Firefighters clean up the site of a bomb attack in the mainly Shi'ite southern city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, June 13, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)
A wave of apparently coordinated bombings and shootings rocked Iraq on Wednesday during a major Shiite religious commemoration, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 250 others.
Here is a timeline of the deadliest attacks since US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq on December 18, 2011, after nine years in the country:
2011
DECEMBER
- 22: Coordinated rush hour attacks in Baghdad kill at least 60 people and wound 183, as violence elsewhere in Iraq claims another seven lives.
2012
JANUARY
- 5: Attacks against Shiite Muslims in Baghdad and the south kill 68 people and wound more than 100.
- 14: A suicide bomber targeting Shiite pilgrims on the outskirts of the southern port city of Basra kills 53 people and wounds more than 130.
- 27: A suicide bomber detonates an explosives-packed car at a funeral outside a Baghdad hospital, killing 31 people and wounding 60.
FEBRUARY
- 19: A suicide car bombing outside a Baghdad police academy kills 15 people and wounds 21.
- 23: A wave of attacks nationwide, blamed on Al-Qaeda, kills 42 people and wounds more than 250.
MARCH
- 5: Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen, some wearing police uniforms, rampage through the western city of Haditha in a pre-dawn shooting spree that leaves 27 policemen dead.
- 20: A wave of attacks in more than a dozen cities kills 50 people and wounds 255.
APRIL
- 19: At least 38 killed and more than 150 wounded in a wave of attacks nationwide.
MAY
- 31: Seventeen people killed and at least 57 wounded in a spate of bombings across Baghdad, while three others are shot dead in north Iraq.
JUNE
- 4: At least 25 people are killed in a suicide car bombing against the headquarters of the Shiite religious endowment in Baghdad.
- 13: A wave of apparently coordinated bombings and shootings rock Iraq during a major Shiite religious commemoration, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 250, many of them pilgrims.
Short link: