Terrified school heads go into hiding

Dozens of Iraqi head teachers are in hiding as schools reopen for the new term after they had received death threats for belonging to the former ruling Baath party, even though membership was compulsory under Saddam Hussain.

In the rundown Baladiat district of eastern Baghdad, a note signed "the Penalty Committee" was posted on school gates this summer, naming 10 heads who would be killed if they returned to work.

Widad Sa'ad, the head of Wahran girls' school and a mother of three, ignored the warning, even after armed men threatened her, and she paid for her defiance.

As pupils filed into the playground for registration yesterday morning, the first day of term, they walked past bullet holes in the brickwork where she was shot dead last month by three unknown assailants. The murder of the popular and conscientious 52-year-old has left others fearful.

Rajha Abdul Al Jabar, 60, should have been starting her final year in work at the nearby school of Kimat. Instead, she has quit her job and gone into hiding after telling friends that she feared for her life.

Another head teacher in the district has gone into hiding after receiving a live bullet in the post. Sa'ad's counterpart at Wahran boys' school, Ahlam Salman, left Baghdad and is being protected by relatives.