Iraq
University guards and police officers arresting the alleged shooter in Baghdad’s al-Esraa University. Photo: Submitted
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A shooting at al-Esraa University in Baghdad on Sunday left six injured, including a doctor who is in critical condition, a student told Rudaw.
“An unknown student came in wearing student clothing but many of the students said they had never seen him before. He went into the reception, and he shot at five people, three of them were students - one of them was a girl - another was a police officer and the other was a doctor. The doctor is in critical condition,” the student told Rudaw.
He added that the shooter looked like he was in his early 20s.
The shooter is not a student at the university, he used to attend a different school but had dropped out, according to the police.
It is still unclear why the suspect decided to attack the university.
Despite the Iraqi authorities' efforts to control gun ownership in recent years, many in the country refuse to give up their guns.
There are over eight million weapons in circulation in Iraq and the government has tried for years to bring the problem under control.
In 2018, Iraqi authorities ramped up efforts to monitor gun ownership by drafting strict new regulations on the buying and selling of firearms - the first of their kind in decades. The law required citizens wanting to purchase a gun to obtain official authorization and an identity card.
In May of last year, the Iraqi government allocated one billion dinars (about $764,000) for each province, excluding those of the Kurdistan Region, to purchase unregistered weapons from citizens.
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