Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad significant event Canal Hotel bombing
Activities
Attacks
After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the establishment of a governing Provisional Authority, an insurgency quickly emerged. Dozens of insurgent attacks were claimed by, or attributed to, JTJ in the following months:August 7, 2003: Jordanian embassy bombing in Baghdad which killed 17 and injured at least 40. The Jamestown Foundation considered Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad responsible for this attack.
August 19, 2003: Canal Hotel bombing that killed chief of the United Nations Mission to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 22 others at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. More than 100 were injured. Zarqawi claimed responsibility for this attack in April 2004, saying the U.N. "gave Palestine to the Jews so they can humiliate our people" and are "friends of the [American] oppressors".
August 29, 2003: the Shia Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than 85 others, was claimed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the New York Sun wrote in 2007. More than 500 were injured.
November 12, 2003: The truck bombing in Nasiriyah which killed 17 Italian paramilitary policemen partaking in the U.S.-led 'Multi-National Force', and 10 civilians and injured at least 100. The Jamestown Foundation considered Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad responsible for this attack.
March 2, 2004: Series of bombings in Baghdad and Karbala that killed some 178 Shi'ite civilians and wounded at least 500 during the holy Day of Ashura. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy held "Zarqawi's group" responsible.
April 19, 2004: Failed plot to explode chemical bombs in Amman, Jordan, said to be financed by Zarqawi's network.
April 24, 2004: In a statement published on the Muntada al-Ansar Islamist web site, Zarqawi took responsibility for a series of suicide boat bombings of oil pumping stations in the Persian Gulf.
May 18, 2004: Car bomb assassination of Iraqi Governing Council President Ezzedine Salim in Baghdad. The Jama'at group stated on an Islamist website that they were "determined to lift the humiliation from our nation (...) Another lion has removed the rotten head of those who betray God and sell their religion to the Americans and their allies".
June 18, 2004: The suicide car bombing in Baghdad near an Iraqi Army recruitment center that killed 35 civilians, and wounded 145. Jama'at was blamed.
August 1, 2004: six churches in Baghdad and Mosul were attacked, 12 people killed and 71 wounded. Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, blamed the attacks on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
September 14, 2004: Car bomb killed 47 and injured nearly 100 civilians and police recruits on Haifa Street in Baghdad.
September 30, 2004: Baghdad bombing which killed 41 people, mostly children. Jama'at claimed responsibility for attacks on the day, but it was unclear if this was included.
The October 2004 massacre of 49 unarmed Iraqi National Guard recruits was claimed by JTJ.
December 3, 2004: Failed attempt to blow up an Iraqi–Jordanian border crossing, for which al-Zarqawi and two of his associates were sentenced to death in absentia by a Jordanian court in 2006