| Date | Location | Attack | Deaths | (Alleged) Perpetrator | Notes | Source |
|---|
| 22 July 1979 | Khuld hall | 1979 Ba'ath Party Purge | 21 | Ba'athist regime organized by Saddam Hussein | Internal purge of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party after the new president Saddam Hussein assumed power and alleged a Syrian back coup d'etat. 68 people were arrested, of which 21 were executed by firing squad. | [28] |
| 1968–2003 | Ba'athist Iraq | Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq | 2,500[29] to 12,500[29][30] | Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party | Between 1968 and 2003, the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of the Iraqi Republic perpetrated multiple campaigns of demographic engineering against the country's non-Arabs. While Arabs constitute the majority of Iraq's population as a whole, they are not the majority in parts of northern Iraq, and a minority in Iraqi Kurdistan. In an attempt to Arabize the north, the Iraqi government pursued a policy of ethnic cleansing, killing and forcefully displacing a large number of Iraqi minorities—predominantly Kurds, but also Turkmen, Yazidis, Assyrians, Shabaks, Mandaeans, and Armenians, among others—and subsequently allotting the cleared land to Arab settlers | [31] |
| 1980s | Ba'athist Iraq | Persecution of Shi'a muslims and political dissidents under Saddam Hussein | 50,000-70,000 Shi'a and 50,000 dissidents disappeared. Full death toll unknown. | Saddam Hussein | 50,000 to 70,000 Shi'a, and 50,000 opposition activists, communists, Kurds and other minorities disappeared into Iraqi prisons in the 1980s | [32] |
| 1970-2003 | Nationwide | Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein | 25,000 killed | Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz | May 7, 1980, Persecution of Feyli Kurds under Saddam Hussein, Nationwide; 15,000–25,000 Feyli Kurds were targeted in a genocide via exportation and forced relocations. | [33][34][35][36][37][38] |
| 8 July 1982 | Dujail | Dujail massacre | 148 | Iraqi Ba'ath Party | Judicial reprisal targeting Shia Muslims following a failed assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein by the Islamic Dawa Party. Saddam would eventually be executed for crimes against humanity in relation to the massacre. | |
| 10 May 1983 | Specific location unknown | Massacre of the Hakim family | Hundreds | Saddam Hussein | Saddam ordered further arrest of all Hakim family. Hundreds were killed and buried in mass graves. |
| July–August 1983 | Kurdistan Region | Repression of Barzani Kurds under Ba'ath regime | 8000 | Saddam Hussein | In July and August 1983, on the orders of President Saddam Hussein, over 8,000 men and boys of the Barzani Kurds, some as young as 13, were killed by the Ba'athist Iraq. | [39][40][41][42] |
| 16 March 1984 | Abu Ghraib prison | Abu Ghraib purge | 4000 | Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region | A mass grave was discovered at the Abu Ghraib prison, containing the bodies of thousands following a purge. Estimated 4000 dead. | [43] |
| 23 February - 6 September 1988 | Kurdistan Region | Anfal Campaign | 50,000-182,000 | Saddam Hussein, Ali Hassan al-Majid, Hussein Rashid | Counter insurgency operation during the Iran Iraq War targeting primarily Kurds, as well as other minority groups that had allegedly collaborated with the Iranian Army. During the campaign, the Iraqi government made extensive use of chemical weapons which resulted in thousands of casualties. Use of enforced disappearances, mass deportation and detention camps were also present. The operation is recognized as a genocide by Human Rights Watch. | [44][45][46] |
| 16 March 1988 | Halabja, Kurdistan Region | Halabja massacre | 3,200–5,000[47] | Iraqi Republic | Iraqi government used chemical weapons on Kurdish town, At least 3,200–5,000 people died as an immediate result of the chemical attack and it is estimated that a further 7,000-10,000 people were injured or suffered long-term illness.[47] | [48] |
| 13 February 1991 | Al-A'amiriya, Baghdad | Amiriyah shelter bombing | 408+ | United States Air Force | Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy an underground bunker in Baghdad, killing 408+ civilians of Iraqis. US military intelligence claims it was a military facility while Iraqi officials identify it as a bomb shelter | [49] |
| 1 March - 5 April 1991 | Nationwide | 1991 Iraqi uprisings | 25,000–180,000 killed (Predominantly civilians) | Iraqi Republic,  | In response to multiple insurrections led by a variety of Kurdish, Leftist and Shia Islamist groups, the Iraqi government violently repressed the rebellion. Chemical weapons and nerve agents such as Mustard Gas, Sarin and Phosgene were allegedly used, though this has been disputed. | [50][51][52][53][54][55] |
| 28 March 1991 | Altun Kupri, Kirkuk Governorate | 1991 Altun Kupri massacre | 1,000-3,500 | Iraqi Army on the order of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Ba'ath Party, Arab nationalists | The massacre targeted Turkmens, in particular males, both children and adults alike, and was organized by security forces affiliated with Saddam Hussein's army | [56][57] |
| 7 October 1991 | Sulaymaniyah, Sulaymaniyah Governorate | Sulaymaniyah massacre | 60+ | Kurdish fighters (allegedly affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party) | Executed unarmed and surrendered Iraqi Army soldiers following the 1991 uprisings. Witnessed by journalists and condemned by human rights organizations. | [58][59] |