Targeted for Murder, Iraqi Scientists Named on a Hit List

摘要

If you want to know how bad it is for scientists in Iraq these days, just ask Nazar Al-Anbaky. In the spring of 2005, a close friend, agronomist Awad Esa, director general of the Ministry of Agriculture's extension division, was gunned down by masked men as he was leaving work. Another colleague, Rafid Abdal Alkareem, head of the animal-welfare board, fled Iraq after surviving two assassination attempts. Faced with persistent threats, the ministry last fall dispersed most personnel protection research department. So in March, he too quit Iraq.