Iraqis were again in the streets on Saturday (November 30th) in Baghdad and in the south of the country, despite the Prime Minister's intention to resign and the violence of the crackdown on protesters mobilized against the government.
Adel Abdel Mahdi, who for a year has been running the government of one of the world's most oil-rich countries, but also one of the most corrupt, has yet to turn his announcement the day before into action, but for the street, his resignation will not suffice.
In Diwaniyah, a city in the south, thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand "the fall of the regime", as in al-Hilla and Kut, after receiving heavy support in the person of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, more high Shia religious authority in Iraq, who called on Parliament to replace the current government.
In Nassiriya, fire and blood with automatic fire from security forces and police headquarters burned by protesters in recent days, thick black smoke rises in the morning over bridges. Protesters burnt tires across the Euphrates in the city bordering the ruins of ancient Ur. Hundreds of others are crowding a square in the city center.
On Friday and Thursday, in Nasiriyah and Shi'ite holy city Najaf, also in the south, 67 people were killed by police fire and men in plain clothes defending the siege of a party.
Since October 1, the date of the beginning of the protest, the violent repression has claimed the lives of more than 420 people, the vast majority of them demonstrators, according to a report compiled by AFP from police and medical sources. Some 15,000 injured were also identified.
The next political meeting is scheduled for Sunday
For the angry Iraqis, it is the whole political system, set up by the United States 16 years ago when they overthrew the dictator Saddam Hussein, and now under the control of their Iranian rival, it is necessary switch.
The next political meeting is set for Sunday with a session in Parliament where the opposition calls for a vote of no confidence and where the pro-Iran paramilitaries, unconditional supporters of the prime minister so far, have promised "change".
It was after the appeal of Ayatollah Sistani, tutelary figure of the policy in Iraq, that the head of the government said he was ready to leave his post. To also prevent the South from falling into chaos, with tribal fighters armed to block the road to police reinforcements.
In Najaf, where protesters burned the Iranian consulate on Wednesday night, triggering the new wave of repression, calm prevailed in the morning, but it is usually in the afternoon that the demonstrations begin. There, men in plain clothes fired on Friday on young protesters approaching a sanctuary where a party sits, killing six, according to witnesses.
In Baghdad, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary announced that "the harshest penalties" will be applied to those who killed or injured protesters, while the name of his boss, Faëq Zeidan, circulates in political circles as possible Premier Minister.
After the crackdown in Nasiriyah, the government fired the military commander he had just named to "restore order" and several local leaders resigned.
In the other Shia holy city south of Baghdad, Kerbala, protesters and security forces threw Molotov cocktails into the early hours of the day. And in Baghdad, clashes between police and protesters continue.
With AFP