List of wars involving Iraq explained

This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states.

Conflict	Combatant 1	Combatant 2	Results	Iraqi losses		Head of State	Prime Minister
				Military	Civilians
Mesopotamian Campaign (1914–1918 WWI)	Ottoman Empire Ottoman Iraq German Empire	United Kingdom Kuwait Australia New Zealand	Defeat Ottoman Iraq comes under British rule as Mandatory Iraq	~89,500	~35,500	Mehmed VI (Ottoman rule)	Ahmet Tevfik Pasha (Ottoman rule)
Mahmud Barzanji Revolts (1919–1924)	United Kingdom Mandatory Iraq	Kingdom of Kurdistan Kurdish Tribesmen	Government victory Revolt suppressed Kingdom of Kurdistan abolished	?	?	Before 1920: Sir Percy Cox (British High Commissioner) After 1920: King Faisal I	Before 1920: Sir Percy Cox (British High Commissioner) After 1920: Abd Al-Rahman Al-Gillani
Iraqi War of Independence (1920)	Iraqi Rebels	United Kingdom Mandatory Iraq	Iraqi Political Victory Faisal Ibn Husain installed as King	6,000 - 10,000	2,050 - 4,000	None
Ikhwan revolt (1927-1930)	United Kingdom Mandatory Iraq	Ikhwan	Coalition Victory	2,000 killed in total		Faisal I of Iraq	Faisal bin Sultan
Yazidi Revolt (1935)	Kingdom of Iraq	Yazidi Tribesmen	Government victory Uprising Quelled	?	?	Ghazi of Iraq	Ali Jawdat al-Aiyubi
Iraqi Shia Revolts (1935 - 1936)	Kingdom of Iraq	Shia Tribesmen	Government victory Uprising Quelled	~500
Iraqi Coup D'état (1941)	Kingdom of Iraq	Golden Square Rebels	Golden Square Victory Overthrow of government of Abd al-Ilah and the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq.	?		Faisal II of Iraq	Taha al-Hashimi
Anglo-Iraqi War (1941 WWII)	Kingdom of Iraq (Golden Square)	United Kingdom Iraq Levies Royalists Transjordan Australia New Zealand Greece	Defeat Re-installation of Hashemite royal dynasty and pro-British government	~500	?	Sherif Sharaf	Rashid Ali al-Gaylani
Barzani Revolt (1943 - 1945)	Kingdom of Iraq	Barzani Kurds	Government victory Uprising quelled	?		Faisal II of Iraq	Nuri al-Said
Al-Wathbah Uprising (1948)	Kingdom of Iraq	Communists	Government victory Uprising quelled	300–400			Mohammad Hassan al-Sadr
First Arab–Israeli War (1948 - 1949)	Egypt Kingdom of Iraq Transjordan Syria Lebanon Saudi Arabia HWA ALA	Israel	Defeat Arab League invasion of former Mandatory Palestine repelled 1949 Armistice Agreements	?	None		Muzahim al-Pachachi
14 July Revolution (1958)	Hashemite Arab Federation Kingdom of Iraq Support: Hashemite Arab Federation Kingdom of Jordan Jordanian annexed West Bank	Free Officers	Free Officers Victory The Iraqi Monarchy is overthrown. The Hashemite dynasty in Iraq ends. Death of Faisal II and his family Execution of Crown Prince Abd al-llah and Prime Minister Nuri al-Said.	~100			Nuri al-Said
Mosul Uprising (1959)	Iraqi Republic	Arab Nationalists	Government victory Iraq remains outside the United Arab Republic.	2,426		Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i	Abd al-Karim Qasim
First Iraqi–Kurdish War (1961 - 1970)	Iraqi Republic Syria → Syria	KDP	Stalemate Iraqi-Kurdish Autonomy Agreement	~10,000	?
Ramadan Revolution (1963)	Iraqi Republic	Arab Nationalists Ba'ath Party	Ba'athist Victory Overthrow of Abd al-Karim Qasim Establishment of Ba'athist Government	100
Ar-Rashid Revolt (1963)	Iraqi Republic	Communists	Government victory Revolt suppressed	1+		Abdul Salam Arif	Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
November coup d'état (1963)	Iraqi Republic	Nasserists	Nasserist victory Overthrow of Ba'ath Party government Establishment of Pro-Nasserist government of the Arab Socialist Union	250
Six-Day War (1967)	United Arab Republic Jordan Iraqi Republic Lebanon	Israel	Defeat Israel captured the Gaza Strip, Sinai, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights	10	None	Abdul Rahman Arif	Abdul Rahman Arif
October War (1973)	Ba'athist Iraq Jordan Morocco	Israel	Defeat^[1] Invasion of Israeli-held territories repelled Agreement on Disengagement and Egypt–Israel peace treaty^[2]	278	None	Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr	Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
Second Iraqi–Kurdish War (1974 - 1975)	Ba'athist Iraq	KDP	Government victory^[3] Iraq re-established control over Kurdistan	7,000	?
Arvand Conflict (1974–1975)	Iraq	Iran	Defeat 1975 Algiers Agreement Iran consolidates control over the Shatt al-Arab/Arvand Rud waterway Tensions between Iran and Iraq over the disputed waterway and border escalate into a full-scale war in 1980			Saddam Hussein	Saddam Hussein
Iran–Iraq War (1980 - 1988)	MEK DRFLA	KDP PUK Badr Brigades	Stalemate Both Iraq and Iran accepted UNSC Resolution 598	105,000 375,000	~100,000
Invasion of Kuwait (1990)			Victory Iraqi-backed puppet state known as the Republic of Kuwait installed Puppet state Republic of Kuwait later annexed as Iraq's 19th province Beginning of the Gulf War	295+	None
Gulf War (1990 - 1991)	→	United States	Defeat Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait; Emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah restored Heavy casualties and destruction of Iraqi and Kuwaiti infrastructure	20,000 - 35,000	3,664
1991 Iraqi uprisings (1991)	MEK	Badr Brigades Dawa	Government victory (Southern Front) Uprising suppressed	~5,000	80,000 - 230,000
		KDP PUK	Government Military Victory (Northern Front) Kurdish Autonomous Republic established
Iraqi Kurdish Civil War (1995 - 1996)	KDP KDPI	PUK United States	Stalemate Iraqi withdrawal from Iraqi Kurdistan	?
Bombing of Iraq (1998)		United States	Defeat Much Iraqi military infrastructure destroyed	1,400^[4] (KIA or WIA)	?
Second Sadr Uprising (1999)		Badr Brigades Dawa	Government victory Uprising suppressed	40+	200+^[5]
Iraq War (2003 - 2011)		United States United Kingdom Australia Poland Peshmerga	Defeat (Phase 1) Overthrow of Ba'ath Party-led regime (and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006)	7,600 - 10,800	151,000–1,033,000+
	→ Iraq Peshmerga MNF - I United States United Kingdom Italy Poland Australia Georgia Ukraine Netherlands Spain Romania Bulgaria Denmark Thailand El Salvador Honduras Nicaragua Dominican Republic Albania	SCJL Naqshbandi Army Free Iraqi Army al-Qaeda ISI Ansar al-Islam IAI Mahdi Army Badr Brigades Kata'ib Hezbollah	Government victory (Phase 2) Re-establishment of democratic elections U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement Escalation of sectarian insurgency (leading to the rise of ISIL and re-escalation of war beginning in 2013)	17,690		Jalal Talabani	Nouri al-Maliki
Second Iraqi Civil War (2013 - 2017)	Iraq Peshmerga Sinjar Alliance CJTF–OIR United States Canada United Kingdom France Germany Australia Belgium Netherlands Denmark Turkey Jordan Morocco Hezbollah	ISIL Ansar al-Islam SCJL Naqshbandi Army Mujahideen Army	Government victory Iraqi territorial integrity preserved ISIL expelled from all strongholds in Iraq^[6] ISIL genocides against Yazidis, Shias, and Christians in 2014	25,000+	67,000+	Fuad Masum	Haider al-Abadi
2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict (2017)	Iraq	Peshmerga	Victory Iraq defeats Peshmerga and retakes disputed territories	None	None
Iraqi Insurgency (2017–present)	Iraq	Naqshbandi Army ISIL	Ongoing	2,254+	None
Iraqi intervention in the Syrian Civil War (2017–2019)	Iraq	ISIL	Victory ISIL loses remaining territory in Syria	None	None	Barham Salih	Adil Abdul-Mahdi

Other armed conflicts involving Iraq

• Wars during Mandatory Iraq
  • Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921
• Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery conflicts
  • Simele massacre 1933
  • Joint Operation Arvand 1969, Iranian show of force that Iraq did not resist
  • Kurdish rebellion of 1983 (part of Iran–Iraq War)
  • Iraqi no-fly zones conflict, 1991–2003
  • Kurdistan Islamist conflict, 2001–2004 (fought on Iraqi territory, but with no Iraqi involvement)

Notes and References

1. References:
   • Herzog, The War of Atonement, Little, Brown and Company, 1975. Forward
   • Insight Team of the London Sunday Times, Yom Kippur War, Doubleday and Company, 1974, page 450
   • Luttwak and Horowitz, The Israeli Army. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Abt Books, 1983
   • Rabinovich, The Yom Kippur War, Schocken Books, 2004. Page 498
   • Revisiting The Yom Kippur War, P. R. Kumaraswamy, pages 1–2
   • Johnson and Tierney, Failing To Win, Perception of Victory and Defeat in International Politics. Page 177
   • Charles Liebman, "The Myth of Defeat: The Memory of the Yom Kippur war in Israeli Society" Middle Eastern Studies, Vol 29, No. 3, July 1993. Published by Frank Cass, London. Page 411.
2. News: How We Used to Do It – American diplomacy in the . Loyola. Mario. 7 October 2013. National Review. 1. 2 December 2013.
3. J. Schofield, Militarization and War, p. 122
4. Rossiter, Mike, Target Basra, Corgi, 2009, p. 210
5. News: Sadr the agitator: like father, like son . Dan Murphy . The Christian Science Monitor . 27 April 2004 . 1 February 2013.
6. News: With Iraqi-Kurdish Talks Stalled, Phone Diplomacy Averts New Clashes. New York Times.