More than 60 people have been killed since Tuesday's start of a protest movement in Iraq, including at least 18 in Baghdad, and more than 1,600 wounded in the capital and south of the country, said in the night of Friday to Saturday the Iraqi Government's Human Rights Commission. The Commission did not specify the areas in which around 60 deaths were recorded, but the 18 deaths recorded in the capital were found in one of the hospitals in Baghdad, which has several. Six policemen are among the dead.
Shiite leader calls for government resignation
The influential Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr on Friday demanded the resignation of the government, putting more pressure on power. This call from a heavyweight of Iraqi politics is likely to mobilize its many supporters who could join the protests in Baghdad and several Shiite cities in the south of the country, against corruption, unemployment and decay of public services. "To avoid further Iraqi bloodshed, the government must resign and early elections must be held under UN supervision," Sadr, a dreaded ex-militia leader, said in a letter issued by his office. has become in recent years the herald of anti-corruption demonstrations.
Its coalition, which won in 2018 the legislative elections, is the first bloc in Parliament and participates with four ministers in the government. The withdrawal in 2018 of his support for the then Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, after a social movement, had prevented him from being reinstated.
"Unidentified snipers" accused of shooting protesters
According to observers, protesters who took to the streets spontaneously Tuesday and say they have no political affiliation should reject any political recovery of their movement by supporters of Mr. Sadr. For the fourth consecutive day, the Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad and in several regions of the South despite a curfew decreed Thursday, a blockage of the Internet and a huge security deployment. Violent clashes erupted between Baghdad and riot police. Heavy gunfire echoed throughout the day in the Iraqi capital and continued into the night but sporadically, according to AFP journalists there.
Iraqi deputies said they would devote their meeting Saturday to "the study of protesters' demands." Their president, Mohammed al-Halboussi, said that if protesters' demands were not met quickly, he would "join" the protest movement. For the first time, security forces accused, uninformed, "unidentified snipers" of firing on protesters and their members in Baghdad. Authorities accuse "saboteurs" of infiltrating demonstrations. The majority of the demonstrators killed were hit by live ammunition, according to medical sources that do not specify the origin of the shots.
The movement affects, besides Baghdad, the provinces of Najaf, Missane, Zi Qar, Wassit, Diwaniya, Babylon and Basra. For the time being, mainly Sunni areas in the north and west of Baghdad have not seen protests. The autonomous region of Kurdistan either.