An emergency police officer told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that “unidentified gunmen opened fire at Judge Ahmed Faseel Khassaf, who specializes in drug cases in the Maysan Appeals Court, in the Shabana neighborhood near his home near his workplace in the center of the city of Al-Amarah, and shot him dead on immediately, and fled to an unknown destination.
The source added that the judge “was hit by 15 bullets with a Kalashnikov.”
A health employee in the forensic medicine department said that “the judge was shot in the head and chest.”
At the present time, no party has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the judge.
In September, another judge specializing in drug cases survived an assassination attempt in Maysan province.
In recent months, the region witnessed a deterioration in the security situation due to tribal conflicts and the settling of political scores.
In recent years, southern and central Iraq, bordering Iran, have turned into centers for drug smuggling. The security forces have intensified their operations in the area, as they announce the seizure of drugs and the arrest of smugglers on an almost daily basis.
And if, during the time of the former regime, before 2003, Iraq was considered a transit point for narcotic substances manufactured in Iran or Afghanistan towards Europe, it has witnessed a significant increase in the rate of drug consumption in the past years.
And the Anti-Narcotics Directorate of the Ministry of Interior announced in December that “the governorates of Basra and Maysan are the first to smuggle and abuse in the southern governorates.”
She added that “the western provinces are smuggling Captagon pills through Syria and the desert, and they enter through the ports in Anbar.” Captagon, manufactured and consumed almost exclusively in the Middle East, belongs to the class of anabolic steroids.