Father arrested in Kirkuk for allegedly killing infant son during domestic dispute

KIRKUK – A man has been arrested after allegedly choking his three-month-old son to death and placing the child’s body inside a water tank during a violent family dispute late Sunday night, local security forces reported.

The tragic incident occurred in the Taza district, a southern suburb of Kirkuk. A source from the Kirkuk National Security Directorate, speaking to 964media on the condition of anonymity, indicated that the incident was triggered by a domestic dispute between the polygynous man and his second wife.

“After committing the crime, he threw the child’s body into a tank used for drinking water,” the source said. The child’s mother, who is the man’s second wife, immediately alerted security forces.

“Upon receiving the alert, a unit from the National Security Directorate swiftly arrived at the scene, recovered the child’s body, and apprehended the father,” the source added.

The suspect is currently in custody at the Taza police station pending formal charges.

The Taza district, located approximately 20 kilometers southeast of Kirkuk, is predominantly inhabited by Shiite Turkmen residents.

This incident is part of a troubling pattern of faily violence cases in Iraq. On Aug. 15, a similarly brutal case occurred in Salah Al-Din’s Khurmatu district when a man stabbed his two-year-old son 26 times with a knife during an argument with his wife. Remarkably, the child survived after receiving days of hospital treatment.

In another case on August 24, Erbil Asayish security forces arrested a woman after a video surfaced on social media showing her violently kicking the head of her four-year-old daughter.

Domestic and family violence in Iraq has reached alarming levels, with nearly 14,000 incidents reported in the first five months of 2024 alone, according to a June 9 report from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The surge in cases is attributed to the lack of effective laws to curb such violence and protect victims, who are predominantly women and children.

Iraq’s Constitution prohibits all forms of violence within the family, school, and society, and the Iraqi Penal Code criminalizes physical assault, battery, and other violent acts. However, Article 409 of the Penal Code provides reduced sentences for so-called “honor killings.” Iraq still lacks a specialized law against domestic violence, meaning all such cases are currently addressed under the general provisions of the Penal Code.

The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has its own legal framework for combating domestic violence, which includes the 2011 Law on Combating Domestic Violence. This law provides legal protections against domestic violence that are more robust than those under Iraq’s Penal Code. However, the bulk of cases still go unreported under both federal and regional legal frameworks.