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Video of Teen Tortured by Security Forces Shocks Iraq

Iraqi demonstrators burn tires to block the road during a protest over poor public services in the city of Najaf. (Reuters)
Iraqi demonstrators burn tires to block the road during a protest over poor public services in the city of Najaf. (Reuters)
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Video of Teen Tortured by Security Forces Shocks Iraq

Iraqi demonstrators burn tires to block the road during a protest over poor public services in the city of Najaf. (Reuters)
Iraqi demonstrators burn tires to block the road during a protest over poor public services in the city of Najaf. (Reuters)

Despite the violations, kidnappings and assassinations that have targeted activists throughout the years by Iraq’s security forces and unknown militias, the country was still shocked by a video that showed a teen being tortured by Interior Ministry forces.

The video, which emerged on Saturday and was recorded some three months ago, showed Hamed Saeed Abed, 16, being beaten and insulted by the Ministry’s Law Preservation Forces for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at them during a protest. Abed was stripped naked, while one of the security forces shaved his head. Others asked him about his mother’s skin color, insulted her and his family.

The shocking video and the ensuing uproar prompted Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to order an investigation into the assault.

His spokesman said: “The prime minister and supreme commander of the armed forces ordered an immediate probe into the unethical and unprofessional treatment of a citizen.”

He also ordered Interior Minister Othman al-Ghanmi to form an investigative panel to probe the members of the Law Preservation Forces who were seen in the video.

The force was formed by former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi last year to confront the wave of anti-government protests. It was rumored that its members were chosen by political parties in order to ensure their loyalty to the government and the political blocs.

The video prompted demands for the disbandment of the force and renewed the debate over the practices of the security forces against protesters and even regular citizens while they are being held in detention or being investigated.

Security members often drag out confessions by force or resort to seeking bribes from detainees.

Ghanmi had openly acknowledged such violations some two weeks ago.

A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the majority of confessions by suspects detained by security forces are usually made under threat of violence.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the Iraq judicial system still believes that confessions are the best form of evidence even though they are often made under duress. Most judicial systems in the world, meanwhile, no longer consider confessions as damning evidence against a suspect.

Media relations director at the Interior Ministry revealed that some of the security forces members seen in the video have been arrested, while efforts are underway to arrest the rest.

They will be held to account, he vowed.

However, the Interior Ministry later issued a statement alleging that the Abed was arrested in May for his attempted robbery of a motorcycle.

Activists slammed the statement, saying the ministry was attempting justify the torture.

The ministry took one step further by later releasing a video of the boy confessing to the robbery.

The video was recorded some three months ago, but was leaked to the media on Saturday. The sides responsible for the leak are unknown and neither are their motives, but some analysts believe the move is aimed at embarrassing Kadhimi’s government.

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Arab World

Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.