Ahmed Abbas

In one case, engineering student Ahmed Abbas, 24, of Baghdad said he was seized by gunmen as he was leaving school in April and held for three weeks until his father paid a $30,000 ransom.

Many students fear they are attractive targets amid a rise of Islamic extremism and sectarian violence in Iraq, where a tennis coach and one of his players were gunned down for wearing shorts last month.

Luma George, a 20-year-old Christian who is studying to be a teacher, now wears an Islamic headscarf known as a hijab as she is driven to and from school.

"Gunmen threatened to kill us if we did not wear a hijab," she said, adding that she has had trouble concentrating on final exams because of the violence.

Ali Murad al-Jubouri, a 22-year-old science student, said some of his friends left school.He said he decided to stay, but he and some friends were living in classrooms to avoid using the roads every day.

He said he believed insurgents seeking to block progress in Iraq were targeting students "because they are the educational threads and the country will count on them."

Jassim, however, had a simpler explanation.

"They are Iraqis and every Iraqi is a target," he said.

Professor Issam al-Rawi, head of the Iraqi Association of University Lecturers, said 220 professors have been killed since the war began and hundreds more have left Iraq after being threatened.

The most recent killing was Tuesday, he said, when Baghdad University professor Hani Jassim al-Duleimi was gunned down in front of his house.

In one case, engineering student Ahmed Abbas, 24, of Baghdad said he was seized by gunmen as he was leaving school in April and held for three weeks until his father paid a $30,000 ransom.

Many students fear they are attractive targets amid a rise of Islamic extremism and sectarian violence in Iraq, where a tennis coach and one of his players were gunned down for wearing shorts last month.

Luma George, a 20-year-old Christian who is studying to be a teacher, now wears an Islamic headscarf known as a hijab as she is driven to and from school.

"Gunmen threatened to kill us if we did not wear a hijab," she said, adding that she has had trouble concentrating on final exams because of the violence.

Ali Murad al-Jubouri, a 22-year-old science student, said some of his friends left school.He said he decided to stay, but he and some friends were living in classrooms to avoid using the roads every day.

He said he believed insurgents seeking to block progress in Iraq were targeting students "because they are the educational threads and the country will count on them."

In one case, engineering student Ahmed Abbas, 24, of Baghdad said he was seized by gunmen as he was leaving school in April and held for three weeks until his father paid a $30,000 ransom.

Many students fear they are attractive targets amid a rise of Islamic extremism and sectarian violence in Iraq, where a tennis coach and one of his players were gunned down for wearing shorts last month.

Luma George, a 20-year-old Christian who is studying to be a teacher, now wears an Islamic headscarf known as a hijab as she is driven to and from school.

"Gunmen threatened to kill us if we did not wear a hijab," she said, adding that she has had trouble concentrating on final exams because of the violence.

Ali Murad al-Jubouri, a 22-year-old science student, said some of his friends left school.He said he decided to stay, but he and some friends were living in classrooms to avoid using the roads every day.

He said he believed insurgents seeking to block progress in Iraq were targeting students "because they are the educational threads and the country will count on them."
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hmed Abbas, 24, center, an engineering student at Baghdad University, speaks to fellow students.

Ali Murad al-Jubouri, a 22-year-old science student at Baghdad University (right), chats Thursday with Ahmed Abbas, 24, an engineering student on the grounds of the university in Baghdad, Iraq.
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In one case, engineering student Ahmed Abbas, 24, of Baghdad said he was seized by gunmen as he was leaving school in April and held for three weeks until his father paid a $30,000 ransom.

Many students fear they are attractive targets amid a rise of Islamic extremism and sectarian violence in Iraq, where a tennis coach and one of his players were gunned down for wearing shorts last month.

Luma George, a 20-year-old Christian, wears an Islamic headscarf known as a hijab as she is driven to and from school.

"Gunmen threatened to kill us if we did not wear a hijab," she said.

Ali Murad al-Jubouri, a 22-year-old science student, said some of his friends left school.He said he and some friends were living in classrooms to avoid using the roads every day.

He said he believed insurgents seeking to block progress in Iraq were targeting students "because they are the educational threads and the country will count on them."