2004 Erbil bombing | |
---|---|
Part of Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006) in Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011) | |
Location | Erbil, Kurdistan Region |
Date | February 1, 2004 |
Target | Headquarters of PUK and KDP |
Attack type | Suicide bombings |
Deaths | 117 |
Injured | 133 |
Perpetrators | Two Al-Qaeda members |
Motive | PUK and KDP alliance with the United States |
The 2004 Erbil bombings was a double suicide attack on the offices of Iraqi Kurdish political parties in Erbil, Kurdistan Region on 1 February 2004. The attackers detonated explosives strapped to their bodies as hundreds gathered to celebrate Eid Al-Adha in Erbil. [1]
A former government minister, the deputy governor of Erbil Governorate and the city's police chief were among those killed at the offices of the Kurdistan Region's main political groups, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The attacks occurred as party leaders were receiving hundreds of visitors to mark the start of Eid.
The Al-Hayat newspaper allegedly speculated that the bombings may have been retribution for the capture of bin Laden's courier Hassan Ghul in The Kurdistan Region. [2]
"We have no group that's claimed responsibility," Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said, saying al Qaeda or Ansar al-Islam, a northern Iraq group with suspected al Qaeda ties, could be responsible. "It could be any number of groups attempting to operate inside Iraq," he added. [3]
Ansar al-Islam in Kurdistan, simply called Ansar al-Islam, was a Kurdish Islamist militant and separatist group. It was established in northern Iraq around the Kurdistan Region by Kurdish Islamists who were former Taliban and former Al-Qaeda volunteers, which were coming back from Afghanistan in 2001 after the Fall of Kabul. It was formed with the motive of establishing an Islamic state around the Kurdistan region and protecting Kurds from other armed insurgent groups during the Iraqi insurgency. It imposed strict Sharia in villages it controlled around Byara near the Iranian border.
Jamaat Ansar al-Sunnah, also known as Jaish Ansar al-Sunna, Ali ibn Abi Talib Battalion or simply as Ansar al-Sunnah was an Iraqi Sunni insurgent group that fought against US troops and their local allies during the Iraq War. The group was primarily based in northern and central Iraq, and included mostly Iraqi fighters. In 2007, it split; with its Kurdish members pledging allegiance to Ansar al-Islam, and its Arab members creating a group called Ansar al-Sunnah Shariah Committee, before changing its name to Ansar al-Ahlu Sunnah in 2011.
Events in the year 2005 in Iraq.
The 1996 cruise missile strikes on Iraq, codenamed Operation Desert Strike, were joint United States Navy–United States Air Force strikes conducted on 3 September against air defense targets in southern Iraq, in response to an Iraqi offensive in the Kurdish Civil War.
The Qahtaniyah bombings occurred on August 14, 2007, when four coordinated suicide car bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi towns of Til Ezer (al-Qahtaniyah) and Siba Sheikh Khidir (al-Jazirah), in northern Iraq.
In 2003, there were 25 suicide bombings executed by 32 attackers.
From 2001 to 2003, there was a military conflict in Iraqi Kurdistan, between the Kurdistan Region and the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan. The conflict began in 2001 as a conflict over governance of Iraqi Kurdistan. In the first battle of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Operation Viking Hammer was launched, and the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan dissolved. After the offensive, most of the Islamic Emirate of Kurdistan officials were exiled to Iran. Ansar al-Islam moved southwards to participate in the Iraqi insurgency and, after it was quelled, the Syrian civil war.
The August 2009 Baghdad bombings were three coordinated car bomb attacks and a number of mortar strikes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on 19 August 2009. The explosives were detonated simultaneously across the capital at approximately 10:45 in the morning, killing at least 101 people and wounding at least 565, making it the deadliest attack since the 14 August 2007 Yazidi communities bombings in northern Iraq which killed almost 800 people. The bombings targeted both government and privately-owned buildings.
Erbil, also called Hawler, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The city is the capital of the Erbil Governorate.
2004 was most notably marked by a series of battles in Fallujah. See Fallujah during the Iraq War.
Events in the year 2010 in Iraq.
The Kurdistan Brigades, are a militant Islamist organization, primarily active in the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Iran. It is the official Kurdish branch of al-Qaeda. It has also launched several attacks on the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq. The group was overshadowed by other Islamist factions but remains active.
The Iraqi insurgency was an insurgency that began in late 2011 after the end of the Iraq War and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, resulting in violent conflict with the central government, as well as low-level sectarian violence among Iraq's religious groups.
The Islamic State of Iraq was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law in Iraq.
The following lists events that happened during 2014 in Iraq.
This is a timeline of events during the War in Iraq in 2015.
The 2005 Erbil bombing was a suicide attack on the offices of Kurdish political parties in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, on May 4, 2005. The attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body as people lined up outside a police recruiting center in Erbil. Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility. This attack is an example of religious terrorism, groups who commit terrorist acts because of religion believe that their deity or deities are on their side and that their violence is divinely inspired and approved. This attack is also an example of Strategic terrorism. Which is a form of terrorism where the terrorist plans to inflict mass casualties. The goals of Strategic terrorism are normally not local objectives but global objectives or regional objectives. Ansar al-Sunna's goal is to transform the country of Iraq into an Islamic state so their goals are regional.
2013 was the year in which the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant adopted that name. The group expanded its territorial control in Syria and began to do so in Iraq also, and committed acts of terrorism in both countries and in Turkey.
Shia Muslims have been persecuted by the Islamic State (IS), an Islamist terrorist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the world.