page_title: 2012–2013 Iraqi protests
section_title: 22 February "'Iraq or Maliki"
hierarchical_section_title: 2012–2013 Iraqi protests / Timeline / 2013 / February / 22 February "'Iraq or Maliki"
caption_attribution_description: English: Iraqi Sunni demonstrators protesting against the Maliki led government.
context_page_description: The 2012–2013 Iraqi protests started on 21 December 2012 following a raid on the home of Sunni Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi and the arrest of 10 of his bodyguards. Beginning in Fallujah, the protests afterwards spread throughout Sunni Arab parts of Iraq. The protests centered on the issue of the alleged sectarianism of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Pro-Maliki protests also took place throughout central and southern Iraq, where there is a Shia Arab majority. In April 2013, sectarian violence escalated after the 2013 Hawija clashes. The protests continued throughout 2013, and in December Maliki used security forces to forcefully close down the main protest camp, in Ramadi and killing hundreds of civilian protesters in the process. Sunni groups, such as the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandi Order, took up arms in response, and joined forces with the General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries, a militant group made up of former Ba'athists, to conduct a military campaign against the Iraqi government. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant would later grow out of this civil conflict.
context_section_description: On 22 February thousands of protesters took to the streets of Ramadi, Baghdad, Mosul, and Fallujah following Friday prayers in order to continue the demonstrations against the Iraqi government, calling for Maliki to step down.
  The day also saw seven members of a Sahwa militia killed in Tuz Khormato by armed men wearing military uniforms. The assailants asked a local militia leader to accompany them to a checkpoint manned by a Sahwa militia, at which point the uniformed group overpowered the leader and members of the Sahwa militia before executing them.
caption: Anti-government demonstrators in Anbar Governorate in January 2012.
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