ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has directed a committee to be sent to the southern city of Basra to investigate reports of clashes between Iraqi security forces and an Iranian-backed militia group, following a reported failed attempt to arrest a suspect accused of the killing of a prominent activist, state media reported on Thursday.

An unconfirmed report said a force affiliated with the militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) launched an attack on the headquarters of the tactical division of the Ministry of Interior’s Falcons Cell in the Presidential Palaces compound in Basra province. Videos on social media showed exchanges of gunfire between both sides.

The AAH attack came after the Falcons Cell reported searched the home of a person wanted by the authorities in connection with last year’s assassination of activist Reham Yacoub in Basra. The suspect is said to be a member of the AAH faction of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi).

Yacoub, an activist and fitness trainer, was shot dead in her car in Basra in August of 2020. Photos of Yacoub with a former US official had been circulated on social media originally when she took a prominent role in 2018 protests.

A number of activists in Basra were assassinated last year, including Ahmed Abd al-Samad, a 37-year-old correspondent for Dijla channel in the city, and his fellow cameraman, Safaa Ghali, 26. Both were killed by gunmen on January 10, 2020.

Iraqi authorities previously arrested four people in Basra on suspicion of being behind a series of assassinations of activists and journalists, AFP reported in February. Those detentions were the first known arrests of the kind.

Hardline units of the Iran-backed PMF are widely accused of the killing of many protestors and voices of dissent in Iraq. Kadhimi has repeatedly pledged to hold the assassins accountable but so far the prime minister has been unable to put a stop to the killings.

Rudaw