 In September 2011, 22 Shia pilgrims en route from Damascus to Karbala were stopped at a fake checkpoint near Nukhayb, and then killed by gunmen.In another false checkpoint attack, 14 Iraqi border guards were killed by militants in June 2013.Reports in summer of 2014 indicated that the Iraqi Army and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) clashed in the town, with government troops "fleeing" towards Karbala.