounded.Tawhid and Jihad, a group connected toal-Zarqawi, claim responsibility. The bombers are reportedlyJordanians. This is the first successful attack in the green zone.AP
  • Ansar al-Sannah Army posts a video showing the beheading of a Turkish driver.AP
  • TheU.S. responds to the suspension of talks with more air, artillery, and ground attacks.AP
• October 15 – Aplatoon in the 343rd Quartermaster Company refuses orders to convoy supplies from Tallil, Iraq to Taji, Iraq, citing safety concerns. They claim that their vehicles were unsafe and that the convoy isn't adequately protected. The Army launches an investigation.AP
• October 25 – Nearly 380tons of conventional high-explosives are found missing from anIraqi site formerly used bySaddam Hussein for his dismantled atom bomb program, that was never secured by theUnited States Army. It is reported byMSNBC that the site was looted in April 2003, before coalition troops reached the area. US troops reported at the time that the explosives were missing.MSNBC

• November 7 – TheUnited States Marine Corps and the United States Army (1st Infantry Division) launched the bloodiest offensive of the Iraq War on November 7, 2004,Operation Phantom Fury against the insurgency in the city ofFallujah.
• November 10 – TheBattle of Mosul (2004) officially begins even though intense fighting had already spread throughout the streets and city days before.

• December 19 – A suicide car bomb blast in Najaf, 300 metres from theImam Ali shrine, near crowds of people, kills 52 and wounds at least 140. On the same day, a car bomb exploded in Kerbala, killing 14 and injuring at least 52.
• December 21 a huge explosion rocked a US-base in the northern city ofMosul killing 22 people (14 U.S. soldiers, 4 U.S. contractors and 4 Iraqi National guards) and wounding more than 70 people. At first, there were reports of a rocket attack but later it was said to be a suicide bomber. The Ansar al-Sunnah army in Iraq claimed responsibility. It was the deadliest single-attack on Americans (soldiers and civilians) inIraq since the war ended on May 1, 2003.
• December 21, the French hostages Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot were released, after having been taken hostage in August.
• December 27 – A suicide car bomber kills at least 13 people outside the offices of theSupreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), one of the largest Shi'ite parties in Iraq in the upscale Jadiriya area of Baghdad. Its leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim said it was a failed attempt on his life and blamed the bombing on Sunni militants.

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(October 2010)

• January 24 –Abdul Rahman Munif, author
• February 28 –Andres Nuiamäe, 21, firstEstonian soldier to be killed inIraq
• March 8 –Abu Abbas, terrorist
• May 7 –Waldemar Milewicz, 48, Polish journalist, and Mounyra Beouamrane, killed inIraq
• May 8 – (body found)Nick Berg, 26, American civilian killed inIraq
• May 17 –Ezzedine Salim, 60?, president of theIraqi Governing Council
• May 18 –Joseph "SSG G" Garyantes, 34,U.S. ArmyStaff Sergeant,M1 Abrams Tank Commander killed by sniper fire while on Combat Patrol inMuqdadiyah,Diyala GovernorateIraq.
• June 22 –Kim Sun-il, 33,South Korean translator,decapitated by Iraqi militants
• June 28 –Keith Matthew Maupin, 20,U.S. ArmyPrivate First Class, killed by Islamist militants inIraq
• August 26 –Enzo G. Baldoni, 56, Italianjournalist,murdered inIraq
• September 20 –Eugene Armstrong, 52, American civilian contractor, beheaded by Muslimterrorists inIraq.
• September 21 –Jack Hensley, 48, American civilian contractor, beheaded byMuslim terrorists inIraq.^[4]
• October 7 –Ken Bigley, 62, British hostage inIraq, executed by hostage takers
• October 28 –Shosei Koda, 24, Japanese backpacker, beheaded by his captors inIraq
• November 16 –Margaret Hassan, 59, British-born Iraqi chief of thehumanitarian relief organizationCARE International, killed by hostage takers inIraq (unconfirmed, but presumed dead)

• Iraq War

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