In a widely condemned incident in Baghdad’s Al-Wathba Square, anti-government protesters lynched a 16-year-old boy believing him to have opened fire on protesters, when it has now surfaced that he fired a pistol into the air, to clear protesters away from his family’s home. The victim, identified as Haitham Ali Ismael, was stabbed up to 17 times, stripped of his clothes and hung by the ankles from a traffic light pole, his throat had also been slit. Many witnesses filmed the brutal display on their smartphones. Uniformed police could also be seen amidst the mob, and witnesses claim that police stood back as the mob attacked the youth. Furthermore, the extrajudicial execution drew condemnation from Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, who issued a statement through his representative during today’s sermon. “The gruesome murder and hanging of the victim is a crime, and the perpetrators must be held accountable,” Al-Sistani denounced.