Haifa Street

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haifa Street (or Hayfa Street) is a two-mile-long street in Baghdad, Iraq.^[1] It runs northwest from the Assassin's Gate, an archway that served as the main entrance to the American-run Green Zone during the 2003 invasion of Iraq,^[1] paralleling the Tigris river.^[2] It was named "Haifa" in the 1980s by Saddam Hussein in honor of the Israeli port city of Haifa, which many Arabs see as a part of aspired future Palestinian state^[1] (though Haifa lies on coastal plain, does not belong to the Palestinian territories and is situated far beyond the Green Line). The street is lined with many high-rise buildings.

[edit] During the American invasion of Iraq

Haifa Street was the location of the June 2004 Operation Haifa Street,^[3] and the September 2004 "Haifa Street helicopter incident", in which 12 people were killed as US troops battled insurgents who fired a salvo of mortars into Iraq's government compound, orchestrated two failed car bombings and assassinated a security official. Two days later a massive car bombing on Haifa Street killed 47.^[4] American troops stationed in Baghdad at the time dubbed the street "Grenade Alley" and "Purple Heart Boulevard".^[5] By mid-2005 there were reports that conditions on Haifa Street had calmed,^[1]^[6] and control of the street was turned over to Iraqi forces in February of 2006^[7] but as of early 2007 the street remains riddled with insurgent hideouts. Fifty people were killed in a US-led operation there on January 9, 2007^[8] and another thirty were killed on January 24.^[9] The street's residents are predominantly Sunni and some have claimed that American forces had been duped by Iraq's Shia-dominated security forces into helping drive them out.^[7]