17 August 2010 Baghdad Bombings

On 17 August 2010, two bomb attacks occurred in Baghdad, Iraq, amid political uncertainty following the 2010 Iraqi parliamentary election. The bombings came one day after former Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi withdrew from coalition talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, reportedly over concerns that al-Maliki was pushing for a sectarian division of government. The attacks also occurred as the United States was reducing its troop presence in Iraq, from just under 60,000 toward a planned 50,000 by 31 August, and marked the first major attack of that year's Ramadan.

The first attack took place in the morning outside the Iraqi Army division headquarters near the Bab al-Muadhan (Great Gate) by the Tigris River and the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building in downtown Baghdad. Unemployed people had queued for hours seeking to join the army when a suicide bomber approached and detonated his explosives among the crowd. An interior ministry official said most of the victims were recruits, though soldiers guarding the recruitment center were also among the casualties, with at least three soldiers killed and eight wounded. In total, the bombing killed over 60 people and wounded more than 100.

The second attack occurred the same evening, at approximately 21:30, in the majority-Shia neighborhood of Hay Ur. A bomb attached to a fuel truck loaded with kerosene exploded, killing eight people and wounding 44 others.

Iraqi government spokesman Gen. Al-Moussawi immediately attributed the bombings to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Within three days, the Islamic State of Iraq, which included al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the first bombing, stating it had targeted "a group of Shias and apostates who sold their faith for money and to be a tool in the war on Iraqi Sunnis." The group also claimed its operative had passed through checkpoints before detonating an explosives belt in a crowd of officers and recruits outside the army headquarters.

A White House spokesman responded to the attacks, acknowledging that "there obviously are still people who want to derail the advances that the Iraqi people have made toward democracy," while asserting that Iraq's political process was "firmly on track" and that the United States remained confident in the planned end of its combat mission. The spokesman also characterized ongoing political competition over Iraq's government formation as "a good thing."

No individuals have been named or charged in connection with these attacks.