Thousands of Iraqi citizens staged a voluntary strike yesterday in which a number of government buildings, schools, markets and shops were closed in an unprecedented scene in support of the demands of protests in Baghdad and nine provinces to demand the resignation of the government, dissolve parliament and hold early elections in the country.
Witnesses said that thousands of school students, universities and government departments took to the streets in different areas of Baghdad and a number of provinces to support the demands of the demonstrators, witnesses said that the security authorities in Baghdad and other provinces closed roads and bridges and deployed additional forces to prevent the flow of participants in the strike to reach Demonstrations to participate in protests.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the symbolic Tahrir Square, nearby al-Khalani square and at the al-Senq bridge in Baghdad.
Work stopped in most cities in southern Iraq from Basra to Kut, Najaf, Diwaniya, Hilla and Nasiriyah, where government departments and schools were closed, according to AFP correspondents.
Protesters in the oil-rich city of Basra burned tires to block roads and prevent employees from reaching their jobs.
In the city of Hilla, where departments and schools were closed, thousands of students, including government employees, went to sit in front of the provincial council building in the city center.
The governorates of Babil, Wasit, Maysan and Dhi Qar, announced yesterday as an official holiday on the back of the announcement of the general strike, while the ministries of higher education and education asked students of universities and colleges and primary school all regular study and not to participate in the general strike.
The Iraqi government has deployed security reinforcements in the streets to protect new developments in the streets and control security. Police said that there is cooperation between security forces and demonstrators and patrols have been formed in cooperation with demonstrators to protect the scene of demonstrations, while the Iranian authorities continued to prevent the entry of Iraqi passengers through the port of Shalamcheh because of the protests Iranian cities, only allowed the continued movement of commercial trucks between the two countries.