Massive Bank Heist in Central Baghdad
Guards Pull off Inside Job, Netting $282 Million Cash
Posted 20 hr. 30 min. ago
File photo - Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Guards staged one of the largest bank robberies in Iraqi history, making off with a stunning $282 million dollars in cash from a private bank in central Baghdad, Aswat al-Iraq reports in Arabic.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Interior Ministry source told Aswat al-Iraq that, “Three guards working for the Dar al-Salam Bank located on Sa'adoun Street in central Baghdad were able to attack the bank . . . stealing a sum of up to $282 million dollars, and fled in an unknown direction after implementing the operation.”

“The bank robbery is considered one of the most massive thefts to ever happen in Iraq,” the source continued.

The bank did not offer any additional details on the matter, saying on that the Iraqi security forces “opened an investigation into the event to learn details and the identities of the perpetrators.”

The New York Times confirms that the stolen money was denomiated in US dollars, not Iraqi dinars. The Times also writes that police sources said only two guards were involved in the operation.

Security officials were not sure why the bank had such a large sum of cash on hand, the Times writes, and speculated that the perpetrators of the robbery may have been linked to militias, citing the ease of the getaway in a city thick with checkpoints.

While the sum of $282 million is massive, especially by Iraqi standards, it would fund less than one day of US expenses for operations in Iraq.

It is also far less than the estimated $1 billion alleged stolen by former regime officials from Iraq's central bank in 2003 as the US launched its bombing campaign in advance of the ground invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and the Ba'thist regime. The 2003 Baghdad robbery is considered by some to be the largest bank robbery in history.

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