Iraqi activists and union members issued an urgent call to stop what they described as the killing campaigns of peaceful protesters and activists, and to take firm and immediate measures to stop them.
A statement delivered by an activist on behalf of the members of the initiative called "The National Initiative to Support the October Uprising", said that recent weeks have witnessed an escalation in the targeting of activists.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said that, as of August 14, 2020, two protesters had been killed and four others wounded by unknown gunmen.
She added that the 6 people are linked to a youth protest group with political aspirations in Basra (southern Iraq), and they are the latest in a list of hundreds of demonstrators killed in Baghdad and southern Iraq since October 2019, including those killed by the security forces. According to the organization, the authorities did little to stop the killing.
"The situation in Iraq has increased to the extent that militants can roam the streets and shoot members of civil society with impunity," said Belkis Wali, a senior researcher in the Crisis and Conflict Division at Human Rights Watch.
Three members told Human Rights Watch that the recent deaths in Basra had links to the Basra Civilian Youth Gathering, a group founded by young protesters in 2014; To organize protests in the city, members of the rally recently decided to form a new political party to participate in the parliamentary elections scheduled for June 2021.
One member stated that since that date, "and anonymous Facebook accounts have been waging a smear campaign against our gathering, including describing us as anti-Islam because we are a secular movement."
The organization’s statement reviewed many cases of targeting members of the youth gathering, and called for an immediate investigation into these cases.