http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/1be6106d57ba8534cb8b008acd2bc614.htm MOSUL, 1 May (IRIN) - Scores of doctors have fled the northern city of Mosul, some 360km north of Baghdad, after receiving a series of death threats, according to one provincial official.
"The number of threats increases daily," said Nineva Provincial Council head Salim al-Haj Essa. "This has forced 66 doctors to leave the city within the last three months." Nine others, he added, had been killed by unknown attackers.
The threats, which local doctors began receiving early this year, have persuaded scores of doctors to flee the city, with many seeking refuge in areas of the Kurdistan region or in neighbouring countries.
"A threatening letter was posted on my front door demanding $50,000 – otherwise my head would be chopped off," said one female doctor in Mosul, speaking anonymously. "I told the governor's office, but they said they couldn't do anything. Now I'm thinking of fleeing to Erbil as soon as my children finish their final exams."
Essa blamed the threats on local criminal gangs who have exploited the atmosphere of instability and deteriorating security to kidnap doctors – considered relatively well-paid – for ransom money. "We managed to arrest a few of the gang members, but discovered that the head of one of these networks worked as a hospital guard," said Essa, adding that the practice would persist until Iraqi authorities, and not US forces, take charge of national security.