Roj Bash Kurdistan

January 8, 2014

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Early on Tuesday evening, seven Iraqi Kurdish youth from Erbil kidnapped and raped a 16-year-old Syrian Kurdish girl.

The girl, who came to Iraqi Kurdistan from Syrian Kurdistan and worked in a mall in Erbil, had left work when the attackers abducted her in a white colored car.

According to sources close to the case, three men kidnapped the girl and took her to an unknown location outskirt of Erbil.

When they reached the location, they were joined by four more men and the girl was raped multiple times. When the attackers saw a light approaching, they fled the scene leaving the girl there.

Syrian Kurds across the Kurdistan region are outraged by the incident and there were plans for widespread protests in Erbil on Wednesday,www.Ekurd.net but the demonstrations did not take place.

A Kurdish social expert believes the people who attacked and raped the victim are mentally incapacitated.

“These incidents will have a negative effect on society and the Kurdish authorities should arrest those who were involved as soon as a possible,’ said Kurdish social expert Shivan Ismael.
Erbil police told Basnews that the case of the Syrian girl was taken on by the Kurdish security forces who are investigating the matter, but so far none of the attackers have been arrested.

By Mohammad Dargalayi. Published by Ekurd.net in cooperation with Bas News.

January 9, 2014

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Kurdish security forces (Asayish) arrest the six young men who kidnapped and raped on Wednesday a Syrian refugee 16 years old in Erbil city in Kurdistan Region, Kurdistan TV reported.

The men admitted of kidnapping and rapping of the young teen, the tv added.

The three young Kurdish men took the girl from the street by force and entered her into a car they were traveling in then took her to the outskirts of Erbil, pointing out that three other three young men joined them and took turns to rape her then left her there, according to what the girl said.

About 250 000 Syrian refugees from western Kurdistan have came to Iraqi Kurdistan since the intensification of the fighting in their country as the vast majority are Kurds who were displaced the Qamishli province and Afrin and Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan region.

Copyright © 2014 Ekurd.net. All rights reserved

Piling wrote:I never heard of honor crime in Western Kurdistan. I can't affirm it never happen but it should not be common. It is probably the reason why the girl talked to the police. She does not seem afraid to claim openly what they did.

January 9, 2014

ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Dozens of Syrian Kurds demonstrated outside the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament on Thursday calling for six men held after the sexual assault of a teenage Syrian refugee to be executed.

The men, all Iraqis, were arrested after the 16-year-old girl was assaulted on the outskirts of the Iraqi Kurdistan region's capital Erbil on Tuesday, police said.

Three of the suspects had confessed to carrying out the assault, police added.

A police statement said the girl had been walking to her family's home in Erbil [Hewlêr] after finishing work at a local supermarket when three men snatched her and took her to a farm on the outskirts of the city.

Police said they proceeded to assault her sexually, and called three other men who also took part.

The six later abandoned the girl, who made her way back to the city and reported the incident, police said.

Three men were arrested late on Wednesday and three others more on Thursday, and the case has been referred to the courts, according to police.

Dozens of Syrian Kurdish protesters then gathered outside the autonomous Kurdish region's parliament to call for the six suspects to be executed.

"We are calling for the maximum punishment, which is execution, for those men," said demonstrator Amama Hassan.

"At the same time, we are calling for freedom for women."

The protesters held placards including one reading "Do not violate my honour", and another that read "Do not be sad, sister... we will not be silent until the criminals are executed".

Syrian refugees in Iraq number more than 210,000, the vast majority of them in the three-province Kurdish region, according to the United Nations.

Though they have suffered sporadic incidences of violence in the region, most go unreported.

The assault is the most violent incident against a Syrian Kurdish refugee to be reported yet.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, AFP