Baghdad Car Bombings (January 2017)
In January 2017, Baghdad experienced a series of devastating car bombings that resulted in nearly one hundred fatalities within the first week of the month. The most significant attack occurred on January 2 in the Sadr City neighborhood, where a suicide bomber targeted day laborers, killing approximately thirty-nine people and injuring many others. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for these attacks, which were part of a broader pattern of violence in Iraq, particularly aimed at the Shiite Muslim majority. Following the initial bombings, additional attacks occurred on January 5 at locations including the Al-Obeidi market and a security checkpoint, leading to further casualties.
The backdrop to these events includes Iraq's ongoing struggle with terrorism that has intensified since the 2003 US invasion, which led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Although ISIS's violent campaign aimed to undermine the Iraqi government and target its Shiite population, the response to these attacks included public protests against security measures perceived to be inadequate. The bombings not only reflect the ongoing turmoil in Iraq but also the significant impact on civilian life in areas frequently targeted by extremist groups.
Subject Terms
Baghdad Car Bombings (January 2017)
Dates: January 2 and 5, 2017
Place: Baghdad, Iraq
Summary
The Baghdad car bombings in January 2017 were a series of suicide bombings in Iraq's capital that killed nearly one hundred people in the first week of the month. The worst attack came on January 2 in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, where a car bomb killed as many as thirty-nine people, most of whom were day laborers gathering to look for work. The radical organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
Key Events
- January 2, 2017—Multiple bombs, including at least one suicide car bomb, are detonated in Baghdad, killing nearly sixty and wounding more than one hundred in three parts of the city.
- January 5, 2017—Two more car bombing incidents, at the Al-Obeidi market and a security checkpoint in the Bab al-Muadam district, result in around twenty killed.
Status
As of March 2017, Iraqi authorities believed that ISIS was responsible for the three bombings, though no arrests were reported in connection with the incidents. French president François Hollande was visiting Baghdad at the time of the attack, but Iraqi authorities did not believe that Hollande was an intended target for the suicide bombers. The January 2 attacks were the first terrorist attacks of 2017 to hit Baghdad; however, the city suffered more than a dozen further terrorist attacks in the month, all at least tentatively linked to ISIS. The next terrorist attack after the January 2 bombings occurred on January 5, when suspected ISIS militants were linked to at least three separate incidents, including a bombing at the Al-Obeidi food market and the bombing of a security checkpoint in Bab al-Muadam, together resulting in more than twenty-seven deaths and over fifty injuries.
In-Depth Overview
Iraq has suffered near continual terrorist violence since the US-led invasion of the nation in 2003 removed dictator Saddam Hussein from power. Military forces from the United States and allied nations have been stationed in Iraq since 2003, helping to protect the new, democratically elected government and to train Iraqi troops to combat the rise of militant Islamist organizations. The United States began to withdraw troops from Iraq in 2007 and declared an official end to the Iraq War in 2011, though numerous radical groups remained active after the withdrawal and intensified attacks on government and civilian targets in an effort to weaken the government.
Since 2013, the most active radical group in the region has been the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which formed in Syria and promotes a political agenda that would establish a worldwide Islamic government based on a highly conservative, antimodernist version of Islamic law. In Iraq, ISIS primarily targets Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, whom it considers apostates.
On January 2, 2017, a suicide car bomb explosion occurred in the sprawling, impoverished Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, Baghdad. The neighborhood is the stronghold of the Sadrist Movement, an Islamic reform movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric and political activist who fought against the US-led occupation of Iraq but has since promoted a form of democratic Islamic government. On January 2, according to a statement delivered later by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the bomber posed as an individual looking to hire day laborers, waited for a group of workers to approach his vehicle, then detonated explosives inside the truck. According to local sources, at least nine of the victims were also women traveling in a minibus passing through the square, as well as three policemen at a local security checkpoint. Reports indicated that between thirty-five and thirty-nine people had been killed, and more than fifty injured. That same day, at least two other car bombings were reported in Baghdad, with one detonated near the Al-Kindi Teaching Hospital; together these additional attacks killed at least twenty.
A group of citizens gathered at the scene of the Sadr City attack to protest a recent government initiative to reduce security at checkpoints throughout the city in an effort to ease traffic congestion thought to have contributed to the attacks. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message distributed on the organization's website and claimed that the attack was meant to target Shiites.
Three days later, Iraq's capital was rocked by further attacks, including a morning car bomb blast in the eastern section of Al-Obeidi that killed nine and wounded at least fifteen, and another attack a few hours later near a security checkpoint in the district of Bab al-Muadam that killed eleven. Some seven more people were killed in other attacks in and around Baghdad on the same day.
Key Figures
Haider al-Abadi: Prime minister of Iraq.
Muqtada al-Sadr: Shiite cleric and leader of the Sadrist Movement.
Bibliography
Baghdad car bomb leaves at least 24 dead. (2017, January 2). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/02/baghdad-sadr-city-car-bomb-attack-leaves-many-dead-iraq
Baghdad: ISIL claims attack in busy Sadr City market. (2017, January 3). Al Jazeera. Retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/car-bomb-hits-busy-square-baghdad-sadr-city-170102083225147.html
IS conflict: Baghdad suicide car bomb blast kills 35. (2017, January 2). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-38488091
Suicide blast in Baghdad, attackers earlier in the day kill 27. (2017, January 5). US News. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-01-05/iraqi-officials-suicide-car-bombing-kills-11-in-baghdad
Suicide bombing in Baghdad kills at least 36. (2017, January 2). The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/02/world/middleeast/iraq-baghdad-market-suicide-bombing-islamic-state.html