Asharq Al-Awsat stops printing in Iraq after inference from militants

London-based pan-Arabian newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat has announced the decision to stop publishing its edition in Iraq, after repeated violations by the Asaaib Ahl al-Haq militia, which they say is “close to Iran and to the former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.”

The newspaper reported on Tuesday that the militia group had raided their buildings where the paper is printed in the capital Baghdad.

It added that armed militia were breaching the law, and censoring content by ‘deleting or amending articles and the reports in the newspaper’ that criticized Iranian policy in the region.

Asharq Al-Awsat said in the most recent incident, the militant group even changed their first page headline. The headline in question was “Iraq demonstrations anticipate the interference of Iran by destroying (Ayatollah) Khamenei’s photos.”

“The militia replaced the two pictures of the main page by another one from inside which caused a distortion in the pages, and the main page being printed without a headline,” according to the media outlet.