Operation Ashura was an Iraqi Army and Popular Mobilization Forces military operation which was carried out against ISIL from 24 to 26 October 2014 during the Iraqi Civil War. The Iraqi government succeeded in recapturing Babil Governorate from the Salafist insurgents, thus ensuring that 2014's Ashura holiday was safe from terrorist threats.
History[]
In 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured the predominantly-Sunni town of Jurf al-Sakhar to the south of Baghdad and on the road to Karbala, where millions of Shia pilgrims would flock during the Ashura holiday. On 24 October 2014, the Iraqi Army and Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias launched a counterattack against ISIL in Jurf al-Sakhar with the goal of ensuring Karbala's safety before Ashura. The Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani coordinated the offensive in person, and the Iraqis succeeded in killing 498 ISIL militants, including 35 Saudi Arabians, 30 Chechens, and 24 Syrians; 60 of them were snipers and 29 were suicide bombers. On 29 October, the Iraqi government shut down Jurf al-Sakhar's downtown area for eight months of demining. The Babylon Provincial Council proceeded to rename Jurf al-Sakhar to Jurf al-Nasr in honor of the Iraqi victory.