Iraq War
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Tensions with Turkey
Border incursions by PKK militants based in Iraqi Kurdistan have continued to harass Turkish forces, with casualties on both sides increasing tensions between Turkey, a NATO ally, and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkish aircraft on an attack mission during the December 2007 bombing of northern Iraq. In the fall of 2007, the Turkish military stated their right to cross the Iraqi Kurdistan border in hot pursuit of PKK militants and began shelling Kurdish villages in Iraq and attacking PKK bases in the Mount Cudi region with aircraft. The Turkish parliament approved a resolution permitting the military to pursue the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan. In November, Turkish gunships attacked parts of northern Iraq in the first such attack by Turkish aircraft since the border tensions escalated. Another series of attacks in mid-December hit PKK targets in the Qandil, Zap, Avashin and Hakurk regions. The latest series of attacks involved at least 50 aircraft and artillery and Kurdish officials reported one civilian killed and two wounded.

Additionally, weapons that were originally given to Iraqi security forces by the American military are being recovered by authorities in Turkey after being used in violent crimes in that country.

Private security firm controversy
Blackwater Baghdad shootings
On September 17, 2007, the Iraqi government announced that it was revoking the license of the American security firm Blackwater USA over the firms involvement in the deaths of eight civilians, including a woman and an infant, in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade. Additional investigations of alleged arms smuggling involving the firm was also under way. Blackwater is currently one of the most high-profile firms operating in Iraq, with around 1,000 employees as well as a fleet of helicopters in the country. Whether the group may be legally prosecuted is still a matter of debate.

2008
Further information: 2008 in Iraq
In early January, the Maliki government began consideration of a new law to politically rehabilitate former Baath Party members.

On January 8 Operation Phantom Phoenix began in an attempt to hunt down the remaining 200 al-Qaeda extremists in the province of Diyala following the end of the previous offensive. The operation also included targeting insurgent elements in Salah ad-Din province.

The ongoing conflict between Turkey and PKK which is listed as an international terrorist organization intensified on February 21, when Turkey launched a ground attack into the Quandeel Mountains of Northern Iraq. In the nine day long operation, around 10,000 Turkish troops advanced up to 25 km into Northern Iraq. This was the first substantial ground incursion by Turkish forces since 1995. Shortly after the incursion began, both the Iraqi cabinet and the Kurdistan regional government condemned Turkeys actions and called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from the region. Turkish troops withdrew on February 29.

United Nations
The United Nations has also deployed a small contingent to Iraq to protect UN staff and guard their compounds.

United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI)
Georgia: 550 blue-helmets
Fiji: 168 blue-helmets
Romania: 130 blue-helmets
Denmark: 35 blue-helmets
Canada: 1 blue-helmet

Armed Iraqi groups
Further information: History of Iraqi insurgency, Sectarian violence in Iraq, and Iraqi coalition counter-insurgency operations
The Iraqi insurgency is the armed resistance, by diverse groups, including private militias, within Iraq opposed to the US occupation and the U.S.-supported Iraqi government. The fighting has clear sectarian overtones and significant international implications (see Civil war in Iraq). This campaign has been called the Iraqi resistance by its supporters and the anti-Iraqi forces (AIF) by Coalition forces.

Insurgents
Most of the insurgent attacks are against Coalition forces. Main article: Iraqi insurgency
By fall 2003 these insurgent groups began using typical guerrilla tactics: ambushes, bombings, kidnappings, and the use of IEDs. Other actions include mortars and suicide attacks, explosively formed penetrators, small arms fire, anti-aircraft missiles (SA-7, SA-14, SA-16) and RPGs. The insurgents also conduct sabotage against the oil, water, and electrical infrastructure of Iraq. Multi-national Force-Iraq statistics (see detailed BBC graphic) show that the insurgents primarily targeted coalition forces, Iraqi security forces and infrastructure, and lastly civilians and government officials. These irregular forces favored attacking unarmored or lightly armored Humvee vehicles, the U.S. militarys primary transport vehicle, primarily through the use of roadside IED. In November 2003, some of these forces successfully attacked U.S. helicopters with SA-7 missiles bought on the global black market. Insurgent groups such as the al-Abud Network have also attempted to constitute their own chemical weapons programs, trying to weaponise traditional mortar rounds with ricin and mustard toxin.

There is evidence that some guerrilla groups are organized, perhaps by the fedayeen and other Saddam Hussein or Baath loyalists, religious radicals, Iraqis angered by the occupation, and foreign fighters. On February 23, 2005

Militias
Two of the most powerful current militias are the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization, with both militias having substantial political support in the current Iraqi government. Initially, both organizations were involved in the Iraqi insurgency, most clearly seen with the Mahdi Army at the Battle of Najaf. However in recent months, there has been a split between the two groups.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the United Iraqi Alliance This violent break between Muqtada al-Sadrs Mahdi Army and the rival Badr Organization of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was seen in the fighting in the town of Amarah on October 20, 2006, would severely complicate the efforts of Iraqi and American officials to quell the soaring violence.

More recently in late 2005 and 2006, due to increasing sectarian violence based on either tribal/ethnic distinctions or simply due to increased criminal violence, various militias have formed, with whole neighborhoods and cities sometimes being protected or attacked by ethnic or neighborhood militias. One such group, known as the Anbar Awakening, was formed in September 2006 to fight against Al Qaeda and other radical islamist groups in particularly violent Anbar province. Led by Sheik and Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, who heads the Sunni Anbar Salvation Council, the Anbar Awakening has more than 60,000 troops and is seen by key U.S. officials such as Condoleeza Rice as a potential ally to U.S. occupation forces.

Casualty estimates
A US marine killed in April 2003 is carried away after receiving his last rites.
See also: Suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003, Foreign hostages in Iraq, List of Coalition forces killed in Iraq in 2006, and List of insurgents killed in Iraq
For coalition death totals see the infobox at the top right. See also Casualties of the Iraq War, which has casualty numbers for coalition nations, contractors, non-Iraqi civilians, journalists, media helpers, aid workers, wounded, etc.. The main article also gives explanations for the wide variation in estimates and counts, and shows many ways in which undercounting occurs. Casualty figures, especially Iraqi ones, are highly disputed. This section gives a brief overview.

Iraqi soldier killed in April 2003 while US marines were defending a bridge. U.S. General Tommy Franks reportedly estimated soon after the invasion that there had been 30,000 Iraqi casualties as of April 9, 2003. After this initial estimate he made no further public estimates.

In December 2005 President Bush said there were 30,000 Iraqi dead. White House spokesman Scott McClellan later said it was not an official government estimate, and was based on media reports.

There have been several attempts by the media, coalition governments and others to estimate the Iraqi casualties:

Iraqi Health Ministry casualty survey.
In January 2008 the Iraqi health minister, Dr Salih Mahdi Motlab Al-Hasanawi, reported the results of the Iraq Family Health Survey of 9,345 households across Iraq which was carried out in 2006 and 2007. It estimated 151,000 violence-related Iraqi deaths (95% uncertainty range, 104,000 to 223,000) from March 2003 through June 2006. Employees of the Iraqi Health Ministry carried out the survey for the World Health Organization. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Iraqs Health Minister Ali al-Shemari said in November 2006 that since the March 2003 invasion between 100,000-150,000 Iraqis have been killed. Al-Shemari said on Thursday, Nov. 9, that he based his figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals.
The United Nations found that 34,452 violent civilian deaths were reported by morgues, hospitals, and municipal authorities across Iraq in 2006.
The Iraqi ministries of Health, Defense and Interior said that 14,298 civilians, 1,348 police, and 627 soldiers were killed in 2006. The Iraqi government does not count deaths classed as criminal, nor those from kidnappings, nor wounded persons who die later as the result of attacks. However a figure of 3,700 civilian deaths in October 2006, the latest tally given by the UN based on data from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, was branded exaggerated by the Iraqi Government.
The Iraq Body Count project (IBC) has documented 73,264 - 79,869 violent, non-combatant civilian deaths since the beginning of the war as of September 20, 2007. However, the IBC has been criticized for counting only a small percentage of the number of actual deaths because they only include deaths reported by specific media agencies. IBC Director John Sloboda admits, Weve always said our work is an undercount, you cant possibly expect that a media-based analysis will get all the deaths.
An Opinion Research Business (ORB) survey conducted August 12-19, 2007 estimated 1,220,580 violent deaths due to the Iraq War (range of 733,158 to 1,446,063). Out of a national sample of 1,499 Iraqi adults, 22% had one or more members of their household killed due to the Iraq War (poll accuracy +/-2.4%). ORB reported that 48% died from a gunshot wound, 20% from car bombs, 9% from aerial bombardment, 6% as a result of an accident and 6% from another blast/ordnance. It is the highest estimate given so far of civilian deaths in Iraq and is consistent with the Lancet study. On 28 January 2008, ORB published an update based on additional work carried out in rural areas of Iraq. Some 600 additional interviews were undertaken and as a result of this the death estimate was revised to 1,033,000 with a given range of 946,000 to 1,120,000.
The 2006 Lancet survey of casualties of the Iraq War estimated 654,965 Iraqi deaths (range of 392,979-942,636) from March 2003 to the end of June 2006. That total number of deaths (all Iraqis) includes all excess deaths due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc, and includes civilians, military deaths and insurgent deaths. 601,027 were violent deaths (31% attributed to Coalition, 24% to others, 46% unknown). A copy of a death certificate was available for a high proportion of the reported deaths (92 per cent of those households asked to produce one). The causes of violent deaths were gunshot (56%), car bomb (13%), other explosion/ordnance (14%), air strike (13%), accident (2%), unknown (2%). The survey results have been criticized as ridiculous and extreme and improbable by various critics such as the Iraqi government and Iraq Body Count project.