BAGHDAD: Iraq’s interior ministry and police on Monday stated that two Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants had been attacked in Baghdad, over the last 48 hours.

The attacks damaged the restaurants’; however, no injuries were reported. Since the attacks, Iraqi security forces have arrested ‘some’ suspects.

Initial investigations depict that the restaurants were targeted over the perceived support of ‘US-based’ brands for Israel (amidst the war in the Gaza Strip), according to police sources.

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Police sources said the first attack occurred in the early hours of Sunday. Two men riding a motorcycle threw a make-shift bomb at a branch of the American fried chicken chains’ restaurant in eastern Baghdad’s ‘Palestine Street’, which caused ‘minor damage’.

On Monday, a KFC branch in Baghdad and a second ‘American-style restaurant’ were attacked by a group of masked men, who broke into the restaurants and used sticks to ‘smash glass and destroy furniture’. The men fled the scene before the arrival of security forces, police sources say.

KFC did not immediately comment on the attacks. The interior ministry did not elaborate on the motives behind the attacks and said a police commander and other officers responsible for the areas where the attacks occurred had been ’detained and are facing punitive measures.

Western brands have been hit by boycotts and other forms of protest by a largely spontaneous, grassroots campaign over Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024