The attacks were mostly directed at Iraqi security services and appear to be a new push to destablise the 30 June transfer of sovereignty. Some of the heaviest fighting was in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, where two American soldiers were killed and seven wounded. Police stations were targeted in Ramadi, Mahaweel, and Mosul, where car bombs detonated outside the Iraqi Police Academy, two police stations and the Al-Jumhuri hospital.

Four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an explosion near a checkpoint in the southern Baghdad area of Dora, while explosions and shelling occurred in Fallujah, where armed men ran through the streets, witnesses said. A US helicopter made an emergency landing outside of Fallujah amid clashes with insurgents, the military confirmed.

A statement on a Saudi website claimed responsibility for the Baquba attacks in the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and said the insurgents belonged to his Jamaat al-Tawhid & Jihad movement. The website statement told residents to stay in their homes 'because these days are going to witness campaigns and attacks against the occupation troops and those who stand beside them'.