Gun violence in the United States continues to make headlines around the world, but Iraq’s Kurdistan Region is having its own struggle with the issue. In June, a law student at Erbil’s Soran University fatally shot a dean after being expelled for poor grades.
This was not the first shooting in the region this year. The Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported that in April, military police shot and killed a civilian. Days after the law school shooting, a man entered a couple’s house in Erbil and killed both of them. On July 21, a gunfight broke out during a kidnapping attempt in front of a police station in Erbil, the Kurdish news outlet NRT reported.