ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two brothers have been shot dead in Erbil’s Ainkawa neighbourhood as a result of “social feud,” police have told Rudaw.
Bashdar Sherzad, 32, and Rozhgar Sherzad, 28, were shot dead in front of Maryamana hospital on Wednesday evening as they got out of their bulletproof car to smoke a cigarette, police told Rudaw’s Sidad Lashkri.
“The two were immediately taken to the hospital across the street in the hope to save their lives, but they passed away due to the severity of their wounds,” Erbil police spokesperson Hogr Aziz told Lashkri from the scene of the incident.
Police have launched an investigation to find the culprits, but believe the two victims were engaged in a “social feud” with another family, Aziz said.
Gun violence has been on the rise in the Kurdistan Region.
Angry customers opened fire at an Erbil pacha restaurant early on January 15, after being told it was out of food.
2020 saw an increase in reported gun violence across the Kurdistan Region, Sulaimani police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmad told Rudaw English late November.
On November 22, a group of armed men, some dressed in Peshmerga uniform, attacked a Sulaimani restaurant owner over an alleged rental dispute with the landlord.
A cafe owner in Erbil was wounded in a gun attack at his business on October 22.
On October 15, three armed men entered a pharmacy near Erbil's Lawan City, physically assaulting its employees.
In a bid to decrease the number of guns in the hands of the general populace, the KRG in 2019 gave gun owners six months to register their firearms and give up their heavy weapons.
Despite the efforts, the Kurdistan Region is still home to multiple black markets where different firearms can be bought, including sniper rifles and machine guns.
