Key Facts
- Announced
- 14 June 2006
- Security forces deployed
- ~70,000
- Curfew hours
- 9pm to 6am
- Trigger event
- Bombing of Askariya Mosque, Samarra, February 2006
- Result
- Failed; violence continued with major bombings
Strategic Narrative Overview
Operation Together Forward deployed approximately 70,000 Iraqi and Coalition security forces across Baghdad, imposing a nightly curfew from 9pm to 6am, establishing new checkpoints and patrols, and restricting civilian weapons. Troops conducted raids on suspected insurgent and terrorist cells. Despite the scale of the deployment and the political prominence given to the operation at launch, violence did not abate, and major bombings continued throughout June and July 2006.
01 / The Origins
The mid-February 2006 bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, a major Shiite shrine, triggered a sharp escalation of sectarian violence across Baghdad. Retaliatory killings between Sunni and Shia militias surged, prompting the newly installed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to announce a large-scale security operation on 14 June 2006, intended to restore order and demonstrate the Iraqi government's capacity to lead its own security forces.
03 / The Outcome
The operation failed to achieve its stated objective of significantly reducing violence in Baghdad. At least four bombing attacks each killing 40 or more people occurred within a single week, alongside persistent sectarian killings. The operation's collapse underscored the deep sectarian fault lines in Iraq and the difficulty of stabilizing Baghdad, foreshadowing the need for the broader troop surge strategy adopted in 2007.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
2 belligerents
Nuri al-Maliki.
Side B
1 belligerent