09-02-2022
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A woman was shot dead on Wednesday by unknown assailants in Erbil’s Koya town, a police officer told Rudaw. The perpetrators have not been arrested yet.
Originally from Erbil, the woman had traveled to Koya early in the morning, and was shot right as soon as she stepped out of the taxi.
“She had spoken to someone on the road and it seems like the person had told her where to get off inside Koya, she was shot as soon as she got out of the car,” Ali Abdullah, head of Koya police told Rudaw.
She was shot in the abdomen, leg and head 10 times, a health official confirmed to Rudaw.
The police did not disclose further details regarding the incident.
The Kurdistan Region suffers from high rates gender-based violence, which has killed 24 women in the Region in the past year, according to statistics from the Directorate of Combatting Violence against Women.
The 26-year-old woman had previously filed a complaint, against her husband at Erbil’s Ankawa police station, claiming that the husband had beat her up and fractured her arm, according to Abdullah.
The complaint was later withdrawn.
The KRG passed the Combating Domestic Violence Law in 2011, criminalizing domestic violence and equipping the directorate to combat violence by investigating it.
Zahra Jassim, 21, was killed by her husband in Erbil in April of last year after she separated from him following years of domestic abuse.
News source: https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/09022022