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In Iraq, pro-Iranian militias are killing democracy activists and the government is doing nothing about it. The power of the militias is endangering the country - and the entire region.

Baghdad, June 26.– The fear is like a burdock. It sticks to him, no matter how hard he tries, he can't shake it off. Whenever he leaves the house, he looks behind him to see if anyone is following him; on every street corner he checks whether a suspicious car is parked anywhere. Sometimes, says Mohammed al-Temimi, a black SUV with no license plate chases him. Just a week ago, two men who looked like militiamen, muscular and with shaved heads, bumped into him in front of a falafall shop. "They wanted to make it clear to me that they were watching me."

Mohammed al-Temimi supports the protest movement that arose in October 2019 in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the southern provinces of the country and whose supporters revolt against the rulers' corruption and nepotism. Til today. The 21-year-old is sitting on the grass in a park in Baghdad and pulls on his cigarette. It is around 40 degrees Celsius on this June day, a hot wind is blowing from the Tigris. Al-Temimi is a thin, bright-eyed man who scour every corner of the park as he talks about the months that have changed his life.

"I was hoping for the great coup in Iraq," says Al-Temimi. He was euphoric when he shouted out his anger on Tahrir Square in central Baghdad with thousands of schoolchildren and employees about the criminals, as he calls the political leaders. A fresh start seemed so tangible this fall of 2019 when Prime Minister Adil Abd al-Mahdi resigned . Al-Temimi and the others believed that Iraqcould be a country where even those who are not affiliated with the elite can find well-paid jobs. That their country could be sovereign, free from the influence of neighboring Iran and the terror of the militias. Women and men like Al-Temimi, they want to be citizens in a constitutional state. They hold on to this vision. And that can cost her life.

They execute their victims in the middle of the street

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