December 23, 2006

Three female students from the University of Mustansiriya were kidnapped, then raped and then killed and then their mutilated bodies passed to the Baghdad morgue.

The horrendous crime has shocked many in Baghdad and unleashed yet another wave of terror in the violence-torn city home to a quarter of Iraq’s population.

The female students were raped and killed "in a horrific manner at the hands of militias," said the non-governmental Organization for the Defense of Women in Iraq.

"This is a fresh horrifying indication that the level of crime and violence is taking unprecedented proportions in Iraq," the group said in a statement.

The crime has terrorized the university community in Baghdad, prompting many parents to stop sending their girls to classes.

Universities and high schools in Baghdad already suffer from high level of absenteeism due to the spiraling violence. Teachers complain that most of their students now stay away.

Militia groups work freely in Baghdad and frequently U.S. and Iraqi troops turn a blind eye to their atrocities.

A female teacher from the Ghazaliya district in Baghdad was also kidnapped, raped and killed and her body later found on a street in the same district.

University officials in Baghdad, refusing to be named, say teaching is under threat and classes may be suspended any time unless the authorities do something to halt the violence.

Scores of Iraqi professors have either been killed or kidnapped, forcing many of them to flee the country.