Iraqi Families Fear Worst after Protesters Abducted

An Iraqi anti-government protester flashes the victory sign during a rally in Baghdad on November 4, 2019. (AP)
An Iraqi anti-government protester flashes the victory sign during a rally in Baghdad on November 4, 2019. (AP)
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Iraqi Families Fear Worst after Protesters Abducted

An Iraqi anti-government protester flashes the victory sign during a rally in Baghdad on November 4, 2019. (AP)
An Iraqi anti-government protester flashes the victory sign during a rally in Baghdad on November 4, 2019. (AP)

"Last seen: Friday, 9:18pm." About an hour after gunmen began attacking a protest encampment in Iraq's capital at the weekend, Mustafa -- who had slept there for weeks -- went offline.

In the days since, the 20-year-old demonstrator has not reappeared on messaging application WhatsApp, or in real life.

Late Friday, unidentified gunmen stormed and torched the multi-storey building known as al-Sinek Garage, where anti-government protesters had camped out for weeks.

At least 20 protesters and four police officers were killed in the melee, medical sources told AFP, while about 80 demonstrators were abducted.

"They filled up two charter buses with people from al-Sinek," said Yousef al-Harbi, an activist who was in the building when it was attacked.

Amer, a 26-year-old demonstrator, said he was nearby when gunshots began echoing from the building, so he called friends he knew were inside.

"Mustafa picked up and said, 'things are really bad, they're shooting at us.' He hung up and his phone turned off," said Amer, using a pseudonym as he has faced threats.

"We've called everyone -- from the government to the militias", Amer said.

Security forces say none of the demonstrators were taken into custody, while pro-Iran armed groups blamed by protesters for Friday's killings swore they had no role in the violence.

Masked men

Nineteen-year-old Sajad was among those abducted by bus on Friday night.

His family heard nothing from him until he reappeared outside his home on Tuesday morning, after being held by masked men for three days.

"They drove for about three quarters of an hour and then their captors handed them over to another group," his father Rahim told AFP.

"They were asked for their names, their parents' names and their addresses," Rahim said, declining to use his full name for fear of reprisals.

The description of where they were held -- on a tributary of the Tigris on Baghdad's northeast outskirts -- corresponds to where other Iraqis say they were detained.

"It's a place overlooking the Diyala" tributary, Iraqi blogger Chojaa al-Khafaji said after he was taken to the same place on the back of being abducted from his home in October.

There masked men in black uniforms took his phones after a brief interrogation. After 24 hours, they left Khafaji in a poor district of Baghdad with $20 to return home by taxi.

Sajad had to wait 72 hours until he was released with about 30 other protesters in the middle of the night on a road outside Baghdad.

Sajad was not beaten, his father said. But others abducted from the protest encampment were less fortunate.

According to security sources, at least 35 young men taken from al-Sinek were later found by Iraqi security forces along the bank of the Tigris, blindfolded and with their hands tied.

Footage confirmed as authentic by security forces shows about two dozen young men, many of them wrapped in bloody bandages after being taken into government custody.

"They beat us so much," one could be heard crying.

'Everyone is too afraid'

Since October 1, demonstrators in Baghdad and southern cities have disappeared almost daily.

In most cases, they are taken from near their homes as they return from protests.

Their relatives fear the worst.

Last week, the bruised body of a 19-year-old protester was dumped outside her home in Baghdad, while on Sunday a prominent Karbala activist was shot dead by a gunman riding on the back of a motorbike.

Abductions have continued and at dawn on Saturday, more protesters were taken from the Tigris riverfront as they drove home from Tahrir.

In view of nearby policemen, two pick-ups carrying masked men shot in the air and chased down the six protesters as they tried to flee their vehicle, a witness told AFP.

In Iraq, where militias and sectarian violence killed tens of thousands in the 2000s, kidnappings have long been common.

But "you used to be able to find out who took them," and for a ransom obtain their release, said Haydar, whose 23-year-old cousin was recently kidnapped for several days in Baghdad.

"Now you don't know at all. Everyone is too afraid."



Meta's Zuckerberg Faces Questioning at Youth Addiction Trial

REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas Purchase Licensing Rights
REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas Purchase Licensing Rights
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Meta's Zuckerberg Faces Questioning at Youth Addiction Trial

REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas Purchase Licensing Rights
REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas Purchase Licensing Rights

Meta Platforms CEO and billionaire Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set to be questioned for the first time in a US court on Wednesday about Instagram's effect on the mental health of young users, as a landmark trial over youth social media addiction continues. While Zuckerberg has previously testified on the subject before Congress, the stakes are higher at the jury trial in Los Angeles, California. Meta may have to pay damages if it loses the case, and the verdict could erode Big Tech's longstanding legal defense against claims of user harm, Reuters reported.

The lawsuit and others like it are part of a global backlash against social media platforms over children's mental health. Australia has prohibited access to social media platforms for users under age 16, and other countries including Spain are considering similar curbs. In the US, Florida has prohibited companies from allowing users under age 14. Tech industry trade groups are challenging the law in court. The case involves a California woman who started using Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube as a child. She alleges the companies sought to profit by hooking kids on their services despite knowing social media could harm their mental health. She alleges the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking to hold the companies liable.

Meta and Google have denied the allegations, and pointed to their work to add features that keep users safe. Meta has often pointed to a National Academies of Sciences finding that research does not show social media changes kids' mental health.

The lawsuit serves as a test case for similar claims in a larger group of cases against Meta, Alphabet's Google, Snap and TikTok. Families, school districts and states have filed thousands of lawsuits in the US accusing the companies of fueling a youth mental health crisis.

Zuckerberg is expected to be questioned on Meta's internal studies and discussions of how Instagram use affects younger users.

Over the years, investigative reporting has unearthed internal Meta documents showing the company was aware of potential harm. Meta researchers found that teens who report that Instagram regularly made them feel bad about their bodies saw significantly more “eating disorder adjacent content” than those who did not,

Reuters reported

in October. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, testified last week that he was unaware of a recent Meta study showing no link between parental supervision and teens' attentiveness to their own social media use. Teens with difficult life circumstances more often said they used Instagram habitually or unintentionally, according to the document shown at trial.

Meta's lawyer told jurors at the trial that the woman's health records show her issues stem from a troubled childhood, and that social media was a creative outlet for her.


Israel Permits 10,000 West Bank Palestinians for Friday Prayers at Al Aqsa

Palestinians attend Friday prayers in a mosque following an attack that local Palestinians said was carried out by Israeli settlers, in the village of Deir Istiya near Salfit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
Palestinians attend Friday prayers in a mosque following an attack that local Palestinians said was carried out by Israeli settlers, in the village of Deir Istiya near Salfit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
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Israel Permits 10,000 West Bank Palestinians for Friday Prayers at Al Aqsa

Palestinians attend Friday prayers in a mosque following an attack that local Palestinians said was carried out by Israeli settlers, in the village of Deir Istiya near Salfit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer
Palestinians attend Friday prayers in a mosque following an attack that local Palestinians said was carried out by Israeli settlers, in the village of Deir Istiya near Salfit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank November 14, 2025. REUTERS/Sinan Abu Mayzer

Israel announced that it will cap the number of Palestinian worshippers from the occupied West Bank attending weekly Friday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem at 10,000 during the holy month of Ramadan, which began Wednesday.

Israeli authorities also imposed age restrictions on West Bank Palestinians, permitting entry only to men aged 55 and older, women aged 50 and older, and children up to age 12.

"Ten thousand Palestinian worshippers will be permitted to enter the Temple Mount for Friday prayers throughout the month of Ramadan, subject to obtaining a dedicated daily permit in advance," COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry agency in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, said in a statement, AFP reported.

"Entry for men will be permitted from age 55, for women from age 50, and for children up to age 12 when accompanied by a first-degree relative."

COGAT told AFP that the restrictions apply only to Palestinians travelling from the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

"It is emphasised that all permits are conditional upon prior security approval by the relevant security authorities," COGAT said.

"In addition, residents travelling to prayers at the Temple Mount will be required to undergo digital documentation at the crossings upon their return to the areas of Judea and Samaria at the conclusion of the prayer day," it said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

During Ramadan, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed in a move that is not internationally recognized.

Since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, the attendance of worshippers has declined due to security concerns and Israeli restrictions.

The Palestinian Jerusalem Governorate said this week that Israeli authorities had prevented the Islamic Waqf -- the Jordanian-run body that administers the site -- from carrying out routine preparations ahead of Ramadan, including installing shade structures and setting up temporary medical clinics.

A senior imam of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Muhammad al-Abbasi, told AFP that he, too, had been barred from entering the compound.

"I have been barred from the mosque for a week, and the order can be renewed," he said.

Abbasi said he was not informed of the reason for the ban, which came into effect on Monday.

Under longstanding arrangements, Jews may visit the Al-Aqsa compound -- which they revere as the site of the first and second Jewish temples -- but they are not permitted to pray there.

Israel says it is committed to upholding this status quo, though Palestinians fear it is being eroded.

In recent years, a growing number of Jewish ultranationalists have challenged the prayer ban, including far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, who prayed at the site while serving as national security minister in 2024 and 2025.


EU Exploring Support for New Gaza Administration Committee, Document Says

Palestinians push a cart past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the two-year Israeli offensives, in Gaza City, February 17, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians push a cart past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the two-year Israeli offensives, in Gaza City, February 17, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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EU Exploring Support for New Gaza Administration Committee, Document Says

Palestinians push a cart past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the two-year Israeli offensives, in Gaza City, February 17, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians push a cart past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the two-year Israeli offensives, in Gaza City, February 17, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

The European Union is exploring possible support for a new committee established to take over the civil administration of Gaza, according to a document produced by the bloc's diplomatic arm and seen by Reuters.

"The EU is engaging with the newly established transitional governance structures for Gaza," the European External Action Service wrote in a document circulated to member states on Tuesday.

"The EU is also exploring possible support to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza," it added.

European foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Gaza during a meeting in Brussels on February 23.