[IsraelTimes] Beatings and arbitrary arrests reported amid growing public protests over Iranian influence and crumbling public services.Hajar Youssif, an Iraqi activist and volunteer medic who was kidnapped, beaten and threatened for attending protests, believes the attack was part of what she and other activists describe as a campaign of intimidation and arbitrary detentions by powerful Iranian-backed Shiite militias and political groups that control Basra, a city of more than 2 million people in southern Iraq’s Shiite Moslem heartland.
Angry Basra residents have repeatedly taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest failing government services, including water contamination that sent thousands to hospitals.