Jurf al-Nasr ( ar, جرف النصر) is a small town in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, located about 60 kilometers southwest of

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

. It is near

Musayyib Musayyib ( ar, المسيب) is an increasing majority Shia Arab town in the Babil Province, Iraq. As of 2018, its population was 57,300. Musayyib sits on both the east and west banks of the Euphrates River, which splits into the Hindiya and Hill ...

and approximately 80 kilometers east of Fallujah. The town was formerly known as Jurf al-Sakhar ( ar, جرف الصخر). At the start of 2014, Jurf al-Sakhar had about 89,000 residents, mostly Sunni Muslims from the al-Janabi tribe. The former residents are now largely refugees in Fallujah, Yusofiyya, Al Musayyib, and the current population is about 15,000.

History

In the 1990s, Jurf al-Sakhar housed a large military complex, including the Al Hakum facility, at one time Iraq's most sophisticated and largest

biological weapons A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...

production factory. During the

Iraq War troop surge of 2007 The Iraq War troop surge of 2007, commonly known as the troop surge, or simply the surge, refers to the George W. Bush administration's 2007 increase in the number of U.S. military combat troops in Iraq in order to provide security to Baghdad an ...

, Jurf al-Sakhar was one of the first towns under the "concerned citizens" program, in which the local populace was paid to secure the town via checkpoints along its roads, funded by money supplied by the U.S. military. The influx of money led to an almost instantaneous decrease in violence in the area. It was also the location of some of the most bitter fighting during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Nine medals for valor were awarded to the

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during World ...

of Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (Geronimo), for their actions in and around the town. The unit was also awarded the

Valorous Unit Award The Valorous Unit Award (VUA) is the second highest United States Army unit decoration which may be bestowed upon an Army unit after the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC). The VUA is awarded by the United States Army to units of the United State ...

, the second highest unit award in the U.S. Army.

ISIS control and liberation

In 2014, Jurf al-Nasr was captured by

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

. On 24 October 2014,

Operation Ashura Liberation of Jurf Al Sakhar, codenamed Operation Ashura ( ar, عملية عاشوراء), was a two-day military operation by Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed PMU forces beginning on 24 October 2014, aimed at retaking the strategic cit ...

was launched in the area by Iraqi government forces, the

Popular Mobilization Forces The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) ( ar, الحشد الشعبي ''al-Ḥashd ash-Shaʿbī''), also known as the People's Mobilization Committee (PMC) and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization ...

, and volunteers aided by coalition airstrikes, liberating much of the city. Recapture of the town was additionally motived by the need to secure it prior to the Ashura religious observance, and the close proximity of a Shia shrine at Karbala. On October 29, 2014, the Babil Government decided to lock out all of Jurf al-Sakhar to its former inhabitants for eight months, so as to remove many

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

s and clear the houses of bombs that had been placed by ISIS. A member of the Babil Government Council declared that the old project for building a refinery in the area—Jurf Refinery, abandoned after the 2003 war—was to be reactivated, along with other projects aiming to renovate several building and streets. The Babylon Provincial Council announced that the name of Jurf al-Sakhar, meaning "rocky bank", was changed to Jurf al-Nasr, meaning "victory bank", after the triumph over

in the area. Many of the Iraqi forces who had taken part in the recapture from ISIS were also participants in Shia Muslim rituals to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, a few days later.{{cite web, url=http://shiawaves.com/english/islam/497-iraqi-soldiers-set-up-first-husseini-procession-in-jurf-al-sakhar, title=Iraqi soldiers set up first Husseini procession in Jurf al-Sakhar, author=, date=1 November 2014, work=ShiaWaves.com, access-date=29 August 2021

References

Populated places in Babil Governorate

History

ISIS control and liberation

See also

References