Iraqi reporter targeted in assassination attempt remains in critical condition
Journalist Ahmed Hassan, targeted in an assassination attempt Monday in southern Iraq, has undergone brain surgery and remains in critical condition, a Baghdad hospital said.
The attack came exactly 24 hours after anti-government campaigner Ihab al-Wazni was shot dead, also in the south, sending protest movement supporters onto the streets to demand an end to official impunity.
Hassan was shot several times by an assailant as he arrived home at night near Diwaniyah, in images captured on a surveillance camera, as has been the case in a string of previous such attacks.
He had to be transported to a hospital in the capital that specialises in neurological surgery.
“Ahmed Hassan has been operated on and transferred to intensive care where he will be kept under constant surveillance for a critical period of two weeks,” hospital spokesman Mohammed Mouyed said.
Wazni had narrowly escaped death in December 2019, when men on motorbikes used silenced weapons to kill fellow activist Fahem al-Tai as he was dropping him home in Karbala.
Both were key figures in a national protest movement that erupted against Iraqi government corruption and incompetence in October 2019.
Around 600 activists from the movement have been killed, whether on the streets during rallies or targeted on their doorsteps.
Protests broke out in Karbala, Nassiriya and Diwaniya in southern Iraq in reaction to Wazni’s killing, as people called for an end to the bloodshed and to rampant corruption.
The Iraqi Communist Party and the Al-Beit Al-Watani (National Bloc) party born out of the anti-government protests also said they would boycott Iraq’s October parliamentary elections in protest.
In a video recording in the morgue where Wazni’s body was initially held, a fellow activist blamed pro-Tehran groups for the killing.
“It is the Iranian militias who killed Ihab,” said the activist, who was not named.
‘Iran out!’ and ‘The people want the fall the regime!’ chanted hundreds of mourners Sunday as they carried Wazni’s body to the Shiite shrines in Karbala, under a sea of Iraqi flags.
Police said they would ‘spare no effort’ to find ‘the terrorists’ behind Wazni’s killing.
Politicians, including Shiite leader Ammar al-Haki, deplored the death and called for justice.
Around 30 activists have died in targeted killings and dozens of others have been abducted since October 2019.
Such killings are normally carried out in the dead of night by men on motorbikes, and nobody claims responsibility.
Activists and the UN repeatedly blame ‘militias’. Authorities have consistently failed to publicly identify or charge the perpetrators of these killings.
Prime Minister Mustafa alKadhemi took office a year ago, vowing to rein in rogue factions, fight corruption and roll out long-awaited reforms after years of war and insurgency.
He pledged again Sunday to catch ‘all the killers’, but the latest victim’s family said it would not accept the traditional visits of condolences until the assailants were unmasked.
Pro-Iran groups view Kadhemi as being too close to Washington while protesters believe he has failed to deliver on his promises.
Wazni had himself had challenged the premier in a Facebook post in February, asking: “Do you know what is going on? You know that they kidnap and kill – or you live in another country?”