Killers of Basra activists 'will not escape punishment', Kadhimi tells grieving family

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi visited the family of slain Basra activist Reham Yacoub on Saturday, vowing that her as yet unidentified killers would face justice.

The premier's visit to the family of Yacoub, a 29-year-old athletics coach and activist shot dead on Wednesday, followed meetings with local security officials to discuss a wave of attacks on the city's activists.

“I swear by the blood of the martyr [Reham] that the criminals will not escape punishment no matter how long it takes, and that the blood of the martyr [Reham], Husham al-Hashimi, and the martyr Tahseen Oussama will not be wasted,” Kadhimi told Riham’s family in their house on Saturday, according to a tweet by the prime minister's media office.

Hours after his arrival in Baghdad on Saturday from Washington, where he had taken part in the latest stage of US-Iraq strategic dialogue, Kadhimi flew into Basra to meet with the city's security officials. Kadhimi was accompanied on his visit to Basra by Iraq's interior and defense ministers, as well as Falih al-Fayyadh, the head of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic).

“There are security failures in Basra, and security units must work to prevent such actions from happening again,” the prime minister told security officials at a military joint operation command center in the city.

“In a span of a week, the criminals carried out two heinous operations to assassinate our youth in Basra,” Kadhimi said.

Two prominent activists were assassinated in Basra in the space of one week. Yacoub was killed on Wednesday, while Tahseen Oussama was shot dead last Friday.

Three other activists survived an assassination attempt in Basra on Monday, with the moment of the attack caught on CCTV.

Protests in Basra have grown following the assassinations, with crowds marching towards the Basra governorate office on Sunday, then approaching the home of governor Asaad al-Idani. Videos circulating on social media show security forces firing live ammunition at protesters both in front of the governorate building and the governor's house. The videos also show some protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at security force members.

Two senior security officials were sacked upon order of Iraqi prime minister and commander-in-chief Kadhimi in response to violence against protesters.

Iraq has been rocked by widespread protests since October 2019, with demonstrators demanding basic services, jobs, and the fall of the corruption-rife political establishment that have been in place since the 2003 US invasion. When security forces and pro-Iran militias began attacking the protesters, killing hundreds, activists began demanding an end to foreign interference in Iraqi affairs and called for the overthrow of the political elite.

Iraqi activists have been warning of an increasingly threatening environment for those who speak out against the country's current political order. Data provided to Rudaw English from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) last month put the number of protesters and aligned activists assassinated between October 1, 2019 and March 17, 2020 at 22.

Human rights monitor Amnesty International estimates that at least 600 protesters and members of the security forces have been killed, with more than 18,000 injured in the protests. Kadhimi has previously vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Leaders from across the political spectrum have condemned the deaths, but protesters complain that the killers – largely believed to be members of Iran-backed militias – are acting with impunity.

“These criminal acts are the result of many years of conflict,” Kadhimi said in an interview with the Associated Press published on Monday, blaming poor policies and improper management by his predecessors for undermining the authority of the state. “It is not surprising then that criminals work here and there to destabilise security.”