2017 Nasiriyah attacks
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

On 14 September 2017, several members of ISIL staged multiple attacks on the outskirts of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, killing at least 84 people and injuring 93 others.


Background

The attacks came as the Islamic State group faced a series of crushing defeats both in Iraq and neighbouring
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, including the loss of Mosul after a nine-month battle in early July, followed by a successful Iraqi government offensive against the nearby town of Tal Afar in late August. U.S. officials said the terrorist organization had been severely degraded after losing almost 90 percent of the territory it captured during the 2014 blitz across Iraq, including populated places that held factories for creating car bombs and improvised explosive devices. This meant that members would increasingly rely on a combination of suicide bombers, automatic weapons and other methods as their primary means of targeting civilian and government infrastructure, as evidenced by a series of attacks in Tikrit, as well as a bombing at an ice cream parlor in Baghdad. Analysts and journalists alike warned that despite the recent setbacks, the group remained capable of launching attacks across Iraq, especially at soft targets such as restaurants and entertainment venues.


Attacks

In the first attack, which took place around lunchtime, several gunmen and at least one suicide bomber wearing military uniforms arrived in three cars and entered the Fadak restaurant on Freeway 1 to Baghdad, a popular stop for pilgrims travelling north to Najaf and
Karbala Karbala or Kerbala ( ar, كَرْبَلَاء, Karbalāʾ , , also ;) is a city in central Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorat ...
. The assailants then began shooting with automatic weapons and throwing grenades, killing or injuring at least 50 people. Shortly afterwards, two suicide bombers, including one driving an explosives-rigged car, blew themselves up at a nearby police checkpoint, causing further casualties. The twin attacks killed 84 people and injured 93 others, many of them seriously. According to provincial governor Yahya al-Nassiri, the majority of casualties were expected to be Iranian and Iraqi Shia pilgrims, who were inside the restaurant at the time of the first attack. The pro-Islamic State
Amaq News Agency Amaq News Agency ( ar, وكالة أعماق الإخبارية) is a news outlet linked to the Islamic State (IS). Amaq publishes news reports about claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks in Western countries. It is often the "first poi ...
claimed the group was responsible for the twin attacks. At least one report said the attackers were disguised as members of the Popular Mobilization Forces—a mainly Shia group that has fought alongside Iraqi forces against IS. The twin attacks represented one of the highest single-day tolls of any similar incident in southern Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, and were the deadliest since the government recapture of Mosul in July 2017. The Islamic State group had previously targeted Iraqi and Iranian pilgrims during the 2016
Arba'een Pilgrimage The Arba'een Pilgrimage, or the Arba'een Walk or Karbala Walk, is the world's largest annual public gathering. It is held at Karbala, Iraq at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, the religious ritual for the commemoration ...
, killing more than 120 people in multiple truck bombings in the central town of
Hillah Hillah ( ar, ٱلْحِلَّة ''al-Ḥillah''), also spelled Hilla, is a city in central Iraq on the Hilla branch of the Euphrates River, south of Baghdad. The population is estimated at 364,700 in 1998. It is the capital of Babylon Province a ...
.


See also

*
2003 Nasiriyah bombing The 2003 Nasiriyah bombing was a suicide attack on the Italian Carabinieri MSU headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, south of Baghdad on 12 November 2003. The attack resulted in the deaths of 18 Italian servicemembers, mostly members of the MS ...
, a truck bomb attack that targeted the Italian military headquarters in the city.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nasiriyah attacks, 2017 2017 murders in Iraq 21st-century mass murder in Iraq History of Nasiriyah ISIL terrorist incidents in Iraq Islamic terrorist incidents in 2017 Mass murder in 2017 September 2017 crimes in Asia September 2017 events in Iraq Suicide car and truck bombings in Iraq Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2017