BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who defied a curfew in Baghdad yesterday and exchanged fire with gunmen in southern cities, bringing to 28 the death toll from three days of anti-government protests.
The protests spread to other cities in southern Iraq, where policemen said they increasingly encountered demonstrators carrying weapons.
Two policemen and two protesters were killed late yesterday in the city of Diwaniya, 160km south of Baghdad, according to police.
In nearby Hilla one protester was bludgeoned to death, according to police and hospital sources.
Three more died in a district of Baghdad and elsewhere in the capital protesters had set fire to army vehicles, security sources said.
The protests, in which more than 600 people have also been wounded, began over unemployment and poor services but have escalated into calls for a change of government and pose one of the worst security challenges in years in the war-weary country.
They appear to be independent of any political party and seemingly took the security forces by surprise.
“The bullets do not scare us. They do not scare Iraqis. This will all come down over their heads,” said one protester in the capital.
At least 4,000 protesters gathered in Baghdad’s Tayaran Square and attempted to march onto the central Tahrir Square but were met with open fire and heavy tear gas.
Police used live ammunition in the Zaafaraniya district of Baghdad, where three protesters were shot dead, and there were protests in the northwestern Shula district.
Police said protesters had fired at them in the town of Rifae near the southern city of Nassiriyah where seven people were killed overnight and another yesterday. Fifty people were wounded in Rifae, including five police, they said.
Four people were killed in clashes overnight in another southern city, Amara.
Amnesty International called on Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government to rein in the security forces and investigate the killings.
“It is outrageous that Iraqi security forces time and again deal with protesters with such brutality using lethal and unnecessary force. It is crucial that the authorities ensure a fully independent and impartial investigation,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director.
The UN urged the government to “exercise maximum restraint” and allow peaceful protests.
A curfew, lifted early in the morning in southern cities, was reimposed immediately in Nassiriyah and later in Amara. Curfews have also been declared in Najaf and in Hilla.
In Baghdad, the authorities attempted to head off protests by imposing a curfew from 5am. Troops patrolled main roads and public spaces, but by morning
sporadic demonstrations had begun, and troops opened fire with live rounds to disperse them.
Residents of the capital queued outside supermarkets and food stores to stock up on supplies in case of a sudden rise in prices or further security restrictions by authorities.
Iraq has struggled to recover since defeating the hardline Islamic State group in 2017. Its infrastructure has been laid to waste by decades of sectarian civil war, foreign occupation, two US invasions, UN sanctions and war against its neighbours.
With the country at last at peace and free to trade, many Iraqis say their government has failed to rebuild the nation.
The demonstrations began in Baghdad on Tuesday and quickly grew and spread to other cities, mainly in Iraq’s south. Police have fired live rounds, tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters. Protesters directed their anger at a government and political class they say is corrupt and doing nothing to improve their lives.
“The people are being robbed. The people are now begging on the street. There is no work, you come to protest, they fire at you. Live gunfire,” said a man covering his face in a scarf.
Iraq has the world’s fourth-largest reserves of oil, according to the International Monetary Fund, but much of its population of 40 million lives in poverty and without decent healthcare, education or power and water supply. Anti-government demonstrations last year that began in oil-rich Basra prompted a heavy crackdown by security forces and nearly 30 people were killed.