Prosecutors and death threats .. Protesters of Iraq within the range of psychological warfare

Activists and doctors taking part in demonstrations in Iraq said they felt they were being crippled as they were being pursued and receiving death threats via social media or at the heart of the protests.

"We know we are all chased," says Maryam, an activist who uses a pseudonym. "Fake volunteers invite us to take pictures, gather information and then disappear."

Authorities and other unidentified forces are monitoring Tahrir Square, the center of the protests in Baghdad, where relief and supplies have been organized over the past weeks.

A security official confirms that a series of arrests have been carried out against activists by the secret police in Tahrir in the past three days. "The aim is to" intimidate and encourage others to return home, "he said.

Targeted list
Mohammed (a doctor who uses a pseudonym) also cites a long list of friends who have been threatened on Facebook.

Mohammed also received explicit threats from plainclothes men when he met them on a bridge while treating the wounded. They told him openly: "It is better for you to stop."

He also points to the attempt by some to fabricate arguments with the security forces, "such as one of the military strikes and trying to provoke violence, but the demonstrators are aware that he is Mendes, and prevent him."

Mariam works with the logistical support team along with other activists and manages the stock of donations flowing from Iraqis at home and abroad, but today she considers herself threatened, especially after her views on social media.

Mariam recalls that sources, who declined to be identified, assured her that her name was on a list that activists, journalists and human rights experts say were targeted since the October protests.

The list has yet to be published, but four militants have been targeted in Basra and Amara (southern Iraq).

Dozens of activists, including the doctor and activist Saba al-Mahdawi, as well as four nurses who were helping the protesters, disappeared by unknown parties in Baghdad.

Those who disappeared for 24 hours, or up to two weeks before being released, or left on a street at dawn, are silent about the identity of their captors.

The question is: were they arrested by the security forces? But their families deny this, especially since there were no warrants for arrest.

Terrifying campaign
Activist Hala says some men are deliberately trying to intimidate others into leaving the scene.

"At midnight, when everything is quiet, an unknown person screams in Tahrir Square that there is an attack, and they must evacuate the scene immediately, causing them to panic."

Those who occupy the square ask anyone who portrays his media accreditation, lest they be "secret agents of the government."

Threats and arrests contribute to a "climate of fear", and activists and paramedics no longer head to Tahrir Square alone, abandoned roads or at night. Maryam even avoids the ambulances used in 2011 for kidnappings.

It is almost impossible to obtain statistics on arrests in Iraq, and while most of those detained by security forces have been released, others remain missing.

Mariam says that there are letters from some close to the government, saying that 1% of the demonstrators are "forgotten".

These indirect messages are a threat, she says, "we know they are talking about us. We know these threats are directed at us," but the generation occupying the streets will not be easily afraid. He grew up seeing the bodies on the streets during the sectarian violence in Iraq and then witnessed the terror of ISIS.

"Those who harass us are well-trained, but they didn't think our generation had the worst; their psychological warfare will not affect us," Mariam said.