A prominent civil society advocate was shot dead late on Sunday in Iraq’s shrine city of Karbalah while returning home from anti-government protests, a neighbor told reporters.
Fahem al-Tai, 53, had been taking part in weeks of rallies denouncing Iraq’s entrenched political elite as corrupt, inept and beholden to neighboring Iran.
On Sunday night, he was dropped off by two friends on a motorcycle near his home, a neighbor said.
“The area is close to the shrines, the police station, the provincial headquarters — it’s a very secure area,” they said. “He was with two of his friends when he was killed.”
In footage from a street security camera seen by reporters, Tai could be seen disembarking from a motorcycle when another motorcycle with two men pulled up behind him.
The passenger could be seen shooting Tai at least twice with a pistol that appeared to have a silencer on it, before the driver also begins shooting.
The footage shows the advocate collapsing and the assailants driving off.
The gunmen and a white vehicle then chased down the two advocates who had dropped Tai off, a relative said.
One of them was shot in the back, but they both survived.
More than 450 people have died and another 20,000 have been wounded since anti-regime rallies erupted in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and Shiite-majority south in October.
They include several advocates gunned down in mysterious circumstances or abducted and later found dead.
In one particularly gruesome case last week, the bruised body of 19-year-old Zahra Ali was left outside her family home in Baghdad, hours after she had gone missing.
On Friday, relatives of Zeid al-Khafaji, a 22-year-old photographer, said he had been abducted while returning from Tahrir Square in the capital.
Protesters have for weeks complained of being monitored, threatened and harassed in an intimidation campaign meant to keep them from pursuing their movement.
There has been minimal accountability for the casualties or the kidnappings.
Tai, married with children, had been publicly critical of other intimidation attempts against protesters.
ROCKET ATTACK
Several rockets yesterday slammed into an Iraqi military complex that hosts US forces next to Baghdad International Airport, wounding six Iraqi troops, the military said.
Security forces found launchers with rockets that had not been fired properly, indicating a larger attack was planned, a military statement said.
It is the latest in an uptick in rocket attacks targeting either Iraqi bases where US troops are located or the US embassy in Baghdad.
US defense officials have blamed several on Iran-backed factions in Iraq.
Security sources told reporters that the wounded in the attack belong to Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service, an elite unit that was created and trained by US forces.
Two of them are in critical condition, the sources said.
The military complex also hosts a small group of US soldiers and diplomats.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese