Shafaq News- Baghdad

Security forces arrested five suspects across two separate rape cases involving minors in Baghdad in less than a week, one of which ended in the death of a four-year-old girl, security sources said.

Two suspects were detained on Friday following the rape of an 11-year-old girl in the Suwayb area, southwest of the capital, a security source told Shafaq News. Both have been remanded into custody pending investigation.

Five days earlier, three suspects were arrested in the Dusseim district of eastern Baghdad on charges of kidnapping, assault, and rape involving a 15-year-old girl and a four-year-old child. The teenager was beaten but managed to escape, while the younger child was held, assaulted, and later found in a stagnant water channel. She was hospitalized and died of her injuries, police sources said. Investigators are examining whether the suspects were under the influence of narcotics at the time, with medical and forensic reports pending.

Neither case has produced a formal statement from the Interior Ministry as of publication. Both prompted calls on social media for stronger legal protections for minors.