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List of bombings during the Iraq War
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Bombings were a regular occurrence during the Iraq War. They resulted in tens of thousands of casualties throughout the country, killing and wounding civilians and combatants alike. Many Iraqi insurgents favoured the tactic of suicide bombing, which was used at a particularly unprecedented scale against the American-led Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF–I).[1] Additionally, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom collectively dropped 29,199 bombs on the country.[2] This article does not list these aerial attacks, and instead concentrates on the smaller number of direct insurgent bombings during the sectarian conflict, when Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims fought each other on the one hand and the MNF–I on the other hand.
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Insurgency
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Most of the organized bombings were carried out by Sunni insurgents affiliated with Jama'at al-Tawhid wal Jihad, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jama'at Ansar al-Sunna, and the Islamic State of Iraq, among others. The main targets of these bombings were MNF–I troops and private military contractors, as well as local Iraqi collaborators. Upon the outbreak of the Iraqi civil war in 2006, the various Sunni and Shia militant groups fighting in the country had effectively shifted their focus away from the MNF–I and began increasingly targeting Iraqi civilians on the basis of their sectarian affiliation.
A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch analyzed the Iraqi insurgency and highlighted: "The groups that are most responsible for the abuse, namely al-Qaeda in Iraq and its allies, Ansar al-Sunna and the Islamic State of Iraq, have all targeted civilians for abductions and executions. The first two groups have repeatedly boasted about massive car bombs and suicide bombs in mosques, markets, bus stations and other civilian areas. Such acts are war crimes and in some cases may constitute crimes against humanity, which are defined as serious crimes committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population."[3]
A 2008 research brief by the RAND Corporation on the subject of counter-insurgency tactics in Iraq between 2003 and 2006[4] depicts a chart that shows that in June and July 2004, Iraqi insurgents began to shift their focus away from attacking coalition forces with roadside bombs and instead began targeting the Iraqi population with suicide bombers and vehicle-borne IEDs. By increasing the number of suicide bombings against civilians and accepting their targeting in retribution, the insurgents sought to expose the weakness of the coalition's and Iraqi government's security and reconstruction apparatus, threaten those who collaborated with the government, generate funds and propaganda, and increasingly enact sectarian revenge. The U.S. failure to adapt to this shift had dramatic consequences. By June 2004, U.S. deaths represented less than 10% of overall deaths on the battlefield and Iraqi deaths represented more than 90%—a figure that remained constant for the next 18 months of the war.
An analysis by Iraq Body Count and co-authors published in 2011 concluded that at least 12,284 civilians were killed in at least 1,003 suicide bombings in Iraq between 2003 and 2010. The study states that suicide bombings killed 60 times as many civilians as they did soldiers.[5][6]
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Bombings by the invasion forces
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This article does not list airstrikes and other bombings by the USA and allied invasion forces. According to the USAF (Operation Iraqi Freedom–By The Numbers, April 30, 2003), as analysed by Human Rights Watch, the first phase of the military campaign included 41,404 sorties by 1,801 aircraft dropping over 29,000 munitions and 247,000 submunitions (from cluster bombs) in the three weeks between March 20 and April 9, 2003.[2][7]
Designation | Name or Nickname | Type | Number |
BGM-109 | Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) | Cruise Missile | 802 |
AGM-114 | Hellfire | Laser-Guided Missile | 562 |
AGM-130 | Television- or Infrared-Guided Missile | 4 | |
AGM-65 | Maverick | Television-, Infrared-, or Laser-Guided Missile | 918 |
AGM-84 | Stand Off Land Attack Missile-Extended Response (SLAM(ER)) | Cruise Missile | 3 |
AGM-86C/D | Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) | Cruise Missile | 153 |
AGM-88 | High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) | Anti-Radar Missile | 408 |
AGM-154 | Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) | GPS/Inertial Navigation System-Guided Glide Missile | 253 |
EGBU-27 | Penetrator | Laser- and GPS-Guided Missile (2,000 lb) | 98 |
GBU-10 | Paveway II | Laser-Guided Bomb (2,000 lb) | 236 |
GBU-12 | Paveway II | Laser-Guided Bomb (500 lb) | 7,114 |
GBU-16 | Paveway II | Laser-Guided Bomb (1,000 lb) | 1,233 |
GBU-24 | Paveway III | Laser-Guided Bomb (2,000 lb) | 23 |
GBU-27 | Penetrator | Laser-Guided Bomb (2,000 lb) | 11 |
GBU-28 | Bunker Buster | Laser-Guided Bomb (5,000 lb) | 1 |
GBU-31 | Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) | GPS-Guided Bomb (2,000 lb) | 5,086 |
GBU-32 | JDAM | GPS-Guided Bomb (1,000 lb) | 768 |
GBU-35 | JDAM | GPS-Guided Bomb (1,000 lb) | 675 |
GBU-37 | JDAM | GPS-Guided Bomb (5,000 lb) | 13 |
Various | U.K. Guided Munitions | 679 | |
Total | 19,040 |
Designation | Type | Number |
M117 | General Purpose Bomb (750 lb) | 1,625 |
Mk-82 | General Purpose Bomb (500 lb) | 5,504 |
Mk-83 | General Purpose Bomb (1,000 lb) | 1,692 |
Mk-84 | General Purpose Bomb (2,000 lb) | 6 |
Various | U.K. General Purpose Bombs | 58 |
Total | 8,885 |
Designation | Name | Guidance | Number | Submunitions per Weapon | Total Submunitions |
CBU-87 | Unguided | 118 | 202 | 23,836 | |
CBU-99 | Rockeye | Unguided | 182 | 247 | 44,954 |
CBU-103 | WCMD | 818 | 202 | 165,236 | |
CBU-105 | Sensor Fuzed Weapon | WCMD, Infrared | 88 | 40
(10 submunitions with 4 skeets) |
3,520 |
CBU-107 | Passive Attack Weapon System | WCMD | Non-explosive | ||
UK RBL-755 | Unguided | 70 | 147 | 10,290 | |
Total | 1,276 | 247,836 |
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Bombings by the insurgency
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This article lists bombings by the insurgency during the Iraq War, which took place between 2003 and 2011. For bombings that occurred following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, see: List of bombings during the Iraqi insurgency (2011–2013).
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