July 5, 2016

Shocked Iraqi citizens gather among the scorched and smoldering debris at the site of a suicide bomb blast in Baghdad’s busy Karrada shopping district on July 3, 2016.
Credit: © Khalid al Mousily, Reuters

Early Sunday morning, July 3, an Islamic State terrorist bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the crowded Karrada commercial district of Baghdad, Iraq. People filled the streets of the Shī`ite majority neighborhood as they shopped for the upcoming Id al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Just after midnight, the truck exploded in a massive blast that killed more than 200 people and injured hundreds of others. With some people still missing amidst the rubble and destruction, the death toll is certain to rise. A second terrorist bomber also struck that night in the city’s Shī`ite market district of al-Shaab, killing two more people. Sunday’s bombings marked the fourth major terrorist attack in Baghdad since the beginning of May.

The second, smaller bombing is typical of the daily existence for many Iraqis as they deal with the constant threat of terrorist violence. The larger bombing, while atypical because of its size and impact, illustrates the ruthlessness of the Islamic State and the most frequent targets of its attacks—other Muslims. The Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL, or DAESH) is a radical Sunni group, and the vast majority of its victims belong to the Shī`ite division of Islam. The Islamic State is slowly losing Iraqi territory it captured in the past two years, but its reach is obviously still deadly and extensive. The Karrada bombing was the worst in Iraq this year.

Naturally, the Islamic State does not speak for most Sunni Muslims. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, the nation’s highest Sunni religious body, called the Karrada bombing a “bloody crime, regardless of who carried it out or what their motivations were.”

The victims of the bombings are more than just numbers. Entire families are among the dead in Karrada—fathers, mothers, and children all destroyed in one moment of tragic terrorist hatred. The dead have names, too, like Adel al-Jaf, a promising young dancer and rapper also known as Adel Euro; Zulfikar Oraibi, the son of former Iraqi soccer star Ghanim Oraibi; and Adnan Abu Altman, who graduated from law school last week and died with his father and brother. Many more of the dead—badly mangled in the violence of the explosion—have yet to be identified, and many bodies have yet to be recovered.

November 17, 2015

On Friday, November 13, everyone in the world learned quickly of the Islamic State terrorist attacks in Paris, France, that killed 129 people. There was scant coverage, however, of the Islamic State bombings earlier that day that killed 26 people in Baghdad, Iraq; or the Islamic State bombings the day before that killed 43 people in Beirut, Lebanon. Obviously, these horrible events were overshadowed by the severity and shock of the Paris attacks. But these “other attacks” were just as important, and highlighted the animosity that has existed between the Sunni and Shī`ah divisions of Islam for many centuries. Most of the victims of the Baghdad attack were Shī`ites gathered for the funeral of a comrade killed fighting against the Islamic State, a radical Sunni Muslim group. In Beirut, the bomb victims were mainly members of Hezbollah, a Shī`ite group fighting the Islamic State in neighboring Syria. In all three attacks—Baghdad, Beirut, and Paris—the Islamic State was retaliating against its enemies and people who oppose its strict and vicious rule. But only the attack in Paris sparked global outrage and condemnation as well as support for the people of France.

Islamic State bombings in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, killed 26 people on Nov. 13, 2015.

Baghdad has seen violence rather steadily since the Iraq War, and it is almost understandable—if rather callous—that people react little to “yet another” terrorist bombing in the Iraqi capital. But it is the Iraqi people who have fought the Islamic State the hardest and longest. And more Iraqis have died at the hands of Islamic State terrorists—not to mention their paternal group, al-Qa`ida—than anyone else.

Islamic State bombings killed 43 people in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Nov. 12, 2015. Beirut lies only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Syrian border.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Lebanon has seen comparatively little violence, despite its proximity to war-plagued Syria and Iraq—and the Lebanese have taken in over 1 million refugees. Minor terrorist attacks have hit Beirut as recently as 2014, but the 43 people killed on November 12 were the most in that city since Lebanon’s civil war ended in 1990. Beirut is not a war zone, just as Paris is not, and deaths in Lebanon matter just as much as deaths in Paris, or Baghdad, or anywhere else.

Other Behind the Headlines article

      Terror Returns to Paris

June 13, 2014

Iraq’s most senior Shi`ite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, today issued a call to arms, telling all able-bodied Iraqis to take up arms against the Sunni Islamist insurgents currently on the move toward Baghdad, the capital. The call was made during Friday prayers in Karbala, regarded by Shi`ites as one of Iraq’s holiest cities. The leaders of the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have announced their intention of capturing Karbala and destroying the city’s Shi`ite shrines.

Yesterday, Kurdish forces moved in to safeguard Kirkuk after Iraqi government troops again dropped their weapons and fled. Kurds have long claimed Kirkuk as their capital, a strategic important oil city in Iraq’s Kurdish-majority north. The Kurdish forces, known as the peshmerga, are disciplined and highly loyal to their leaders and cause–an autonomous and independent Kurdish state.

In Samarra, Sunni militants were currently deployed in positions 3 miles (5 kilometers) east and north of the city–home of the Al-Askari Mosque, a revered Shi`ite shrine that the Sunni militants have threatened to destroy. To the south, emboldened ISIS forces moved closer to Baghdad. In the capital, Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki’s demands for emergency powers stalled yesterday because too few members of parliament showed up to form a quorum.

The 2006 bombing of the Al-Askari Mosque, a revered Shi`ite shrine, presumably by Sunni insurgents known as Al-Qaida in Iraq, led to a bloodbath between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims. Al-Qaida in Iraq morphed into today’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.(ISIS). (AP/Wide World)

A Times of London correspondent in the region reported that Iran, an ally of al-Maliki’s Shi`ite-led government has sent Revolutionary Guards into Iraq to fight the Sunni militants. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that Iran would act to combat “the violence and terrorism” of ISIS.

Speaking to reporters about the situation in Iraq, United States President Barack Obama noted yesterday that his national security advisers were looking at “all options,” including military action. However, an Obama administration spokesperson later stated that deploying American ground troops in Iraq was not an option.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

June 10, 2014

Hundreds of armed men attacked Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, this morning and seized control of the airport and army headquarters as well as local government offices and police stations. Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free, and many police stations torched. In Baghdad, the capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that “vital areas” of the city are effectively under the control of Islamist militants and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. “What happened [in Mosul] is a disaster by any standard,” declared Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament. “The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province . . . threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole Middle East.”

According to the BBC correspondent in Beirut, militants with the Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been informally controlling much of Ninawa province, of which Mosul is the capital, for months and are actively fighting across the border in the Syrian civil war. Experts on the scene believe ISIS is attempting to grab control of eastern Syria and western Iraq, apparently aiming to establish an Islamic state straddling the border.

Islamic militants are now in control of Mosul and Ninawa province in northern Iraq as well as parts of Al Anbar province in western Iraq. (World Book map)

In the past week, ISIS militants have killed scores of people in a series of major attacks on cities and towns in central, western, and northern Iraq. On June 7, more than 50 people died in a series of bombings in Shi`ite neighborhoods in Baghdad. That same day, militants stormed a university in Al Anbar province and took dozens of students hostage. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Fallujah since late December.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)

July 22, 2013

Attacks on two large prisons outside Baghdad resulted in the deaths of at least 25 Iraqi security guards this morning. At the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, hundreds of convicts, including senior members of al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia, broke out as the militants carried out their military-style assault. (Al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia is an Iraqi offshoot of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization. In Iraq, the organization is made up of Sunni insurgents.)

Sectarian violence is once again on the rise in Iraq, especially in and around Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul. (World Book map).

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a suicide car-bomber targeting Iraqi security forces left another 22 soldiers and 3 passers-by dead today. A separate attack in western Mosul killed 4 policemen.

Experts on the situation in Iraq note that the prison attacks on Taji and Abu Ghraib, which began late on July 21, are the latest indication of the deteriorating state of security in the country. They also suggest that Sunni militants are re-gaining momentum in their insurgency against Nouri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite-dominated government. The latest surge of attacks in Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 450 Iraqis since the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on July 10. Sectarian violence in Iraq has not been this bad since 2007 and 2008.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2008 (a Back in Time article)

May 20, 2013

A series of explosions rocked central and southern Iraq today, killing at least 100 people. Multiple bombings at bus stations and markets in primarily Shi’ite neighborhoods in Baghdad left dozens of people dead and many others injured. Bombing attacks were also made in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, and in Samarra, north of Baghdad. In a separate incident in western Anbar province, 10 policemen kidnapped on May 18 were found dead today.

The bombing of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra in 2006 triggered massive violence between Sunni and Shi`ite Muslims in Iraq. The same pattern is emerging in 2013, with Sunni and Shi'ite militants bombing each other's mosques. (© Dia Hamid, AFP/Getty Images)

The surge of sectarian tensions over the last 30 days is the worst violence seen in Iraq in five years. Two bombings apparently targeting Sunnis in Iraqi towns near Baghdad left 37 people dead and dozens of others injured on May 17. That same day, some 30 people were killed when two bombs were detonated outside a Sunni mosque in the city of Baqubah, 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad. On May 16, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi’ite mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 8 people.

Security experts suggest that the latest surge in sectarian violence is being carried out be Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to bring down the Shi’ite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The experts have voiced fears that the country could revert back to the levels of sectarian violence last seen in 2005 through 2007.

Additional World Book articles

• Iraq war
• Islam (divisions of)
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)

March 19, 2013

A wave of deadly bombings in and around Baghdad, primarily in Shi’ite Muslim neighborhoods, left at least 48 people dead and hundreds injured on the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The coordinated attacks included at least 15 car bombings, multiple roadside bombings, and shootings by snipers, all during the morning rush hour in the Iraqi capital. The deadliest of the attacks, which took place outside the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, killed 7 people and injured at least 20 others. Another 6 people were killed and 15 others wounded when a bomb exploded outside a restaurant near the main entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy is located.

Baghdad (AP/Wide World)

A militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq, which includes al-Qa’ida in Iraq, is known to have accelerated its attacks on Shi’ite targets in an attempt to revive the secular insurgency that left tens of thousands of people dead between 2005 and 2008. Their aim is to bring down the Shi’ite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Iraqi government is largely deadlocked, with Maliki at odds with Kurds in the north, most Sunni groups, and even factions within his own Shi’ite community. Iraq was controlled for years by that country’s Sunni minority, under the Baath government of dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown in 2003.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq history
• Iraq 2005 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2008 (a Back in Time article)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)

February 18, 2013

A wave of car bombings in Shi’ite neighborhoods in and around Baghdad yesterday left 37 people dead and some 125 others wounded. Al-Qa’ida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the attacks, and al-Qa’ida and other Sunni extremist groups have ramped up attacks on Shi’ite Muslims as a way of bringing down the Shi’ite-led government. At least 200 Iraqis have been killed in attacks targeting Shi’ites since January.

Iraq’s Sunni minority claims that Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki and his political allies have undermined Sunni politicians to monopolize power. In November, an Iraqi court sentenced Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi to death for the third time on charges that he instigated terrorist attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims. All verdicts were delivered in absentia because Hashemi fled Iraq in 2011 and is living in exile in Turkey. Al-Hashemi claims that his long-time rival Prime Minister Maliki is behind the charges, which he alleges are politically motivated.

On February 15, tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in several Iraqi cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by the Shi’ite-led government. In a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad, some 3,000 lawyers recently took to the streets, demanding an end to judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in Iraq’s prisons.

Iraqis pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein after U.S. forces entered Baghdad in 2003. Iraqis had high hopes after the U.S. military deposed Hussein in 2003, but 10 years later, many Iraqis are living in deplorable conditions. (AP/Wide World)

In recent weeks, both Sunni and Shit’te Iraqis alike have begun to openly protest the wretched conditions and bitter sectarian conflict they have endured since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew the Saddam Hussein government. Demonstrators have stormed government buildings in several cities to protest political corruption and shortages of food, electric power, and jobs. The Reuters news agency reported: “. . .  years after the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s infrastructure remains severely damaged. The country suffers a chronic water shortage, electricity supply is intermittent and sewage collects in the streets.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq 2006 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2007 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2010 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2011 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq: a Quest for Political Identity in a Second Year of War (a special report)
• The War in Iraq: the Military Campaign and Aftermath (a special report)
• The war in Iraq: Shifting Alliances on the World Stage (a special report)