Student Rape-Murder Gang Shuts Iraq U

One of Iraq's leading universities has been shut down while authorities attempt to purge it of a sectarian student gang accused of carrying out a campaign of murder and rape. Professors, administrators, and fellow students have been targeted by the Students League, a shadowy group of Shia students said to hold sway over campus security and even the courses of study of Mustansiriya University's engineering and law programs.

The university descended into chaos ahead of the closing, professors and students tell the New York Times. Two rival administrators claimed to be chancellor, and the Students League openly paraded on campus to intimidate Sunni and Kurdish students. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Mustansiriya graduate, finally stepped in this month after a professor who had been pistol-whipped by the group arrived at his office still wearing his bloodied clothes  and with untreated gashes on his face.
(More Nouri al-Maliki stories.)