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Iraq
Security force members run into the Central Secondary School in Nasiriyah on January 12, 2021. Photo via Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights video posted to Twitter
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Security forces stormed a school in Iraq's southern city of Nasiriyah on Tuesday to arrest a young man believed to have participated in recent demonstrations – leading the Iraqi prime minister to apologize to the school's director for the incident.
Video shared by the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday showed masked security force members storming the Central Secondary School Building in Nasiriyah, Dhi Qar province to make the arrest.
"Today, in the Central Secondary School, there was an arrest of a young man who ran away from their hands and took cover in the school," Ali al-Bayati, a member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) said on Tuesday.
"When they are terrorizing people and violating educational institutions while running after a young man who escaped to the school seeking for protection, we cannot call them a security force, but a terror force," Bayati said.
Mohamed al-Khayat, an eyewitness and activist in Nasiriyah, told Rudaw English on Wednesday that "though the young man was not a student at the school, he was still a teenager”.
The Iraqi Teachers Union in Dhi Qar issued a statement denouncing the incident, saying that "the union was surprised by the security forces arresting a protester in a school, which violates the law and the sanctity of education".
News of the incident reached Prime Minister of Iraq Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who apologized on Wednesday to the school’s director via telephone for the actions of the security forces, saying he hoped "they did not disturb the feelings of students or teachers."
Mass arrests of protesters in Nasiriyah have taken place in recent days.
The IHCHR, which is government funded but operates independently, said on Sunday lunchtime that it had documented 30 arrests in just over two days – with all of the arrested later released. Activists claimed the number of those arrested and released is far higher than 30.
The IHCHR said it had documented the deaths of two protesters and the injury of 111 demonstrators and security force members from Thursday to Sunday.
Nasiriyah has witnessed significant bloodshed since demonstrations began – particularly in Habboubi Square, a focal point for for anti-government demonstrations in the city.
At least 120 demonstrators were killed in the city between October 2019 and January 2020, Iraqi state media outlet INA said in July.
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