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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

Man shoots dead his sister and her husband after storming into home before going on run

A man is on the run after storming into his sister's home and killing her and her brother-in-law.

The man shot his 18-year-old sister and 21-year-old brother-in-law dead after a "social dispute" a year earlier, locals told police in Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

Rostam Jibrael, the father of the slain man, told Rudaw: "“It was over a social issue.

"The issue occurred about a year ago and I have married off three [of my] girls to this family [suspect’s family]."

Within hours of the incident, the region's prime minister Masrour Bazani ordered an immediate crackdown on gun sales.

He also ordered the interior ministry to seize any unlicensed firearms to halt the threat to "people's lives".

After the shooting, the Kurdish president (pictured) and PM outlawed gun sales (Getty Images)

Gun violence remains rife across the Kurdistan region, with minor disputes often erupting into shootouts and murder.

It comes as a vengeful aspiring law student shot and killed two academics at a university that rejected him over his awful grades.

Aras Mahdi Qassim shot dead lecturer Idris Izzat and faculty dean Kawan Ismael of Salahaddin University in Erbil, Iraq, on June 28.

Qassim had earlier started a law degree at Soran University before being expelled in his first year over his poor academic performance.

He then tried to transfer to the law faculty of Salahaddin University but was rejected.

Local media reported that he had "clashed" with law lecturer Nishtiman Osman about his failed transfer and headed to her home with a gun.

But the lecturer was out when he turned up and Qassim confronted her husband, mechanical engineering lecturer Idris Izzat.

Izzat fled when he saw the gun but was chased and reportedly shot dead by Qassim.

Furious Qassim then rushed to Salahaddin University College of Law and gunned down faculty dean Kawan Ismael and a security guard in a hail of bullets.

The guard survived but the dean died after undergoing surgery for his gunshot wounds.

Qassim fled but was later arrested by security forces.

Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan Nechirvan Barzani pictured during a 2017 press conference (Photothek via Getty Images)

His brother Qassim Mahdi Qassim later claimed he was "suffering from mental illness".

Both the President and Prime Minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan Region expressed regret over the incident.

In a statement, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said: "Unlicensed guns must be eradicated."

Gun crime remains at an all-time high in the Kurdistan Region - where guns like sniper and automatic rifles are up-for-grabs on the black market.

According to estimates, up to 70 per cent of people living in the autonomous region of Iraq own weapons.

Police data showed there were 79 murders and 28 shootings in the capital of Erbil in the past year, Rudaw reports.

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