Iraq: Six Gay Men Killed By Own Tribes

Iraq's interior ministry reports that six gay men have been killed in the last ten days by members of their own tribes in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City after being disowned by family members as "perverts." A local cafe popular with gays was also set on fire. The AFP reports on the latest of the killings:

The bullet-riddled bodies of three Iraqis said to be homosexuals have been found in Baghdad's Sadr City, bastion of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a defence ministry official said on Sunday. "Three corpses of homosexuals have been recovered in Sadr City. Two of the bodies, found on Thursday, had pieces of paper attached on which was written the word 'Pervert.' The third body was retrieved on Friday," the official said. Residents told AFP that the bodies of two men aged 16 and 18 were found on waste ground on the outskirts of Sadr City, and that several days previously two homosexuals had been dumped in the street with their arms and legs broken. During Friday prayers in Sadr City, a poor district of Baghdad where some two million Iraqis live, Sheikh Jassem al-Mutairi slammed what he called "new private practices by some men who dress like women, who are effeminate." "I call on families to prevent their children from following such a lifestyle," he added.

This is the country YOU are paying for.