American teacher shot at Christian school in Iraq

The quarrel at a Christian school was at first easily ignored by other students: a disagreement between a classmate and a teacher that could barely be heard. But it quickly escalated into gunfire Thursday in a murder-suicide marking the rare violent death of an American in Iraqs most peaceful region.Authorities in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah said 18-year-old Biyar Sarwar shot his gym teacher, U.S. citizen Jeremiah Small, before turning the gun on himself at a private English-speaking school during a morning sports lecture. Sarwar died later at a nearby hospital.Small, 33, was from Cosmopolis, a town in western Washington state near the coast. His father, J. Dan Small, confirmed the death on his Facebook page. Our oldest, Jeremiah, was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m., the elder Small wrote.Eyewitnesses in Iraq described a scene of chaos in the classroom, with some students fainting in fear after gunfire shattered the morning class.Ahmed Mohammed said he was sitting in the front of the classroom and paid little attention to the argument when it first erupted. He said he could barely hear what was happening because Sarwar was at the back of the room.Then I heard the gunshot, said Mohammed, his face pale as he recounted the scene. I turned my head and saw the body of the American teacher on the ground with blood near it. All the students started to run out of the room. Seconds later, as I was running to the reach the school gate, I heard another gunshot.A short time later, another student shouted that Sarwar had killed himself, Mohammed said.So I rushed back to the class with other students to see the teacher on the ground with three bullets in his head and chest, and bloody, and Biyar with a bullet in his head.