On 23 April, an army raid against a protest encampment in the city of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, led to dozens of civilian deaths and the involvement of several insurgent groups in organized action against the government, leading to fears of a return to a wide-scale Sunni–Shia conflict within the country.

[13] In the months leading up to the 20 April provincial elections, the first since the withdrawal of US forces in 2011, tensions were high in Iraq as Sunni groups claimed they were being marginalized by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite dominated government.

[13][14] A number of large scale attacks linked to the Salafist umbrella group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were carried out in early 2013 in an attempt to destabilize the country ahead of the elections.

[6][17][18] On 23 April, Iraqi Army units moved against the encampment set up by protesters in Hawija, sparking deadly clashes and reprisal attacks across the country.

According to Abdulmalik al-Juburi, one of the leaders of the Hawija movement, Army units "burned the tents and opened fire indiscriminately and killed and wounded dozens of protesters".

He also denied harboring any wanted criminals and said there was only four rifles used to protect the whole gathering, placing the official military report under question.

Unidentified assailants attacked a checkpoint near Ramadi, killing 6 soldiers and kidnapping another, while setting fire to the building and two armored vehicles.

[7] In Sulaiman Bek, north of the capital Baghdad, clashes left 7 gunmen and 5 policemen dead and 63 others injured, including at least 20 soldiers.

[7][24] In Mosul three gunmen were killed while attacking a checkpoint, while various shootings left a policeman and a soldier dead, and another officer and a doctor wounded.

In the eastern Baghdad district of Al-Husseiniyah, a car bomb was detonated near a mobile phone market, killing at least 8 civilians and injuring 21 others.

[7] The Iraqi government announced a commission to investigate the previous day's incidents, that is to be led by Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq.

Heavy fighting between local tribesmen and the Iraqi Army in Saidiyah left 7 soldiers and 12 gunmen dead, while a total of 25 others were injured.

[8] Violent incidents continued at a high pace across the country on 26 April, although many reports did not include detailed casualty counts, as in the day before.

[9] The number of attacks appeared to be lower on 27 April; as Prime Minister al-Maliki blamed the unrest on regional issues and authorities imposed a 9 pm to 4 am curfew in Al Anbar Governorate in an effort to quell the violence.

[10] Four soldiers were killed and seven others injured in a firefight in Abu Ghraib, while three civilians were shot dead in separate attacks in the southern port of Basra.

[10][27] Kurdish government officials deployed Peshmerga troops in and around Kirkuk to prevent further bloodshed in a move criticized by the cabinet in Baghdad.

Staff General Ali Ghaidan Majeed, the commander of Iraqi ground forces, called it a "dangerous development" and an apparent attempt to reach the area's large oilfields.

[28] The nightly curfew and response operations of the government's security forces appeared to ease tensions a bit, as casualties continued to fall in the days following the original clash, while attacks began to shift back to their usual pattern of large bombings and isolated shootings.

Iraq's media commission accused the stations of misleading reports and "clear calls for disorder and for launching retaliatory criminal attacks against security forces".

A statement from Al Jazeera expressed dismay at the move and called on the government to "uphold freedom for the media to report the important stories taking place in Iraq".

[30] At least 16 people were killed and 46 wounded in scattered attacks across the country on 30 April, though most of them appeared to be small bombings, rather than the heavy clashes with security forces that rocked Iraq in the previous week.

Roadside blasts occurred in Mosul, Baqubah, Baiji, Zaidan and Kirkuk, killing a total of 5 people - two policemen, two Peshmerga troops, and a civilian.

[31] Meanwhile, the Iraqi government announced the temporary closure of the Karameh Border Crossing with Jordan near Trebil due to ongoing security concerns in the western Anbar Governorate.

The border point is seen as a vital economic interest of the province, and the move was expected to have a significant impact on businesses and markets.

[32] Attacks were focused on the central parts of Iraq on 1 May, including a pair of bombings in Al-Karmah that killed a Sahwa member and injured at least 16 other militiamen.

A suicide bomber killed six east of Fallujah, while another blast and a shooting inside the city left three soldiers and a policeman dead and another officer injured.

[35] Meanwhile, the United Nations mission to Iraq released figures, showing that more people died in violent attacks in April than in any other month since June 2008.