23 November 2006 Sadr City Bombings - Casualties and Aftermath

Casualties and Aftermath

The attacks killed at least 215 people and injured 257 others, making it the second deadliest sectarian attack since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. Following the attacks, the Iraqi government placed Baghdad under 24-hour curfew beginning at 20:00 Baghdad time (17:00 GMT), shut down Baghdad International Airport to commercial traffic, and closed the docks and airport in Basra, Iraq. The curfew was lifted on 27 November.

The Shi'ites responded almost immediately, firing 10 mortar rounds at the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque as Azamiya, the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad, killing one person and wounding seven. The morning of 24 November 2006, the Associated Press reported that Shiite militiamen retaliated for the attacks, dousing six Sunni Arabs in kerosene and burning them alive. The Iraqi Army could not confirm the reports of Sunnis being burned alive, and found only one mosque that had suffered fire damage.