By APD writer Muhammad Sohail
At least 104 people have been reportedly killed and more than 6,000 wounded in less than a week of unrest in Iraq, Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Saad Maan said on Sunday on state TV.
Maan said eight members of the security forces were among those killed and 51 public buildings and eight political party headquarters had been torched by protesters.At least 18 people were killed in clashes between anti-government protesters and police in Baghdad on Saturday night, according to police and medical sources.
Protests, the scale of which has taken authorities by surprise, have come as the cabinet has tried to appease public anger over corruption and unemployment with a new reform plan.Two years after the defeat of Daesh, security is better than it has been in years, but corruption is rampant, wrecked infrastructure has not been rebuilt and jobs remain scarce.Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s 17-point plan was the result of an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday night and comes after days of offering only vague reform promises.It includes increased subsidized housing for the poor, stipends for the unemployed as well as training programs and small loans initiatives for unemployed youth.The families of those killed during demonstrations this week will also get payouts and care usually granted to members of the security forces killed during war.The clashes shattered a day of relative calm on Saturday after authorities lifted a curfew and traffic moved normally in the center of Baghdad. Hundreds of security personnel were deployed in the streets.
The demonstrations began in Baghdad on Tuesday but have spread quickly spread to other cities mainly in the south.In the city of Nasiriya, where at least 18 people were killed during the week, police fired live rounds at demonstrators on Saturday. Twenty-four people were wounded in the clashes overnight, including seven policemen, according to security, hospital and morgue sources.Protesters also torched the headquarters of several political parties in Nasiriya, police said. These included the headquarters of the powerful Dawa party that dominated Iraq’s government from 2003 until the 2018 elections.Violence also broke out again in Diwaniya, another city south of Baghdad killing at least one person, police said.
The cabinet’s new plan may not be enough to placate protesters and the politicians who’ve sided with them.Influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, who has a mass popular following and controls a large chunk of parliament, demanded on Friday that the government resign and snap elections be held. At least one other major parliamentary grouping allied itself with Sadr against the government.But powerful political parties which have dominated Iraqi politics since the 2003 US-led invasion and toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein have not indicated they are willing to relinquish the institutions they control.
In eastern Baghdad on Friday and Saturday, police snipers reportedly shot at demonstrators and several people were wounded. Security services said the violence killed eight members of the security forces and wounded more than 1,000, state television reported.At least 95 demonstrators have died across Iraq, according to local media reports based on police and medical sources. Iraq’s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights had put the toll at 99 dead since protests broke out on Tuesday.The unrest is the deadliest Iraq has seen since the declared defeat of Daesh in 2017 and has shaken Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s year-old government. Iraqis fear the violence will continue to escalate.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)