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The 23 April 2009 Iraqi suicide attacks were two separate
suicide attacks which occurred in
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 ...
and
Muqdadiyah
Miqdadiyah ( ar, المقدادية; ku, Şareban, شارهبان) is a city in the Diyala Governorate of Iraq. Its population is a mix of Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds. The city is located about 80 km (50 mi) northeast of Baghdad and 30&nbs ...
, Iraq, on 23 April 2009. At least seventy-six people are known to have died in the attacks, including several
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian pilgrims. The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' puts the death toll at seventy-nine.
Most of the forty-eight people killed in Muqdadiyah, near
Baqubah
Baqubah ( ar, بَعْقُوبَة; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated populat ...
, Diyala Province, are believed to have been Iranian nationals. According to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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, if the death tolls are confirmed, these attacks were the most lethal of 2009.
Attacks
Baghdad
At least eighty people are known to have died in Baghdad when an explosive belt was detonated by a female.
Police were said to have been assisting and administering aid to
homeless people
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
in the Basil square in the
Alwehda district.
Over fifty people were wounded in the attack.
A minimum of six National Police officers were killed, with one police officer describing how he carried off three bodies belonging to his colleagues whose uniforms were "drenched in blood".
Five children and two
Red Crescent
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
volunteers were counted amongst the dead.
Thirty-five-year-old Issam Salim, a survivor injured by shrapnel as he waited for a bus, said: "I turned around as I fell to the ground and saw a big fire break out with black smoke. Women and children are crying from pain beside me in the hospital. Some of them suffered burns."
The scene in the aftermath of the attack was said to have been marked by chaos.
Muqdadiyah
At least forty-eight people, all but two of whom were Iranian pilgrims, were killed and approximately sixty-three others were injured when the New Khanaqin restaurant in
Muqdadiyah
Miqdadiyah ( ar, المقدادية; ku, Şareban, شارهبان) is a city in the Diyala Governorate of Iraq. Its population is a mix of Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds. The city is located about 80 km (50 mi) northeast of Baghdad and 30&nbs ...
was targeted at 12:45 pm
The Iranians had paused for lunch as they embarked on a pilgrimage to a
Shi'a Muslim
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
religious site in Baghdad.
Sixty-four-year-old pilgrim, Kadhumi Sadiq, said: "While the waiter was serving us food a powerful explosion took place and the restaurant turned black. I suffered burns on my head, chest and hands".
The restaurant was left demolished in the aftermath of the attack.
Abdulnasir al-Muntasirbillah, the recently sworn-in mayor of the region, visited the local hospital, describing the scene as "catastrophic" and the attack as dirty and cowardly.
Perpetrators
Baghdad's security spokesman, Maj-Gen Qassim Moussawi, said: "It is a suicide bomber. Obviously that has the fingerprints of
al-Qaeda”.
Also other Iraqi officials, and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' suggested, without citing sources, the involvement of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Reaction
''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' called 23 April "the bloodiest day in Iraq this year".
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
said it "appeared to be Iraq's bloodiest day in over a year" and surpassed an 11 December 2008 attack in
Kirkuk which killed fifty.
These attacks were followed a day later by two more suicide attacks which killed sixty people at the
al-Kādhimiya Mosque in Baghdad.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iraqi Suicide Attacks
2009 murders in Iraq
21st-century mass murder in Iraq
Mass murder in 2009
Al-Qaeda activities in Iraq
Suicide bombings in Iraq
Iraqi suicide attacks, 23 April
2000s in Baghdad
Terrorist incidents in Baghdad
April 2009 events in Iraq