Child found tied up in abandoned house after father allegedly abducts him in Nineveh

NINEVEH — A family dispute in Hammam Al-Alil, northeast of Mosul, led to the discovery of a child tied up in an abandoned house after his father allegedly abducted him, Nineveh security forces reported on Thursday.

“After a detailed investigation, the father was implicated in the child’s abduction,” a security source told 964media. The father reportedly sold their home on Wednesday to pay off mounting debts and then disappeared with his son. The incident followed a disagreement in which the father prevented his wife from taking their child to her parents’ home.

Omar Al-Hassan, a local resident and eyewitness, told 964media, “Due to mounting debts, the father sold the property and displaced his family. After an intense argument with his wife, he took the child and vanished, while his wife reported their son missing from her parents’ residence.”

A police search was launched on Wednesday afternoon. “Shortly after the disappearance was reported, we found the boy restrained in a derelict building,” a security source disclosed.

The father has been apprehended and is under investigation. Officials stated that he suffers from mental health issues amid ongoing familial tensions. The child has been safely reunited with his mother.

This case is one of several recent domestic violence incidents in Iraq. On Sept. 2, a man was detained in Kirkuk’s Taza district for allegedly strangling his three-month-old son and concealing the body in a water tank during a domestic dispute.

On Aug. 15, a father in Salah Al-Din’s Khurmatu district reportedly stabbed his two-year-old son 26 times during an argument with his wife; the child survived after extensive hospital treatment.

Erbil Asayish forces arrested a woman on Aug, 24 after a viral video showed her kicking her four-year-old daughter.

Domestic violence cases in Iraq have surged, with nearly 14,000 incidents reported in the first five months of 2024, according to a June report by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The increase is attributed to weak legal protections for victims, particularly women and children.

While Iraq’s Constitution forbids violence within the family, the Penal Code allows reduced sentences for so-called “honor killings” under Article 409. Iraq lacks a specific law against domestic violence, whereas the Kurdistan Region enacted the 2011 Law on Combating Domestic Violence, offering stronger protections, though many cases still go unreported.