BAGHDAD: Iraqi journalists, activists and researchers are facing a wave of accusations and threats by shadowy online groups they suspect are linked to powerful pro-Iran factions.
Parties, armed groups and even officials in Iraq benefit from legions of supporters dubbed “electronic armies,” which take to social media to anonymously sing their praises or mock their detractors.
These online rivalries now appear to have been fanned by months of rising tensions pitting Iran against the US and Israel.
This summer, suspicious explosions hit five camps and arms depots run by Iraq’s Hashed Al-Shaabi, a network of mostly Shiite armed factions linked to Iran.
The Hashed was quick to blame Israel and the United States, but also said it suspected “agents” of the two countries contributed to the attacks.
That accusation was followed by an online campaign accusing a broad range of Iraqi nationals of “collaborating” with Israel and the US.
One graphic shared by an Arabic-language page named “Don’t Tread on Us” accused 14 Iraqis of de facto supporting a policy of “normalization with Israel.”
Shared on social media, it named figures such as journalist Joumana Mumtaz and blogger Ali Wajih.
In response, Wajih penned a rare open letter to Iraq’s prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, Hashed chief Faleh Fayyadh and his powerful deputy Abu Mehdi Al-Muhandis.
“For years, a group of us journalists and bloggers has faced incitements to murder by people and pages that may be close to the Hashed, or directly linked to it,” he wrote.
Allegations they were “agents” or seeking normalization with Israel, Wajih said, were “empty and silly.”
Iraqis have long been opposed to Israel because of its occupation of Palestinian land.
Baghdad has however developed close ties with Washington since the American-led invasion that toppled ex-dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Despite that, Washington’s bitter rival Tehran also holds considerable sway in Iraq’s political scene and within the Hashed.
In recent months, anti-Israel and anti-US rhetoric has been on the rise as Iraqis feel increasingly squeezed by the war of words between the two sides.
Some Iraqi factions have used the purported Israeli strikes to relaunch calls for US troops to leave Iraq.
Just last week, many of the same figures lashed out against US-funded Al-Hurra TV for a documentary alleging corruption among Iraq’s religious bodies, both Sunni and Shiite.
Perceptions Iraq was being “attacked” by Israel and America were “broadened to include critical and independent Iraqi voices, who have been maligned as agents in a broader plot,” said Fanar Haddad, an Iraq expert at the National University of Singapore.
“In this way, entrenched domestic interests and rivalries have been folded into the ongoing tensions between the Iran-led axis of resistance and the United States, Israel and their allies in the region,” he said.
Omar Al-Shaher, a journalist named in the graphic, said there was “not a shred of proof” to back up the claims.
“These days, it’s more dangerous than ever to have your name associated with the Israeli camp,” he told AFP.
Historian Omar Mohammad, who documented atrocities in Mosul under the Daesh group, said he suspected the new accusations came “as a result of the recent (purported) Israeli airstrikes and US-Iranian tensions.”
Mohammad said the graphic’s sleek production meant he was “absolutely” taking its threats seriously.
“It is institutional and professional. Seems there is a team specialized in dehumanizing us,” Mohammad told AFP from outside Iraq.
Media rights groups are worried such incitement could lead to real violence.
“The sensitivity of the Palestinian question in the region means that accusing someone of working with Israel is tantamount to calling for their killing,” said the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory.
On Thursday, monitor and rights group Iraqi Media House called for better protection of journalists.
“The phenomenon of electronic armies has reached dangerous levels, issuing threats including incitement to violence and hatred,” it said.
“We are surprised by the authorities’ continued silence so far, including the judiciary, in a clear abandonment of its responsibilities when it comes to electronic crimes.”
In divided Iraq, ‘electronic armies’ threaten activists, media
In divided Iraq, ‘electronic armies’ threaten activists, media
- Parties, armed groups and even officials in Iraq benefit from legions of supporters dubbed “electronic armies,”
Lawyers denounce ‘fabricated’ Tunisia trial of opposition
- Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people. Some have already been in prison for two years while others are in exile or still free
TUNIS: Lawyers and relatives on Monday denounced the hefty sentences handed down to Tunisian opposition figures in last week’s mass trial as “fabricated” and “unfounded,” and said they will appeal.
A court in Tunis in the early hours of Saturday handed down jail terms of up to 66 years to around 40 defendants, including vocal critics of President Kais Saied.
They were accused of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group” among other charges, according to their lawyers.
Defense lawyer Samir Dilou said on Monday the trial was “unprecedented in Tunisia” as “it handed the defendants a total of 892 years in prison.”
He said key evidence in the case was still missing, as lawyers had complained that they did not have full access to the case file.
“They still haven’t told us how the defendants conspired against the state,” Dilou told journalists.
He said an appeal could be filed as early as Tuesday.
Among those sentenced were well-known opposition figures, lawyers and business people. Some have already been in prison for two years while others are in exile or still free.
Several were arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists.”
Abdennasser Mehri, another defense lawyer, called the trial a “blatant violation of the law.”
“It’s a fabricated, unfounded case with a plan set in advance,” he said. “The scales of justice are broken.”
Dilou said Ahmed Souab, also a defense lawyer, was arrested early Monday after police raided his home.
Local media said he was accused of “threatening to commit terrorist crimes” in a statement made on Saturday after the trial, criticizing political pressure judges were allegedly under.
Online videos showed Souab saying that “knives are not on the necks of detainees, but on the neck of the judge issuing the ruling.”
Souab, a former judge, is expected to remain in detention “for five days and he won’t be allowed to communicate with his lawyers for 48 hours,” Dilou told AFP.
Human Rights Watch said on Saturday the court “did not give even a semblance of a fair trial” to the defendants.
Defense lawyer Dalila Msaddek said the trial was used “to lump together everyone they wanted to get rid of.”
Politicians Issam Chebbi and Jawhar Ben Mbarek of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, as well as lawyer Ridha BelHajj and activist Chaima Issa, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars.
Activist Khayam Turki was handed a 48-year term and businessman Kamel Eltaief received the harshest penalty — 66 years in prison, according to lawyers.
Some defendants are abroad and were tried in absentia, like French intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy who received a 33-year jail term, lawyers said.
Since Saied launched a power grab in the summer of 2021 and assumed total control, rights advocates and opposition figures have decried a rollback of freedoms in the North African country where the 2011 Arab Spring began.
RSF shelling kills over 30 in besieged Sudanese city
- Sunday’s attack involved ‘heavy artillery shelling’ and targeted El-Fasher’s residential neighborhoods
PORT SUDAN: Paramilitary shelling of Sudan’s besieged city of El-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, has killed more than 30 civilians and wounded dozens more, activists said on Monday.
The attack, which took place on Sunday, involved “heavy artillery shelling” and targeted the city’s residential neighborhoods, said the local resistance committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan.
Since April 2023, the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed tens of thousands, uprooted 13 million, and created what the UN describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, remains the last major city in the vast Darfur region that the paramilitary group has not conquered.
Last week, the RSF launched a renewed offensive on the city and two nearby displacement camps — Zamzam and Abu Shouk — killing more than 400 people and displacing some 400,000, according to the UN.
In a bloody ground offensive, the RSF took control of Zamzam camp, where aid workers say up to 1 million people were sheltering.
According to the UN, most of the displaced fled just north, to El-Fasher city itself, or 60 km west to the small town of Tawila.
By Thursday, more than 150,000 people had arrived in El-Fasher, while another 180,000 had fled to Tawila, the UN’s migration agency has said.
Humanitarian aid is nearly nonexistent in both famine-threatened towns.
On Monday, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, described the situation in the region as “horrifying.”
He said he had spoken by phone with army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his rival paramilitary commander Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who committed to giving “full access to get aid in.”
Throughout the war, both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
International aid agencies have long warned that a full-scale RSF assault on El-Fasher could lead to devastating urban warfare and a new wave of mass displacement.
UNICEF has described the situation as “hell on earth” for at least 825,000 children trapped in and around El-Fasher.
Following the army’s recapture of the capital Khartoum last month, the RSF has intensified efforts to seize El-Fasher, a strategic target for the paramilitary to consolidate its hold on Darfur.
The RSF already controls nearly all of the vast region, about the size of France, and parts of the south.
The army holds the country’s center, east, and north.
However, the UN warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation as the fighting escalated.
“The humanitarian community in Sudan is facing critical and intensifying operational challenges in North Darfur,” Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, said on Sunday.
She added that “despite repeated appeals, humanitarian access to El-Fasher and surrounding areas remains dangerously restricted,” warning that the lack of access was increasing the vulnerability of hundreds of thousands of people.”
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders has called for aid airdrops into the city in the face of access restrictions.
Saudi, Middle East, global leaders offer condolences following Pope Francis’ death
- Countries across the region sent their condolences to the Vatican City
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent cables of condolences on the death of Pope Francis on Monday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The Muslim World League secretary-general Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, who met the Pope at the Vatican in December 2024, told Arab News that their friendship had strengthened cooperation between the League and the Vatican in “shared goals ... championing just humanitarian causes and promoting the values of coexistence and global peace, in the face of the ideas and practices of religious and civilizational conflict and strife.”
The Pope was a man of “wisdom, just stances, and positive contributions, particularly to the Islamic world and its causes,” Al-Issa said.
The Muslim Council of Elders, headed by Egypt’s Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, also mourned Pope Francis’ passing and extended their condolences to “the leaders of the Catholic Church, our Christian brethren, and all advocates of peace and coexistence worldwide.”
Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed co-authored the historic Document on Human Fraternity, widely regarded as one of the most significant documents in modern human history.
“Pope Francis devoted his life to serving humanity and advancing the values of dialogue, tolerance, coexistence, peace, and human fraternity while he also tirelessly supported the vulnerable, needy, refugees, and the displaced, embodying a singular example of compassion and becoming a historic religious figure whose enduring humanitarian legacy will inspire future generations,” the group said in a statement on X.
Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi also offered his condolences following the death of Pope Francis on Monday.
“Pope Francis was a voice of peace, love and compassion,” said El-Sisi.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, President of the UAE, said Francis dedicated his life to promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding.
“I extend my deepest condolences to Catholics around the world on the passing of Pope Francis, who dedicated his life to promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding. May he rest in peace,” said Sheikh Mohamed via statment on X.
I extend my deepest condolences to Catholics around the world on the passing of Pope Francis, who dedicated his life to promoting the principles of peaceful coexistence and understanding. May he rest in peace.
— محمد بن زايد (@MohamedBinZayed) April 21, 2025
Prime minister of UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum said Pope Francis was a great leader whose compassion and commitment to peace touched countless lives.
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis @Pontifex , a great leader whose compassion and commitment to peace touched countless lives. His legacy of humility and interfaith unity will continue to inspire many communities around the world . pic.twitter.com/5LwoJq2Hxr
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) April 21, 2025
In a statement on X, Sheikh Mohammed said “his legacy of humility and interfaith unity will continue to inspire many communities around the world.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, on X, meanwhile said: “Deepest condolences to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Pope Francis was admired by all as the Pope of the People. He brought people together, leading with kindness, humility, and compassion. His legacy will live on in his good deeds and teachings.”
Deepest condolences to our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. Pope Francis was admired by all as the Pope of the People. He brought people together, leading with kindness, humility, and compassion. His legacy will live on in his good deeds and teachings pic.twitter.com/6Qlaj6QTCH
— عبدالله بن الحسين (@KingAbdullahII) April 21, 2025
Lebanon’s Christian President Joseph Aoun mourned the death on Monday of Pope Francis, a “dear friend and strong supporter” of the crisis-hit multi-confessional country.
“We will never forget his repeated calls to protect Lebanon and preserve its identity and diversity,” Aoun – the Arab world’s only Christian president – said in a statement on the presidency’s X account, calling Francis’s death “a loss for all humanity, for he was a powerful voice for justice and peace” who called for “dialogue between religions and cultures”.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meanwhile paid tribute to Pope Francis, calling him a “faithful friend of the Palestinian people,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Palestinian Christians in Gaza on Monday mourned the death of the Pope, who had maintained close and consistent video contact with the small Christian community in the territory throughout the ongoing war.
Since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, Francis had regularly called Gaza’s Christians, often several times a week, offering prayers, encouragement, and solidarity.
“Today, we lost a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights,” Abbas said, noting that Pope Francis “recognized the Palestinian state and authorized the Palestinian flag to be raised in the Vatican.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed Pope Francis for his efforts to further dialogue between different faiths.
Iran also offered its condolonces. Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the deceased pope on Monday as “a man of deep faith and boundless compassion.”
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto on Monday expressed condolences over the death of Pope Francis.
“The Pope’s message of simplicity, pluralism, favoring the poor and caring for others will always be an example for all of us,” the president said in an Instagram post.
Grief-stricken Argentines massed at Buenos Aires Cathedral early Monday to collectively mourn their late pontiff, compatriot and hero, Pope Francis.
In his final years, Francis had often tussled with political leaders, including Argentina’s current libertarian president, Javier Milei.
But there was a rare sense of political unity Monday in what is still a deeply polarized nation, with even Milei too acknowledging that his political differences with the late pontiff “today seem minor,” as he prepared to decree seven days of national mourning.
GALLERY: Pope Francis: The world mourns
Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church died after suffering from pneumonia.
In 2019, Pope Francis was the first pontiff to lead a mass in the Middle East, more specifically the UAE.
Francis charted new relations with the Muslim world by visiting the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13, 2013, surprising many Church watchers who had seen the Argentine cleric, known for his concern for the poor, as an outsider.
He sought to project simplicity into the grand role and never took possession of the ornate papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, saying he preferred to live in a community setting for his “psychological health.”
Gaza civil defense describes medic killings as ‘summary executions’
- Israel also accused of seeking to ‘circumvent’ its obligations under international law
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Monday accused the Israeli military of carrying out “summary executions” in the killing of 15 rescue workers last month, rejecting the findings of an internal probe by the army.
“The video filmed by one of the paramedics proves that the Israeli occupation’s narrative is false and demonstrates that it carried out summary executions,” Mohammed Al-Mughair, a civil defense official, said, a day after an Israeli army probe denied any execution-style killings. He also accused Israel of seeking to “circumvent” its obligations under international law.
The Palestine Red Crescent also rejected the findings of an Israeli military investigation that blamed operational failures for the killing of 15 Gaza emergency service workers, denouncing the report as “full of lies.”
“The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the Red Crescent, said.
Israeli opposition leader fears political violence over Shin Bet affair
- The supreme court froze the government’s initial attempt to sack Bar, and earlier this month it gave the cabinet and the attorney general’s office until the end of the just concluded Passover holiday to work out a compromise
TEL AVIV: Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said he feared an outbreak of political violence connected to what he called a campaign of hate against the country’s internal security chief, whom the government has moved to sack.
“The red line has been crossed. If we don’t stop this, there will be a political murder here, maybe more than one. Jews will kill jews,” Lapid said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, adding that “the most serious threats are directed at the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar.”
Bar’s dismissal as head of the internal security agency has been challenged in court by the opposition, which decried it as a sign of anti-democratic drift on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government.
Bar has suggested his ouster was linked to investigations into Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack “and other serious matters,” while Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has warned of “a personal conflict of interest on the part of the prime minister due to the criminal investigations involving his associates.”
The supreme court froze the government’s initial attempt to sack Bar, and earlier this month it gave the cabinet and the attorney general’s office until the end of the just concluded Passover holiday to work out a compromise.
Bar could resign soon, according to media reports, which would bring the matter to a close.
Lapid, leader of the center-right Yesh Atid party, argued that Bar should resign over his agency’s failure to prevent the October 7 attack, and acknowledged the government had the legal authority to dismiss him, provided it was done through due process and “approved by the court.”
But he also held Netanyahu responsible for a campaign of threats levelled at Bar.
Lapid presented screenshots of social media posts containing death threats against the security chief, telling Netanyahu: “Stop this.”
“Instead of supporting incitement (to hatred), support the Shin Bet, the security forces, the systems that keep this country alive,” he added.
In 1995, the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist after a campaign of violent rhetoric against him sent shockwaves through Israel.
Some accused then-opposition leader Netanyahu of not doing enough to discourage incitement to violence at the time.
