Iraq jails al-Qurban leader for child killing
Shafaq News – Dhi Qar
An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced two members of the outlawed Al-Lahiyah movement, including a senior leader accused of promoting ritual suicide and exploiting young followers in southern Iraq.
The Dhi Qar Criminal Court handed a life sentence to a member of the group’s so-called “High Commission” after convicting him of killing a child and staging the death as a suicide tied to the sect’s beliefs in Souq al-Shuyukh, south of Nasiriyah.
Al-Lahiyah—also known as Al-Qurban—surfaced in southern Iraq around 2020 and has since been banned under national security laws. The movement blends extremist and messianic interpretations of Shia Islam, urging followers to “offer themselves” as spiritual sacrifices. Authorities say it has drawn dozens of recruits, many of them teenagers, in Dhi Qar, Muthanna, and Basra.
Security forces have dismantled several cells linked to the sect over the past year. In July 2024, police arrested 39 members across four provinces during raids on suspected “ritual gatherings.” Two months later, another 47—including a self-styled spiritual leader known as al-Arif—were detained on charges of incitement and unlawful assembly.
Religious scholars and officials have condemned the movement as a distortion of faith and a danger to public safety. Investigators have reclassified a series of “suicides” in southern Iraq as linked to Al-Lahiyah’s ideology.
