At least thirteen protesters were killed on Thursday, November 28, in southern Iraq, after the fire of the consulate of the large Iranian neighbor in the holy Shiite city of Najaf marked an escalation in the unprecedented movement of contestation of power.

Hundreds of protesters shouting "Iran out!" and "Victory to Iraq!" in the burning consulate in the symbolic holy city, which hosts millions of pilgrims every year, especially from Iran, have launched a new stage in the first spontaneous social movement in Iraq for decades.

A few hours later, while Najaf, under curfew, was calm, it was Nassiriya, further south, who ignited. There, at least 13 protesters were shot dead when security forces advanced to take over two bridges in the city, a historic center of revolt in the country, medical and security sources said.

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A hundred demonstrators blocking these bridges as part of a broad movement of civil disobedience have also been injured and many are in critical condition, said sources.

In this context of tension, the Iraqi authorities announced Thursday the creation of "crisis cells" associating in each province the civil governors and military officials to stop the spiral of violence that have, since 1 October, more than 360 dead and 15,000 injured. This report was compiled by AFP from medical and police sources, authorities no longer communicating on the dead.

An army statement said that the management of these cells will be entrusted to the governors, but the military representatives who will sit there will be responsible for "military services and security services."

Iran's influence questioned

On the burning of the Iranian consulate in Najaf, Baghdad denounced people "foreign to legitimate demonstrations [who want] to clearly undermine the historical relations between the two countries".

In Tehran, which from the beginning sees the Iraq movement as a "conspiracy", the Iranian Foreign Ministry has called for "decisive, effective and responsible action against destructive agents and aggressors".

For in two months of protests, Iraqis in the streets now shout in broad daylight their anger against their big neighbor.

For them, in one of the world's most oil-rich countries - but also one of the most corrupt - the political system devised by the Americans who toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 is running out of steam.

Above all, it is in the hands of Iran and its powerful emissary for Iraqi affairs, General Qassem Soleimani, in charge of the external operations of the ideological army of the Islamic Republic.

On the street since October 1, tens of thousands of Iraqis are calling for the overhaul of the political system and the total renewal of their ruling class that they consider corrupt - officially 410 billion euros were diverted in the last sixteen years or two times the GDP of the country - incompetent and affiliated with various capitals fighting for influence in Iraq.

With AFP