The Assassin's Gate is one of four primary points of entry to the

Green Zone The Green Zone ( ar, المنطقة الخضراء, translit=al-minṭaqah al-ḫaḍrā) is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It was a area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental ...

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 Ctesipho ...

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 Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. The name originates from Assassins Company, a US Army armor unit (Alpha Company - radio call sign "Assassins" - 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regt., 2nd Brigade, 3D Infantry Division, which combined with combat engineer and infantry companies to form Task Force 464 in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.) In the taking of Baghdad on April 7, 2003, Assassins Company led the assault on the government center and palace district that later became the Green Zone. On April 8, the unit repelled a significant pre-dawn counterattack through Assassins' Gate, by the Jumhuriyah Bridge. As many as 60 Iraqi soldiers and fedayeen fighters are reported to have been killed in about four hours of fighting. Several of the American tankers up in their hatches were wounded by fire coming down from surrounding buildings before

A-10 Warthog The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

s and

F/A-18 The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twinjet, twin-engine, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a Fighter aircraft, ...

s were called in to destroy the buildings and work over a bunker complex in the adjacent park. Around mid-morning, while searching for a suspected Iraqi forward artillery observer whose radio transmissions were being monitored, one of the tanks fired at the Hotel Palestine from the Jumhuriyah Bridge, killing two European journalists the tank commander said he believed were enemy observers. This prompted accusations by media groups of purposeful targeting of journalists. A Spanish judge brought murder charges against the tank commander, the company commander and the battalion commander. A US military investigation cleared the soldiers of any intentional wrongdoing. Assassins Company provided security at the gate for several months after the invasion, at one point facing a hostile crowd at the barricade, with the order given to fix bayonets, while at least one soldier was stabbed and wounded by someone in the crowd, according to soldiers who were present. The name Assassins' Gate does not have any Iraqi origin. It is described as "a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

arch An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it. Arches may be synonymous with vau ...

." This gate was also the site of a devastating attack from a vehicle-borne improvised explosive that left a deep crater early one morning on January 18, 2004. Many civilians were killed as they entered the gate for their daily jobs inside the Green Zone.

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Buildings and structures in Baghdad Arches and vaults Domes Gates {{iraq-struct-stub