Iraq: UN envoy calls on authorities to seize those responsible for deadly university blast

The top United Nations envoy to Iraq today called on the authorities to apprehend those responsible for Tuesday’s “heinous” bombing at Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University, which killed and injured dozens of people, many of them students and staff.

“The targeting of centres of higher education by violent groups will not only exacerbate sectarian tensions, but also targets Iraq’s future professionals,” the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement issued in the name of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Ashraf Qazi.

Mr. Qazi “condemns in the strongest terms the bombing...as shocking and a heinous crime,” and again calls “on the Iraqi authorities to pursue and apprehend these criminal perpetrators, and on Iraqi political, religious and civil society leaders to help in upholding the sanctity of educational institutions in the country,” the statement added.