Iraq

4 Nov 2019; MEMO: Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi appealed on Sunday to protesters to help restore normal life across the country and said the unrest was costing the economy “billions of dollars”, Reuters reports.

More than 250 people have been killed since the protests in Baghdad and the south of the country started in early October, driven by discontent over economic hardship and corruption.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Security forces killed a protester and wounded 91 others in Baghdad on Saturday, security and medical sources said, as tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in mass anti-government protests in the capital and blocked roads leading to a major port.

Protesters have been congregating in the capital’s central Tahrir Square for weeks, demanding the fall of the political elite in the biggest wave of mass demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Iraqis thronged central Baghdad on Friday demanding the root-and-branch downfall of the political elite, in what was expected to become the biggest day of mass anti-government demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Protests in which 250 people have died over the past month have accelerated dramatically in recent days, drawing huge crowds from across Iraq’s sectarian and ethnic divides to reject the political parties in power since 2003.

31 Oct 2019; MEMO: Tribes in Basra province, southern Iraq, have given the Iraqi government 48 hours to release all protest detainees in the province.

Since the start of the second wave of protests, on Friday, security forces in Basra arrested dozens of demonstrators, claiming that they are suspected of setting fire to government institutions.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two rockets were fired into Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone on Wednesday, killing one Iraqi soldier and adding to the violence gripping the country amid unprecedented anti-government protests and a violent security crackdown.

Security officials said one of the Katyusha rockets landed about 100 meters (110 yards) away from the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy, triggering alert sirens. A soldier manning a checkpoint near a restaurant was killed, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

30 Oct 2019; MEMO: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said yesterday that he is ready to resign on grounds of the escalating anti-government wave of protests across the country, the New Khaleej report.

“If [Muqtada] Al-Sadr [the head of the largest bloc in parliament] and Hadi Al-Amiri [leader of the second largest party] agreed to have a new government, I would resign.”

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s two main backers have agreed to work to remove him from office as protests against his government gained momentum in Baghdad and much of the Shi’ite south only to be met with violence.

Populist Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who leads parliament’s largest bloc, had asked Abdul Mahdi to call an early election. When the premier refused, he called on his main political rival Hadi al-Amiri to help oust him.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Tuesday called for holding national dialogue to resolve the ongoing anti-government protests in Iraq.

Hennis-Plasschaert, quoted by a statement issued by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), condemned the rising toll in the violent protests, citing that "violence is never the answer, the protection of life is the overriding imperative."

BAGHDAD (AP) — Masked gunmen opened fire at Iraqi protesters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Tuesday, killing 18 people and wounding hundreds, security officials said, in one of the deadliest single attacks since anti-government demonstrations erupted earlier this month.

HILLA, Iraq/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces killed at least 14 people in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala overnight after opening fire on protesters, medical and security sources said, in a return to tactics denounced by the government’s own internal inquiry.

At least 865 people were wounded, the sources said. Three protesters died in the southern city of Nassiriya from wounds sustained in earlier protests.

Kerbala’s health department chief however said 122 people were injured, including 66 members of the security forces.