Iraq experienced a brief but significant connectivity disruption in the early hours of September 3, 2026. The event began at 03:30 UTC and lasted for approximately one hour, affecting multiple network measurement signals. The most severe impact was recorded on the ping-slash24 and merit-nt signals.
Technical Details
The disruption recorded an aggregate severity score of 15,096,381. The ping-slash24 signal, which measures ICMP reachability across IPv4 network blocks, saw a severity score of 2,637 and a 69% drop from its peak value between 03:30 and 04:10 UTC. Concurrently, the merit-nt signal, a proxy for aggregate connectivity based on backscatter measurements, recorded a severity score of 5,724 and a 90% drop from its peak, remaining affected until 04:30 UTC.
Other signals showed less pronounced deviations. Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) control plane visibility for prefixes saw only a minor 3% drop. The gtr-norm signal, which tracks deviations from an expected traffic baseline, recorded a 45% drop from its peak. The cause has not been publicly attributed. Connectivity was reported restored by 04:30 UTC.
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