BAGHDAD — On Feb. 18, the bodyguards of national security adviser Faleh al-Fayad beat up a group of journalists and media workers in the Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies when they refused to leave the conference Fayad was attending. The incident triggered a major political and public controversy.
On Jan. 29, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the security detail of Iraqi Human Rights Minister Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati attacked a traffic officer and police officers who stopped the minister’s convoy in the course of regulating traffic. On Jan. 31, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered an investigation into the incident.