SOLVEDListenBaghdad, Iraq · 2000s
Abduction of Russian Diplomats in Iraq
In June 2006, insurgents ambushed a Russian Embassy car in Baghdad, killing one guard and abducting four staff who were later killed by their captors.
What happened
The Green Zone Café was a restaurant located in the northeast corner of the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq. The establishment operated out of a fabric-and-metal-frame building constructed in the parking lot of a former filling station. It was known as a popular and successful business that primarily served the Western inhabitants of the Green Zone, offering Arab cuisine along with alcohol and hookahs.
On October 14, 2004, the restaurant was destroyed by a backpack bomb. The attack killed one patron and wounded five others. The bombing occurred within the Green Zone, an area of central Baghdad that housed coalition and Iraqi government facilities as well as businesses catering largely to foreign personnel and contractors.
Following the attack, the restaurant remained closed for approximately a year before reopening briefly in October 2005. During this second period of operation, a liquor store was also established alongside the café, which was primarily patronized by security contractors. The reopened business was subsequently closed when the Iraqi government confiscated the property.
