Activists continue to be killed in Basra
The killing of an Iraqi activist in Bara took place even as Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi was visiting Washington; it was just the latest in a series of violent attacks against protesters and others in the southern city.
As the US-Iraq Strategic Dialogue continued with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s visit to Washington, yet another activist was gunned down in her car Aug. 19 in southern Iraq.
A few days before, another female activist and others narrowly escaped an attempt on their lives. A friend of both women had been killed Aug. 14, sparking protests.
Killings and abductions have been a constant for years in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and driving force behind its economy due to its oil industry and port. But many suspect that persistent accusations of US support for protests that led to the resignation of the previous prime minister late last year and that online campaigns to discredit specific activists by implying they are being “paid” by the United States have played a part in the recent killings.
One of the first moves by Kadhimi, sworn in as prime minister in May, had been to arrest members of a little-known Shiite armed group in Basra, Thaar Allah. In June, he ordered a raid of the headquarters of Kataib Hezbollah in southern Baghdad.
