Iraq weighs cost of stray bullets fired in anger or joy

At weddings, football matches and other special events, some Iraqi men like to fire celebratory volleys of gunfire into the sky, with little regard for where the bullets might fall.

For some Iraqis, the tradition has been devastating, as have bullets fired randomly in sporadic shootings in a society still awash with weapons after decades of war and unrest.

Randa Ahmad, a mother from Baghdad, was busy with household chores when a loud bang surprised her. Alarmed, she rushed to the living room and found her son Mohamed, four, bleeding on the floor.

“A stray bullet hit him in the head,” the 30-year-old said a few weeks later, her child sitting shyly beside her in their suburban home.

The bullet “came out of nowhere,” said Ahmad, who does not know who fired it or why.

Her child now suffers severe headaches and tires easily, but doctors say surgery to remove the bullet is too risky.

“If the ball moves,” Ahmad said, “it could cause paralysis.”

Celebratory shootings and gun battles, sometimes sparked by minor disputes, are common in Iraq, where gun ownership remains widespread despite a period of relative calm.

Iraq, a country of 43 million people, endured wars under former dictator Saddam Hussein, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and the sectarian conflict and jihadist insurgencies that followed.

During the years of bloody unrest, all kinds of weapons flowed into the country and were often used in tribal conflicts and political score-settling.

Many households report owning firearms for protection.

In 2017, some 7.6 million weapons – handguns, rifles and shotguns – were owned by civilians in Iraq, according to the watchdog Small Arms Survey, which estimates the figure has risen since then.

– 'A bullet fell from the sky' –

Saad Abbas was in his garden in Baghdad when he was shaken by a sharp, burning pain in his shoulder.

“At first I thought someone had hit me with a stone,” the 59-year-old said. Then he realized that a “bullet fell from the sky” and hit him.

Months later, he remains mostly bedridden, the projectile still lodged in his shoulder after doctors advised him against surgery due to a pre-existing medical problem.

“I can’t raise my hand,” he said. “It hurts. I can't even take my bedspread off.”

Abbas expressed fury at those who trigger celebratory tours when “a football team wins, at a wedding or an engagement party.”

“Where are the bullets going?” He asked. “They fall on people!”

He denounced widespread gun ownership and said “weapons should be exclusively in the hands of the state.”

Iraqi law punishes illegal possession of firearms with up to a year in prison, but authorities announced plans last year to tighten controls.

Security forces urged civilians to register their weapons at 697 centers, allowing each family to own a single light weapon for “protection”, Interior Ministry spokesman Miqdad Miri said.

The government also recently began offering civilians up to $4,000 to buy their weapons.

But Miri acknowledged that in tribal and rural areas, many people “consider guns as part of their identity.”

In recent years, their collections have been swollen by the “huge quantities” of firearms abandoned by the Iraqi army during the U.S.-led invasion, he said.

In the tumultuous years that followed, weak border controls and the emergence of jihadists allowed arms trafficking to flourish.

– 'Attached to their weapons' –

“Our main problem is not small arms, but medium and large weapons,” Miri said, referring to military assault rifles and other powerful weapons.

Security expert Ahmed el-Sharifi also said that “civilians are attached to their weapons”, but that the arsenals of “armed political groups and tribes are even more difficult to control… This is the most dangerous” .

Despite state efforts to control the scourge of guns, the problem often makes headlines.

Earlier this year, a video went viral showing armed clashes between relatives in a busy market in eastern Baghdad, which left one person dead.

In March, a senior intelligence officer was shot dead while trying to resolve a tribal conflict.

And in April, celebratory shooting at a wedding claimed the life of the groom in the northern city of Mosul.

Last year, another man, Ahmed Hussein, 30, said he was shot in the leg, also probably by a bullet fired at a wedding.

He said he had just taken a nap when he was startled by gunfire and then felt sharp pain.

“I fell out of bed and looked at my leg and saw that it was bleeding,” Hussein said.

He too lamented the fact that even a simple argument “between children or at a football game” can quickly lead to someone pulling the trigger, and those who pay the price are often “innocent bystanders.” .

sf/rh/ysm/fz/srm/cwl