Iraqi students in Semnan given a month’s leave after second attack

BAGHDAD — Iraqi students in Iran’s Semnan governorate have been given a month’s leave after a second attack on their accommodation, Iraq’s embassy in Tehran said, and Iranian judicial authorities have identified two suspects over the first.

A delegation of embassy staff and Iraq’s cultural attaché went to Semnan and met university administrators, governorate officials and other authorities, the embassy said, describing the crisis as fully contained and the leave as a way to calm tensions and restore stability on campus. It did not say whether the students would return to Iraq.

The announcement followed a second attack on Monday evening, when video from inside the accommodation showed young Iranian men surrounding the building and throwing stones at students’ windows, with Iraqi students holding wooden poles in case of another attempt to get in. The embassy had said after Sunday’s assault that the situation was under control.

Semnan judiciary chief Mohammad Sadegh Akbari said two people suspected of involvement had been identified and summoned to appear.

A source inside the Nikan complex told 964media that Sunday’s confrontation began when two Iranian men described as heavily intoxicated tried to force their way into the building and students removed them, after which about 150 people gathered and attacked the students. Several were injured, belongings were damaged and windows smashed as students sheltered inside. Video reviewed by 964media showed assaults inside and outside the complex and students trying to reach police before patrols arrived. University staff and Iranian security later provided buses to move them.

Iraqi students elsewhere in Iran have described growing hostility to 964media. Students in Tehran reported calls in Telegram groups to boycott Iraqi classmates academically and socially over allegations that Iranian women had been harassed. Students in Ilam said treatment in markets and public places had worsened, attributing it partly to economic hardship and resentment of Iraqis’ spending power. A student in Isfahan described mixed experiences. Those accounts do not establish a motive for the Semnan attacks.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein instructed the embassy to establish the circumstances and follow the Iranian investigation, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. The embassy called for legal action against those responsible.