'He Helped Save People And You Killed Him': Iraqi Dad Mourns Son Killed In Protests

Khazaal Salih sits in a tent next to a photo of his son, just back from the framing shop. In the gold-framed photo, Abbas wears a disposable blue surgical mask to protect him from tear gas. He's smiling and raising his fingers in a victory sign. At the top of the photo is the date — Nov. 6, 2019 — when the young man was killed by Iraqi security forces during an anti-government protest.
Abbas, who was 25, had fought for almost three years against ISIS with an Iran-backed Iraqi paramilitary group. His father, a retired Iraqi army corporal, says he never imagined that his son would die this way — one of more than 315 protesters killed in anti-government demonstrations since October.
"He was unemployed and there was no work for him. I said, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'I am going to go with the protesters, with the poor, with those dying of hunger.' "