April 2009 Baghdad–Miqdadiyah suicide attacks
{{Short description|2009 Suicide attacks in Iraq}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Baghdad–Miqdadiyah suicide attacks
| image =
| caption =
| location = Baghdad and Miqdadiyah, Iraq
| coordinates =
| date = {{Start date|2009|4|23|df=y}}
| time =
| timezone =
| type = 2 suicide attacks
| injuries = At least 103
| perps = unidentified
| susperps =
| susperp =
| weapons = Explosives
| numpart =
| dfens =
| dfen =
| motive = Anti-Shi'a sentiment
}}
On 23 April 2009, two separate suicide attacks occurred in Baghdad and Miqdadiyah. At least seventy-six people are known to have died in the attacks, including several Iranian pilgrims. The Los Angeles Times puts the death toll at seventy-nine.{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/wireless/avantgo/la-fg-iraq-bombings24-2009apr24,0,7590811.story|title=Iraq suicide bombings kill 79|date=24 April 2009|access-date=29 April 2009|work=Los Angeles Times|first1=Liz|last1=Sly|first2=Usama|last2=Redha|archive-date=3 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203163640/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-apr-24-fg-iraq-bombings24-story.html|url-status=live}} Most of the forty-eight people killed in Muqdadiyah, near Baqubah, Diyala Province, are believed to have been Iranian nationals. According to the BBC, if the death tolls are confirmed, these attacks were the most lethal of 2009.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8014390.stm|title=Suicide bombs kill scores in Iraq|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|work=BBC News| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090424012027/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8014390.stm| archive-date= 24 April 2009 | url-status= live}}
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 in the Basil square in the Alwehda district.{{cite web|url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0423/iraq.html|title=75 die in Iraq bomb blasts|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|publisher=RTÉ News| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090424182910/http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0423/iraq.html| archive-date= 24 April 2009 | url-status= live}} 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 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 was targeted at 12:45 pm The Iranians had paused for lunch as they embarked on a pilgrimage to a Shi'a Muslim 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
{{Campaignbox Iraq War terrorism}}
Baghdad's security spokesman, Maj-Gen Qassim Moussawi, said: "It is a suicide bomber. Obviously that has the fingerprints of al-Qaeda”.{{cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0423/breaking36.htm|title=Iraqi bomb attacks kill almost 70|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|newspaper=The Irish Times|archive-date=9 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109150918/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/iraqi-bomb-attacks-kill-76-1.839462|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5208429/70-killed-in-Iraq-suicide-bombings.html|title=70 killed in Iraq suicide bombings|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | first1=Our | last1=Foreign| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090426213350/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5208429/70-killed-in-Iraq-suicide-bombings.html| archive-date= 26 April 2009 | url-status= live}}
Also other Iraqi officials, and the Los Angeles Times suggested, without citing sources, alleged that the Islamic State of Iraq organization was involved in the bombings.
Reaction
The Washington Post called 23 April "the bloodiest day in Iraq this year".{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR2009042300710.html?nav=rss_nation/special|title=Suicide Bombers Kill More Than 70 in Baghdad, Diyala Province|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|newspaper=The Washington Post|first1=Ernesto|last1=LondoñO|first2=Aziz|last2=Alwan|archive-date=7 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107222751/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR2009042300710.html?nav=rss_nation/special|url-status=live}} Reuters 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53M31W20090423|title=Suicide attacks kill 76 as Iraq reports arrest|date=23 April 2009|access-date=23 April 2009|work=Reuters| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090424102531/https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53M31W20090423| archive-date= 24 April 2009 | url-status= live}}
These attacks were followed a day later by two more suicide attacks which killed sixty people at the al-Kādhimiya Mosque in Baghdad.{{cite web|url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/iraqi-police-say-60-dead-in-double-shrine-bombing-1.392626|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813115855/http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090424/Iraq_bombs_090424/20090424/|url-status=live|archive-date=13 August 2009|title=Iraqi police say 60 dead in double shrine bombing|date=24 April 2009|access-date=27 April 2009|publisher=CTV News}}
References
{{Portal|Iraq}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Coord|33.978611|N|44.936944|E|display=title}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baghdad-Miqdadiyah suicide attacks, 2009}}
Category:Bombings in the Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)
Category:Al-Qaeda activities in Iraq
Category:Suicide bombings in Iraq
Category:Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2009
Category:Terrorist incidents in Baghdad in the 2000s
Category:Diyala Governorate in the Iraq War
Category:Suicide bombings in Baghdad
Category:Violations of medical neutrality during the Iraq War