| 2007 Qahtaniyah bombings | |
|---|---|
| Part of theIraq War,Iraqi insurgency, and theIraqi civil war | |
| Location | Til Ezer andSiba Sheikh Khidir,Nineveh Governorate, Iraq |
| Date | August 14, 2007 (UTC+3) |
| Target | Yazidis |
Attack type | Suicidetruck bombs |
| Deaths | 796 (+4 bombers) |
| Injured | 1,562+ |
| Perpetrators | Unknown,al-Qaeda suspected |
TheQahtaniyah bombings occurred on August 14, 2007, when four coordinatedsuicidecar bomb attacksdetonated in theYazidi towns ofTil Ezer (al-Qahtaniyah) andSiba Sheikh Khidir (al-Jazirah), in northern Iraq.
796 people were killed and at least 1,500 others were wounded,[1][2][3] making it theIraq War's deadliest car bomb attack. It is also the fourth deadliest act ofterrorism in world history, after theSeptember 11 attacks in the United States, theCamp Speicher massacre, also in Iraq.[4] No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
For several months leading up to the attack, tensions had been building up in the area, particularly betweenYazidis andSunniMuslims (bothArabs andKurds). Some Yazidis living in the area received threatening letters calling them "infidels".[5] Leaflets were also distributed denouncing Yazidis as "anti-Islamic" and warning them that an attack was imminent.[6][7]
The attack was possibly connected with themurder of Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17-year-old Yazidi girl, who wasstoned to death by fellow Yazidis four months earlier. Aswad was believed to have wanted toconvert in order to marry aSunni.[8][9] Two weeks later, after a video of the stoning appeared on the Internet, Sunni gunmen[10] stopped minibuses filled with Yazidis;23 Yazidi men were forced from a bus and shot dead.[11]
TheSinjar area, which has a mixed population ofYazidis,Kurds,Assyrians,Turkmen andArabs, was scheduled to vote in aplebiscite on accession to theKurdistan Region in December 2007. This caused hostility among the neighbouring Arab communities. A force of 600 KurdishPeshmerga was subsequently deployed in the area, and ditches were dug around Yazidi villages to prevent further attacks.[12]
The bombings occurred at around 7:20 pm on August 14, 2007, when four co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Yazidi towns ofQahtaniyah andJazeera (Siba Sheikh Khidir), nearMosul,Nineveh Governorate, northern Iraq. They targeted the Yazidis, areligious minority in Iraq,[13][14] using afuel tanker and three cars. AnIraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said that two tons ofexplosives were used in the blasts, which crumbled buildings, trapping entire families beneathmud bricks and other wreckage as entire neighborhoods were flattened. Rescuers dug underneath the destroyed buildings by hand to search for remaining survivors.[15]
"Hospitals here are running out of medicine. The pharmacies are empty. We need food, medicine and water otherwise there will be an even greater catastrophe," said Abdul-Rahim al-Shammari, mayor of theAl-Ba'aj District, which includes the devastated villages.[16]
There were 796 people killed and at least 1,562 more wounded.[1][2][3]
No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Iraq'sPresident,Jalal Talabani, accused IraqiSunniinsurgents of the bombings, pointing at the history of Sunni violence against Yazidis. They were reported to have distributed leaflets denouncing Yazidis as "anti-Islamic".[17] Although the attacks carryal-Qaeda's signature of multiple simultaneous attacks, it is unclear why they would refrain from claiming responsibility for such a successful operation. "We're looking at Al-Qaeda as the prime suspect," saidLieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver, aUnited States military spokesman.[18]
On September 3, 2007, theU.S. military reportedly killed the suspected mastermind of the bombings, Abu Muhammad al-Afri.[19]
