Saturday, December 30, 2006
Officials - 905 medical and academic profesionals killed since 3003
Security
A total of 905 university professors and doctors were killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, official sources said on Thursday. “The phenomenon of targeting Iraqi professionals has been rising since the U.S. invasion of Iraq as escalating violence and security deterioration is reaping scientists, doctors and university professors,” Saad Shaker Khodeir, the administrative manager of Iraqi Teachers Union, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). “185 university professors have been killed so far due to violence in the country,” he said.
The union is a civil society organization and is responsible for gathering data on professors assassinated by unknown gunmen. Meanwhile, former undersecretary of health ministry Dr. Sabah al-Husseini said the ministry has so far lost more than 720 doctors who were killed or wounded since the U.S. forces entered Iraq.
Several health institutions are already suffering a clear shortage in their medical staff that were either killed or forced to leave their homes and neighborhoods, Husseini told VOI by telephone. Iraq is witnessing a spiral wave of killings and kidnappings that target teachers and university professors in different parts of the country. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has said in July that teachers, professors and students continue to be severely affected by the violence in Iraq.
