Yearbook 2008
Iraq. The relative calm that settled over parts of the
country in 2007 continued. The total number of civilians
killed in violence fell by two-thirds in 2008, according to
official Iraqi figures, to about 5,700, compared with the
previous year. The explanations were three: the Shi'a Mahdi
Army ceasefire, the US troop reinforcement and the formation
of the Sunni Muslim garden called the Sahwa ("awakening"),
loyal to the US-led forces. The large province of Anbar,
where the Sahwagardas injured the Sunni Muslim terror
network al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch, was handed over in
September from US to Iraqi security control. Within the
government, however, there was a concern that the
Sahwagardas could not cooperate with the Shiite-dominated
government troops.
According to
Countryaah reports, in some provinces, the violence continued. Suicide
bombings and other acts were directed at American troops,
government troops and police, against the Sahwagards but
also against civilians, such as Christians and Shia Muslims.
In mid-May, government troops in Mosul - one of al-Qaeda's
last strong holdings - conducted an offensive and reportedly
seized over 1,200 suspected militia. However, new unrest
erupted in October and hundreds of Christian families fled
the city.
The Mahdi Army ceasefire from 2007 was said to persist
but battles still raged between government troops and
Shiamilis for seven weeks in March and April, including in
Basra in the southern part of the country and in the Sadr
City district of Baghdad. A total of about 1,000 people were
killed, most of them civilians. In May, Shiite leader
Muqtada al-Sadr renewed the ceasefire and gave Iraqi troops,
but not American, access to Sadr City. In August, al-Sadr
announced that the Mahdi army would be divided into two
branches, one military and one civilian.
After negotiations throughout 2008, the government and
the United States agreed November 16 on the so-called SOFA
(Status of Forces Agreement). According to this security
pact, US troops by the end of the year 2009 would have
withdrawn from all bases outside the cities and by the end
of December 2011 would have completely left Iraq. The transfer
of sovereignty to the Iraqi government meant that Iraq would
gain control of the 16,000 prisoners held by the United
States. in Iraq, that the United States would no longer be
allowed to attack other countries from Iraqi soil and that a
special committee be set up to determine whether Americans
who committed offenses outside the US bases would be brought
before the Iraqi court. The agreement was a milestone
because it meant that US troops were now in Iraq not on UN
mandate but through an agreement between two sovereign
states. By promising a referendum on the agreement in 2009,
the government got Parliament's Sunni Muslim members to vote
for the agreement. But critics, especially Shiite opposition
backed by Iran, argued that the United States should leave
Iraq immediately.
The country's largest Sunni-dominated party, the Iraqi
consensus front (ICF or Tawafiq), which withdrew from the
government in 2007, returned in July and resumed six
ministerial posts.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was March 2 - 3
first to make a state visit to Iraq since the US-led invasion
in 2003. Seven agreements were signed on cooperation in the
mining industry, transport and customs operations, among
others.
The Arab countries of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait and Jordan appointed ambassadors in the year
following US pressures in Iraq. The country had been isolated
from its Sunni Muslim neighbors since 2003.
Representatives of nearly 100 countries gathered in
Stockholm on May 29 for a conference on political and
financial support for Iraq. The conference, which was held
under UN supervision, was part of the International Compact
with Iraq (ICI) partnership launched in Egypt in 2007. Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed in Stockholm for further
debt cancellation but I's largest lenders, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait, had not sent any high-ranking representatives, which
was interpreted as an unwillingness to write off additional
debts.
According to a report from the International Red Cross in
October, I's infrastructure was near decay. Still, 40
percent of the population lacked access to, for example,
clean water. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported
in December that, thanks to the improved security situation,
I's economy had strengthened considerably in 2008, but that
the falling oil price was a cloud of concern.
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