Timeline of the Iraq War (2016)

This is a timeline of events during the Iraqi Civil War in 2016.

Chronology

February

• February 2 – The beginning of the Siege of Fallujah (2016).
• February 19 – Preparations for the Hīt offensive (2016).

March

• March 6 – 2016 Hillah suicide truck bombing: A suicide bomber kills at least 60 people and wounds 70 others after ramming his explosives-laden truck into a security checkpoint at one of entrances to the Iraqi city of Hillah, south of Baghdad. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the bombing.
• March 24 – The beginning of the Mosul offensive (2016)
• March 25 – Iskandariya suicide bombing: A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd after a local football game in a village near Iskandariya, in a mixed Sunni-Shiite area, killing at least 30 people and wounding more than 65. The mayor of the town was among those killed in the explosion, he succumbed to his wounds in an hospital. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the bombing.
• March 27 – Iraqi Yazidis and tribal fighters (part of Iraq's military) take control of an area between Sinjar and the border of Syria from ISIL. This is along the main highway (and key ISIL supply line) between Mosul, Iraq and Shadadi (or Ash Shaddadi), Syria, which a predominantly Syrian Kurd force captured from ISIL last month. An alternative connection, that also requires this highway, would be to Al Hasakah, Syria, slightly north.
• March 29 – A suicide bomb attack kills at least seven people and wounds another 23 in Baghdad. A police officer says the suicide bomber set off his payload among a group of day laborers in Baghdad's Tayaran Square. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement circulated by supporters, saying it targeted Shiite militiamen.

April

• April 2 – Iraqi security forces free a large number of prisoners from an underground ISIL-operated jail in the city of Hīt. Malallah al-Obeidi, a local official in the Al Anbar Governorate, put the number of freed prisoners at around 1,500, saying most of them were civilians.

May

• May 1 – 2016 Samawa bombing: In a rare attack in Iraq's mostly Shiite south, a twin suicide bombing kills at least 33 people and wounds 75 in the city of Samawah, Muthanna Governorate. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility.
• May 13 – Real Madrid Fan Club massacre: A group of ISIL militants attack the headquarters of a supporters club of the Spanish football club Real Madrid C.F. in Balad District, north of Baghdad. At least 16 people were killed in the attack.
• May 18 - Iraq's Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, announced that the Iraqi army and PMF liberated the town of Rutbah, in the Anbar province, after a four day long battle with ISIS. The liberation of Rutbah has been viewed as strategically important, as it lies 150km east of the Al Waleed border crossing with Syria, and 250km south of Al-Qa'im.
• May 22 - Beginning of Operation Breaking Terrorism.

See also

• Timeline of the Iraq War (2015)
• Timeline of the Iraq War (2014)
• Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2015
• Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2016