Iraq War
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Human rights abuses
Human rights in occupied Iraq and Suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003
Throughout the entire Iraq war there have been human rights abuses on all sides of the conflict.

Iraqi government
The use of torture by Iraqi security forces.
Shiite-run death squads run out of the Interior Ministry that are accused of committing numerous massacres of Sunni Arabs  and the police collusion with militias in Iraq have compounded the problems.

Coalition forces and private contractors
U.S. Army Private Lynndie England holding a leash attached to a prisoner collapsed on the floor in the Abu Ghraib prison. England was convicted by a US Army court martial for abusing prison detainees.Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse
Haditha killings of 24 civilians
White phosphorus use in Iraq
Gang-rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl and the murder of her family, in Mahmoudiyah
Bombing and shooting of 42 civilians in Mukaradeeb (under investigation)
Controversy over whether disproportionate force was used, during the assaults by Coalition and (mostly Shia and Kurdish) Iraqi government forces on the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in 2004. Fatalities (both combatant and civilian) were estimated in the hundreds, and much of the city destroyed.
Planting weapons on noncombatant, unarmed Iraqis by three US Marines after killing them. According to a report by The Nation, other similar acts have been witnessed by US soldiers. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War tell similar stories.

Insurgent and terrorist groups
Terrorist attacks of the Iraq War
Killing over 12,000 Iraqis from January 2005 - June 2006, according to Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, giving the first official count for the victims of bombings, ambushes and other deadly attacks. The insurgents have also conducted numerous suicide attacks on the Iraqi civilian population, mostly targeting the majority Shia community. An October 2005 report from Human Rights Watch examines the range of civilian attacks and their purported justification.
Attacks on diplomats and diplomatic facilities including; the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 killing the top U.N. representative in Iraq and 21 other UN staff members; beheading several diplomats: two Algerian diplomatic envoys Ali Belaroussi and Azzedine Belkadi, Egyptian diplomatic envoy al-Sherif, and four Russian diplomats.
The February 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, destroying one of the holiest Shiite shrines, killing over 165 worshipers and igniting sectarian strife and reprisal killings.
The publicised murders of several contractors; Eugene Armstrong, Jack Hensley, Kenneth Bigley, Ivaylo Kepov and Georgi Lazov (Bulgarian truck drivers).  Other non-military personnel murdered include: translator Kim Sun-il, Shosei Koda, Fabrizio Quattrocchi (Italian), charity worker Margaret Hassan, reconstruction engineer Nick Berg, photographer Salvatore Santoro (Italian) and supply worker Seif Adnan Kanaan (Iraqi). Four private armed contractors, Scott Helvenston, Jerko Zovko, Wesley Batalona and Michael Teague, were killed with grenades and small arms fire, their bodies dragged from their vehicles, beaten and set ablaze. Their burned corpses were then dragged through the streets before being hung over a bridge crossing the Euphrates.
Torture or murder of members of the New Iraqi Army, and assassination of civilians associated with the Coalition Provisional Authority, such as Fern Holland, or the Iraqi Governing Council, such as Aqila al-Hashimi and Ezzedine Salim, or other foreign civilians, such as those from Kenya.

Public opinion on the war
International
According to a January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproves of the U.S. handling of the Iraq War. A September 2007 poll conducted by the BBC found that 2/3rds of the world's population believed the U.S. should withdraw its forces from Iraq. According to an April 2004 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, only a third of the Iraqi people believed that "the American-led occupation of their country is doing more good than harm, and a solid majority support an immediate military pullout even though they fear that could put them in greater danger."[294] Majorities in the UK and Canada believe the war in Iraq is "unjustified" and are critical of their governments' support of U.S. policies in Iraq. According to polls conducted by The Arab American Institute, four years after the invasion of Iraq, 83% of Egyptians had a negative view of the U.S.'s role in Iraq; 68% of Saudi Arabians had a negative view; 96% of the Jordanian population had a negative view; 70% of the UAE and 76% of the Lebanese population also described their view as negative. The Pew Global Attitudes Project reports that in 2006 majorities in the Netherlands, Germany, Jordan, France, Lebanon, China, Spain, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and Morocco believed the world was safer before the Iraq War and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. However, pluralities in the U.S. and India believe the world is safer without Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi
A woman pleads to an Iraqi army soldier from 2nd Company, 5th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division to allow a suspected insurgent free during a raid near Tafaria, IraqA WPO poll conducted on September 27, 2006, found that seven out of ten Iraqis want U.S.-led forces to withdraw from Iraq within one year. The perception that the U.S. presence in Iraq has a negative impact on security is widespread and is given some support by the British withdrawal from Basra which led to a 90% reduction in violence. Overall, 78% of those polled said they believed that the presence of U.S. forces is "provoking more conflict than it's preventing." 53% of those polled believed the Iraqi government would be strengthened if U.S. forces left Iraq (versus 23% who believed it would be weakened), and 71% wanted this to happen in 1 year or less. All of these positions are more prevalent amongst Sunni and Shia respondents than among Kurds. 61% of respondents said that they "approve" of attacks on U.S.-led forces, while 94% still had an unfavorable opinion of al-Qaeda.

A March 7, 2007 survey of more than 2,000 Iraqis commissioned by the BBC and three other news organizations found that 78% of the population opposes "the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq," that 69% believe the presence of U.S. forces is making things worse, and that 51% of the population consider attacks on coalition forces "acceptable", up from 17% in 2004 and 35% in 2006. However, only 35% want them to leave "now". 64% described their family's economic situation as being somewhat or very bad, up from 30% in 2005. 58% described reconstruction efforts in the area in which they live as either somewhat or very ineffective, and 9% described them as being totally nonexistent.

 Iraq War and U.S. Global War on Terror
President Bush has consistently referred to the Iraq war as "the central front in the War on Terror", and has argued that if the U.S. pulls out of Iraq, "terrorists will follow us here."  While other proponents of the war have regularly echoed this assertion, as the conflict has dragged on, members of the U.S. Congress, the American public, and even U.S. troops have begun to question the connection between Iraq and the fight against terrorism. In particular, a consensus has developed among intelligence experts that the Iraq war has increased terrorism. Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna frequently refers to the invasion of Iraq as a "fatal mistake." London's conservative International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded in 2004 that the occupation of Iraq had become "a potent global recruitment pretext" for jihadists and that the invasion "galvanized" al-Qaeda and "perversely inspired insurgent violence" there. The U.S. National Intelligence Council concluded in a January 2005 report that the war in Iraq had become a breeding ground for a new generation of terrorists; David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, indicated that the report concluded that the war in Iraq provided terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills... There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries." The Council's Chairman Robert L. Hutchings said, "At the moment, Iraq is a magnet for international terrorist activity." And the 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which outlined the considered judgment of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, held that "The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."

Regarding Saddam Hussein's ties to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Bush administration has produced inconsistent statements. Asked to describe the connection between the Iraqi leader and the al-Qaeda terror network at an appearance on October 5, 2004 at the Council on Foreign Relations, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld first refused to answer, then said: "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two." Several hours after his appearance, Rumsfeld issued a statement from the Pentagon saying his comment "regrettably was misunderstood" by some. He said he has said since September 2002 that there were ties between Osama bin Laden's terror group and Iraq.   Despite statements from the Bush administration, inspectors never found hidden stockpiles of WMD in Iraq, and the September 11 Commission reported no collaborative relationship between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi leadership.  However, several months prior to the commencement of military action, Saddam Hussein had began providing financial assistance to the families of Palestinian militants killed in fighting with, or civilians killed by, the Israeli military (including relatives of suicide bombers).  He also sponsored a small number of regional groups, designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State, among them, the People's Mujahedin of Iran. Former National Intelligence Officer Paul R. Pillar notes that,

Iraq did provide other kinds of sponsorship to terrorist groups, some of the Palestinian groups that aren't so active anymore... But in terms of it having provided support or sustenance or strength, or having anything close to an alliance with al Qaeda, it simply wasn't there.

Al-Qaeda leaders have seen the Iraq war as a boon to their recruiting and operational efforts, providing evidence to jihadists worldwide that America is at war with Islam, and the training ground for a new generation of jihadists to practice attacks on American forces. In October 2003, Osama bin Laden announced: "Be glad of the good news: America is mired in the swamps of the Tigris and Euphrates. Bush is, through Iraq and its oil, easy prey. Here is he now, thank God, in an embarrassing situation and here is America today being ruined before the eyes of the whole world."  Al-Qaeda commander Seif al-Adl gloated about the war in Iraq, indicating, "The Americans took the bait and fell into our trap."  A letter thought to be from al-Qaeda leader Atiyah Abd al-Rahman found in Iraq among the rubble where al-Zarqawi was killed and released by the U.S. military in October 2006, indicated that al-Qaeda perceived the war as beneficial to its goals: "The most important thing is that the jihad continues with steadfastness ... indeed, prolonging the war is in our interest."