Baghdad records three teenage suicides within hours
Shafaq News- Baghdad
A teenager died by suicide at his family home in northeastern Baghdad on Friday, a security source told Shafaq News, hours after two other teenage suicides elsewhere in the capital.
The teenager, born in 2009, was found hanged in his room in Al-Husseiniya, according to the source, who added that his family had said he was experiencing psychological difficulties. Security forces transferred the body for forensic examination and launched an investigation.
Earlier on Friday, a girl born in 2010 died by suicide at her residence in Abu Dshir, Al-Dora district, with preliminary information indicating psychological difficulties, a separate source said. In Abu Ghraib, another teenager of the same age took his own life after recently failing his examinations.
The Interior Ministry documented 617 suicides across Iraq in the first half of 2026, warning in July that the phenomenon was becoming “an increasingly serious social challenge.” A 2025 report by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs estimated 55 to 70 cases per month, with the annual total increasing from about 1,100 in 2022 to 1,300 in 2023 and nearly 1,500 in 2024.
Read more: When life feels closed from all sides: Iraq’s rising suicide cases
