Shiite professor killed in Baghdad
Gunmen on Tuesday shot to death a Shiite professor and economist well-known among Iraqis for helping poor people secure loans to start small businesses, police and his university dean said.
Diya al-Meqoter was shot several times in the head and chest during the attack in Baghdad's dangerous and predominantly Sunni Azamiyah neighborhood.
The slain academic, who was in his late 40s, was widely known through his program on the Sharqiya television channel during which he interviewed several poor people who presented their ideas for starting a small business.
Al-Meqoter was the sixth station employee or journalist killed since it was established after the 2003 U.S. invasion, Sharqiya said in a statement.
Al-Meqoter was an economics professor at the Al-Mustansiriya University, which was hit by a car bombing last week that killed 70, mostly students waiting for bus rides home.
"He was a very active professor, and his loss will have a great effect on his students and fellow professors," Taqi al-Moussawi, the al-Mustansiriya dean said in a telephone interview. "The poor will miss him as well because he worked to protect them from exploitation."
Al-Moussawi had called on the government to give protection to professors and students "because the bloody violence is targeting them every day to empty the country from its scientific minds."
Dozens of professors have been killed in the past few years, forcing many of them to flee the country and teach at universities abroad.
Source: Associated Press
The slain academic, who was in his late 40s, was widely known through his program on the Sharqiya television channel during which he interviewed several poor people who presented their ideas for starting a small business.
Al-Meqoter was the sixth station employee or journalist killed since it was established after the 2003 U.S. invasion, Sharqiya said in a statement.
Al-Meqoter was an economics professor at the Al-Mustansiriya University, which was hit by a car bombing last week that killed 70, mostly students waiting for bus rides home.
"He was a very active professor, and his loss will have a great effect on his students and fellow professors," Taqi al-Moussawi, the al-Mustansiriya dean said in a telephone interview. "The poor will miss him as well because he worked to protect them from exploitation."
Al-Moussawi had called on the government to give protection to professors and students "because the bloody violence is targeting them every day to empty the country from its scientific minds."
Dozens of professors have been killed in the past few years, forcing many of them to flee the country and teach at universities abroad.
Source: Associated Press
