1999 Shia uprising in Iraq The 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq refers to a short period of unrest in Iraq in early 1999 following the killing of Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al - Sadr by the then Ba ' athist government of Iraq . The protests and ensuing violence were strongest in the heavily Shia neighborhoods of Baghdad , as well as southern majority Shiite cities such as Karbala , Nasiriyah , Kufa , Najaf , and Basra . Background . As his power grew , al - Sadr became more and more involved in politics following the Gulf War and throughout the 1990s he openly defied Saddam . He organized the poor Shi ' ites of Sadr City , yet another nickname for the impoverished Shi ' ite ghetto in Baghdad , against Saddam and the Baath Party . Sadr gained the support of Shi ' ites by reaching out to tribal villages and offering services to them that they would otherwise not have been afforded by Hussein ' s regime . Saddam began to crack down on the Shi ' ite leadership in the late 1990s in an attempt to regain control of Iraq . Sometime before his death , al - Sadr was informed of Saddam ' s limited patience with him . In defiance , al - Sadr wore his death shroud to his final Friday sermon to show that Shi ' ites would not be intimidated by Saddam ' s oppression and that Sadr would preach the truth even if it meant his own death . He was later killed leaving the mosque in the Iraqi city of Najaf along with two of his sons as they drove through the town . Their car was ambushed by men , and both his sons were killed by gunfire while he was severely injured . He died an hour later in the hospital . Iraqi Shias , as well as most international observers , suspect the Iraqi Baathist government of being involved in , if not directly responsible , for their murders . The Iraqi government denied involvement in the killing , and quickly tried and executed three alleged killers , although one of the suspects had apparently been in prison at the time of the attack on al - Sadr . Uprising . February . Saddam City 18 – 21 . Following the killing of al - Sadr the Iraqi government withheld news of al - Sadr ' s death for 24 hours as it tried to pressure the family to not hold witnessed a period of unrest and protests . The Iraqi government in this period also executed al - Sadr ' s deputy , and confiscated his writings and videos of his sermons . Unaware of al - Sadr ' s death , Shiite worshipers arrived at the Rassoul mosque in Saddam City to pray for al - Sadr ' s recovery . Iraqi soldiers then arrived and ordered the worshipers to leave . The soldiers later opened fire when the worshipers refused to leave , and instead began chanting anti - Saddam slogans and throw stones , leaving some 80 dead . Following this news spread throughout Saddam City that al - Sadr had been murdered , resulting in mass anti - government demonstrations . The Iraqi government then sealed off Saddam City and deployed the Republican Guard to put down the growing demonstrations . After 24 hours the demonstrations had been largely suppressed , leaving between 27 and 100 dead . Iraqi security forces proceeded to arrest representatives of al - Sadr in Baghdad and throughout the south . Unrest spreads 20 – 21 . Officials of the Shiite opposition group , the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq , began accusing the Iraqi government of responsibility for the death of al - Sadr on 20 February , which they saw as part of a government effort to destroy all Shiite opposition groups . Although the protests in Saddam City had been put down , new protests began to flare across Shiite majority Southern Iraq , with 20 protesters being killed by security forces on the 21 , with another 250 arrested across Iraq . Iraqi forces also shelled Nasiriyah after local protesters attacked a government building . Iraqi security forces also opened fire on demonstrators at a Shiite shrine 20 miles from Nasiriyah , killing at least 5 , including two 14 year olds . March . Early March . On 3 March Ammar al - Hakim , the leader of SCIRI , announced that it had attacked several government buildings in Karbala as part of the revenge operations for the killing of al - Sadr . The ninth and tenth of March saw further clashes between Iraqi security forces and fighters from SCIRI in two southern Iraqi provinces , with SCIRI reporting that over 100 people had been killed in the clashes and 8 government tanks destroyed . Basra 17 – 18 . Some of the worst violence of the uprising took place on the evening of 17 March in Basra , when large armed groups of members of the Shiite opposition attacked several police stations and offices of the Iraqi Ba ' ath party . Contemporary press reports indicated that the clashes between protesters and security forces were in some cases particularly heavy , involving both armoured units and artillery . The opposition groups were even able to seize and occupy several of the police stations and Ba ' ath party offices , which they held until the morning of the 18 March , at which point they withdrew . Eyewitnesses talking to Human Rights Watch claimed that in some Basra neighbourhoods the firefight continued for more than an hour , whilst in others gunfire was heard throughout the night . The violence resulted in the deaths of several members of the Fedayeen Saddam , the Ba ' ath party , and other security services . In total around 100 were estimated to have died in the Basra clashes . Several witnesses told Human Rights Watch that protesters had attacked and killed at least 40 Ba ' ath party members . April . In possibly some of the last violence of the uprising , there were several clashes between Iraqi security forces and members of the Iraqi opposition across southern Iraq on 24 April . Aftermath . Following the failed uprising the Iraqi government organised a strict crackdown against potential opponents , with the Iraqi communist party claiming that up to 500 Iraqis detainees were subsequently executed in Basra . The Iraqi government never acknowledged the scale and extent of the uprising , and as such there are no exact numbers of casualties . In a rare acknowledgement of domestic unrest , the Iraqi government admitted on 15 May 1999 that there had been anti - government disturbances in Basra in mid March . The Iraqi government however denied reports of widespread killing , and blamed the unrest on Iranian infiltrators . Prosecution . Following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the Ba ' athist government the suppression of the events of 1999 were investigated by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal . The ensuing trials had 14 defendants , and ultimately saw Ali Hassan al - Majid , then Director of the Iraqi Intelligence Service , along with former senior Ba ' athist officials Aziz Saleh Hassan al - Noman and Mahmood Faizi Mohammed al - Haza sentenced to death . Seven others received prison sentences ranging from six years to life imprisonment for their role in the suppression of the uprising .