Bab Al-Sharqi is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

of central

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. It is bordered with Shorja and

Bataween Al-Bataween is a neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq. It is located in eastern region of Baghdad, on the riverside of the Tigris and is part of Karrada, Karrada district. Prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it was the main Jewish quarter (diaspora), Jew ...

. The area surrounding Bab Al-Sharqi market is a stronghold of the

Mahdi Army The Mahdi Army () was an Iraqi Shia militia created by Muqtada al-Sadr in June 2003 and disbanded in 2008. The Mahdi Army rose to international prominence on April 4, 2004, when it spearheaded the first major armed confrontation against the ...

, the main Shia militia in central Iraq..

Background

This Shi'a neighborhood saw some of the most intense sectarian fighting during

Operation Iraqi Freedom The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with the invasion by a United States-led coalition, which resulted in the overthrow of the Ba'athist governm ...

. It continued to be plagued by routine attacks as late as 2016. Bab al-Sharqi is located on the east bank of the Tigris River, near the Jumhuriya Bridge. It is directly across the river from the Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Information and the

Green Zone The Green Zone () is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It is a area in the Karkh, Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq. It is the chief government precinct and the seat of the Iraqi government. History Pre-200 ...

22 January 2007 Car Bombs

On 22 January 2007 two powerful

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, van bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roug ...

s ripped through the Bab Al-Sharqi market in

, killing at least 88 people and wounding 160 others in one of the bloodiest

insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

attacks of

. The attack coincided with the arrival of 3,200 additional troops into Baghdad as part of the troop surge of 2007. Only three months after the devastating attack, Senator

Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin Graham (; born July 9, 1955) is an American politician and attorney serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A membe ...

complained that the media was not giving the American people "the full picture of what's going on here." Though he mostly stayed within the heavily secured Green Zone, and traveled outside the Green Zone only with a heavily armed military escort, he unabashedly told reporters of the "signs of success" he witnessed on his visit to Bab al-Sharqi:

30 January 2015 Bombings

On 30 January 2015, two bombs exploded in the Bab al-Sharqi district of

, killing at least 19 people and wounding 28 others. The attack was part of ongoing violence in the city, with insurgent groups frequently targeting areas such as this.

21 January 2021 Twin Suicide Bombings

On 21 January 2021, twin

suicide bombings A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

struck a crowded market in Baghdad's Bab Al-Sharqi district. The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 32 people and left over 100 others wounded. It was one of the deadliest incidents in

in recent years, occurring amid a period of relative calm. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but officials suspected it was the work of extremist militants.

References

Neighborhoods in Baghdad {{Iraq-geo-stub