Student kills American teacher in northern Iraq

An Iraqi student shot dead his American teacher and then killed himself in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Thursday following an argument, the provincial governor said.

"There was an argument between the student and his American teacher ... and as a result of that argument the student shot dead his teacher using a pistol he had, and then shot himself," said Sulaimaniya Province Governor Zana Mohammad Salih.

Salih gave the American teacher's name as Jeremiah Small and identified the student as Beyar Al Talabani. The student initially survived the shooting but later died of his wounds in Sulaimaniya Emergency Hospital, the hospital said.

"We cannot say there is a political or religious dimension to the incident and the investigation is still going on. It is an ordinary criminal incident," the governor said.

Small's blog page on the photo sharing website Flickr describes him as a teacher, hailing from Washington State, and based in Sulaimaniya.

The northern Kurdish region has been spared the extreme violence that has plagued the rest of Iraq, and is the only part of the country where large numbers of Westerners live and work without special security measures.
 

A U.S. embassy spokesman said: "We have heard reports regarding the shooting of a teacher in Sulaimaniya and are working through our consulate in Arbil and Iraqi authorities to ascertain the details of the incident.
 

"At this time we are waiting for identification to be complete and for the family to be notified."