The killers of prominent scholar Husham Al Hashimi have fled Iraq, the government said on Sunday, four months after the assassination, which it is still investigating.
Al Hashimi was shot dead outside his home in early July. At least four gunmen on two motorcycles waited outside his house in Baghdad’s eastern Shiite-dominated neighbourhood of Zayouna and opened fire after the academic had parked his car.
Government spokesman Ahmed Mullah Talal said authorities had seized the motorcycles in one of Baghdad's neighbourhoods and identified two of the assailants.
"But one party smuggled them outside the country," Mr Mullah Talal told state television on Sunday.
“The government is committed to track and bring them back,” he said, without specifying who helped the killers flee, or where they had fled.
Al Hashimi was a leading expert on ISIS and other militant groups, including the Iran-backed Shiite militias. As a well-informed security analyst, his expertise was sought by governments, researchers and journalists.
He was close to Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, who has sought to impose state control over the Iraqi militias after taking office in May. Although the paramilitaries grouped under the Popular Mobilisation Forces are considered part of the state security forces, the Iran-backed militias in the group operate outside the military chain of command.
Al Hashimi was an outspoken critic of the Iran-backed militias and supported the pro-reform protests that broke out October 2019, which also decried the growing influence of Iran and Shiite militias in the country.
According to government statistics released on July 30, at least 560 protesters and members of the security forces were killed, while thousands of others were wounded.
Most were protesters killed or wounded by security forces and state-backed militias firing live rounds and military-grade grenades. Some were assassinated outside the protest encampments.
Mr Al Kadhimi pledged to investigate the killings of protesters but his government has failed to hold anyone accountable so far, offering only promises of justice and financial aid.
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ARSENAL
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- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
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SPAIN
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The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
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Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
