Iraqi protesters were gunned down by security forces in Baghdad on Tuesday after they rallied against a series of extrajudicial assassinations of activists. As if to show that there is complete impunity for killing civilians in Iraq, the forces shot the very people who were angry that people are being targeted and killed. In short: If you protest in Iraq they will shoot you. If you are an activist you will be hunted down by militias, many of them linked to Iran, and killed.
For young activists, the protests since September 2019 have been a defining moment. They expected a peace dividend after the horrors of the war on ISIS. Some had joined to fight the extremists and served in the Popular Mobilization Units between 2014 and 2019. The war over, they wanted security, jobs and peace. They returned to economic and environmental disasters in central and southern Iraq. Despite Iraq sitting atop an ocean of oil, the economy is a disaster.
Iran has scrambled to sponge up Iraq’s resources and move its economy to Iran, piece by piece making Baghdad dependent on Tehran. Iran treats Iraq like what the Russians call the “near abroad,” the way Russia once treated Ukraine. In short: Iran’s problems are outsourced to Iraq. With Iran under sanctions, Iran used its Arab neighbor as a dumping ground for drug trafficking and economic failure. It also sent militias linked to the IRGC Quds Force to take over Iraq’s economy and establish checkpoints in areas retaken from ISIS.
Other countries have let Iraq down as well. Billions promised for reconstruction have only trickled in. Although Saudi Arabia and Iraq are patching things up, many pro-Iran voices oppose Gulf involvement in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Turkey has moved into the Kurdistan autonomous region, moving banks into Erbil and playing a key role in tourism and infrastructure projects. The Kurdistan region is economically successful, so much so that half of Iraq seems to want to go there. Areas once depopulated by Saddam’s genocide are now the envy of Iraq. An area where once it took half a day to go from Erbil to Dohuk, the latter of which is a pretty city on the edge of the mountains, now takes two hours with new highways.
THE PROTESTS this week came after killings of well-known activists. “I’m here because I lost my son in 2016 after [he was] being detained by security forces for participating in protests. He was tortured to death. Now, I participate in every single protest for him,” Dawood Ismail told Rudaw English.
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There have been 81 attempted assassinations of activists since anti-government protests began in October 2019, according to Ali al-Bayati of Iraq’s human rights commission, Rudaw reports. “At least 34 activists have been killed.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, who came to power last year in response to a brutal crackdown on protests in 2019, has once again promised investigations about Tuesday’s violence. The president of Iraq, a former university head in Sulaymaniyah, also promised accountability.
The UN in Iraq is also concerned. “Only accountability will stop the pattern of deadly attacks targeting civic and political activists," the UN mission in Iraq says. "While the perpetrators may think they have silenced voices, they have only amplified them. Accountability is key for Iraq’s stability. The Iraqi people have a right to know.”
But concerns are how politicians and the UN signal that they will do nothing. This is because in Iraq, the militias – many linked to Iran – have the final say. Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezollah, Badr and other groups are the ones with the armories, the guns and the ability to plan the targeting of protest leaders. They collect information. They torture people at secret prisons. They send warnings like a mafia. And when they choose, they emerge from the shadows and kill activists, commentators, academics: anyone who gets in their way.
Some of Iraq’s best and brightest have been assassinated. Karbala activist Ehab al-Wazni was killed in early May. Riahm Yaqoob, a female doctor, was murdered in August 2020. Well-known commentator Hisham al-Hashimi was murdered in July. In Lebanon, Lokman Slim was murdered, likely by Hezbollah, in February 2021.
Iran’s snake-like grip on the region, an octopus with dozens of deadly vipers for tentacles, hunts down these activists and anyone who opposes the Iranian regime’s attempt to strangle Iraq, Lebanon and other countries. “Who killed me” the protesters say, holding signs of the murdered, the disappeared. These include those activists who in recent years have gone “missing” when leaving protests.
As demonstrated by the latest protests, there is no end in sight for the impunity groups in Iraq have – either government forces or shadowy pro-Iran militias linked to the paramilitary forces and Interior Ministry – in killing protesters.