SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Fighting over the ownership of agricultural land turned deadly in southern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, according to officials.
The fighting took place in Maysan province, with the violence centered in a village some 70 kilometers south of the provincial capital Amarah, Iraqi media reported.
AFP cited Mohammed al-Saray, a forensics department official as saying that eight people were killed in the fighting.
A dozen others were wounded, including a women and children, he said.
A security source told AFP that one group had “taken over state-owned agricultural land” and relatives from the same trouble were “demanding an equal share.”
In Iraq, where state institutions have been weakened by decades of war, tribes are powerful actors, particularly in its oil-rich south, where they have their own moral and judicial codes as well as huge caches of arms.
