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Iraq death toll rises as police open fire on protesters in Baghdad Iraqi cleric appeals for calm as forces face off with protesters
(about 5 hours later)
The death toll from days of violent demonstrations across Iraq has risen to 44 as unrest rapidly spread across the country despite a plea for calm from the prime minister. Protesters have defied nationwide curfews in parts of Iraq, taking to the streets in increasing numbers and facing off with security forces in ever more deadly confrontations that had killed at least 44 people by Friday night.
In an overnight TV address, Adel Abdul-Mahdi said he understood the frustration of the public but that there was no “magic solution” to Iraq’s problems. He pledged to make reforms, but this drew a scornful response from demonstrators. As the country was paralysed by a fourth day of anti-government demonstrations, the country’s top Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a stark warning to both sides to end the violence “before it’s too late”.
The violent protests have escalated by the day since they first erupted on Tuesday, sweeping across the country spontaneously without public backing from any organised political group and taking the authorities by surprise. A handful of concessions announced on Friday were promptly rejected by many of those out on the teeming streets of the capital, Baghdad.
Security forces have fired live ammunition at crowds of mainly young men, and gunmen have occasionally fired back. Hundreds of people have been wounded, including members of the security forces as well as demonstrators. In a televised address, the prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, acknowledged what he described as “legitimate demands” from the protesters, who have called for widespread reforms, and in some cases the fall of the central government.
Police and medical sources told Reuters the death toll included 18 people killed in the southern city of Nassiriya, 16 in the capital, Baghdad, four in the southern city of Amara and four in Baquba, north of the capital. Other deaths were reported in two more southern cities, Hilla and Najaf. The sustained challenge to Abdul-Mahdi’s authority is the most serious test he has faced since he was installed last year by Shia parties that have dominated Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. There are fears that that Iraq’s security forces may be unable to check the protests’ momentum. They are showing no sign of abating despite the frequent use of live rounds and teargas.
Curfews were imposed in a number of cities. Authorities shut roads into the capital from the north and north-east and were sending reinforcements to Baghdad’s densely populated east. Military convoys were being sent to Nassiriya, the city worst hit by the violence. And Iraq’s leadership seems unwilling to respond to the troubling core elements of protesters’ demands: a widespread crackdown on the corruption that has whittled away at state revenues, and action on unfulfilled pledges to improve services.
Protesters in Baghdad gathered in darkness by a bonfire set among the flaming wreckage of an armoured vehicle, across the Tigris River from the main government compound. One of the region’s wealthiest countries on paper, Iraq is also one of its most corrupt, with industrial-scale graft rife across all levels of government. An entrenched patronage network has meant that ministries are often run as fiefdoms, with revenues diverted from services and dispensed among patrons, who include senior officials and militias.
“They are shooting live fire at the Iraqi people and the revolutionaries. We can cross the bridge and take them out of the Green Zone!” a man shouted to Reuters TV. The demonstrations are being spearheaded by mostly young men who claim they have been denied prospects by state-sponsored corruption that denies jobs to those without connections.
The unrest, fuelled by popular rage over poor living standards and corruption, is Iraq’s biggest security challenge since the defeat of Islamic State in 2017. It is also the first test for Abdul-Mahdi, installed last year by Shia parties that have dominated Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. Abdul-Mahdi described the security measures, which have wounded at least 400 people in the centre and south of the country, as “bitter medicine” that needed to be taken. “We have to return life to normal in the regions and respect the law,” he said, adding: “We will not make empty promises that can’t be delivered.”
It comes on the eve of the Arbaeen Shia pilgrimage, which in recent years has drawn as many as 20 million worshippers, trekking for days on foot across southern Iraq in the world’s biggest annual gathering, 10 times the size of the Mecca Hajj. Sistani, an elderly and influential cleric, released a statement that acknowledged the rights of the demonstrators, and said that if the demands were not addressed “the people will come back even stronger”.
Baghdad was quieter early on Friday before Muslim prayers, although police fired live ammunition again in the morning to disperse small crowds. As well as the ongoing curfew, defied by thousands of demonstrators on Thursday, army and special forces personnel were deployed around central squares and streets. “The government and the political sides have not fulfilled the demands of the people to fight corruption,” Sistani said in his message delivered by a spokesman.
Iraqis were expecting large protests to erupt later in the day, with demonstrators accusing politicians of holding back the country’s recovery from years of conflict through corruption and neglect. Separately, a senior Iraqi source said the government had received a message from Sistani’s office in the Shia shrine city of Kerbala, suggesting he would not support a breakdown of state authority.
Abdul-Mahdi acknowledged the public discontent in an overnight television message, insisting politicians were aware of the suffering of the masses. “We do not live in ivory towers – we walk among you in the streets of Baghdad,” he said. Protests have been concentrated in Iraq’s south and Baghdad, with the country’s Kurdish north experiencing no unrest so far. The organic, scattered nature of the uprisings has led international observers to believe that they were not organised by vested interests inside or outside Iraq.
He called for calm and for support from politicians to reshuffle cabinet posts away from the influence of big parties and groups. He said a basic wage for poor families would be discussed by the government. The rallies have taken place before a Shia pilgrimage to Kerbala, for the Arbayeen ceremony in which Imam Hussein, revered by Shias, is commemorated. Up to 15 million people have made the pilgrimage in past years, including up to 2 million Iranians. However, Iraq’s two main border crossings with Iran remain closed, and Tehran has urged its citizens not to travel this year.
'Iraq is dying': oil flows freely but corruption fuels growing anger The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) both said they were concerned by the increasingly violent clashes.
Other politicians were awaiting a pronouncement from Iraq’s most senior Shia clergy, expected as part of Friday sermons. The protests could grow if they receive formal backing from the opposition political bloc of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has long denounced corruption and the political elite. “The use of force by security forces must be proportionate to the situation and is an exceptional measure,” said the ICRC’s head of delegation in Iraq, Katharina Ritz. “In particular, firearms and live ammunition must only be used as a last resort, and to protect against an imminent threat to life.”
Two years after the defeat of the Islamic State Sunni militant movement, Iraq has been at peace and free to trade for the first extended period since the 1970s. Oil production is at record levels providing a windfall for Baghdad. Yet after decades of war and sanctions, the country’s infrastructure is still decrepit, cities are in ruins and there are few employment opportunities for a population of 40 million.
Protesters say funds are being siphoned off by political parties, which have a firm grip on power in Baghdad.
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Middle East and North AfricaMiddle East and North Africa
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