Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad condemn 'brutal' killing of Kurdish family

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The second deputy speaker and dozens of Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament on Wednesday condemned the "brutal" killing of a Kurdish family living in Baghdad.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening, when, Iraqi media reports citing sources claimed, multiple gunmen broke into the place of residence of a family of three in the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.

The parents, Dara Raouf, Alia Rashid, and their daughter Sheelan, a pharmacist, were killed inside the building. The authorities are yet to confirm the exact details of the killings.

Sheelan had been active during the still ongoing protest movement that began in October 2019 as a medic, treating demonstrators wounded in clashes with the security forces, a relative of the family said.

Haddad described the "brutal" killings as "a treacherous and cowardly act" in a statement, and called on the authorities to "expedite the investigation, find the perpetrators and bring them to justice as soon as possible."

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc in the Iraqi parliament also denounced the incident, urging the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice. The lawmakers also called on the Iraqi security institutions to make sure such crimes do not happen again.

The counterterrorism forces of the Kurdistan Region later on Wednesday announced that it had arrested one suspect in the crime and that it would release further details "later."

Kurdistan 24 has learned that Raouf was from Sulaimani and a retired public servant in Baghdad; Alia was from Koya, Erbil province, and formerly the head of mosque affairs at the Sunni endowment body in the federal capital.

Ashna Baban, who is Raouf's niece, told Kurdistan 24 that the family had sold all its belongings in Baghdad and was planning to move back to Sulaimani province, Kurdistan Region.

Baban explained that "the security forces told us that my uncle and aunt were slaughtered with a knife, and my niece was tied and strangled with a rope."

"My niece Sheelan was a pharmacist in her twenties and an activist who helped injured demonstrators during the widespread protests in Baghdad," added Baban.

Editing by Khrush Najari