Student kills American teacher in Iraq

An Iraqi student shot dead his American teacher and then killed himself in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Thursday, after what local authorities described as a personal quarrel. "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 Zana Mohammad Salih, governor of Iraq's Sulaimaniya Province.
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 page on the photo sharing website Flickr describes him as a teacher, hailing from Washington State, and based in Sulaimaniya.