For the first time in Iraq .. Northern provinces in solidarity with the protests of the south

Thousands of Iraqis in the Sunni-dominated northern and western provinces staged protests in the Shiite-dominated southern provinces after the bloody developments in Nasiriya, which parliament will debate on Sunday in a special session, preceded by Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's announcement of his intention to resign.

Thousands of people gathered in the provinces of Anbar, Salah al-Din, Nineveh and Diyala late into the night, declaring their support for the protests in the center and south of the country and denouncing the crackdown by security forces on the demonstrations.

"In Anbar we are saddened and saddened by the repression of the protests over the past weeks. Unfortunately, what happened was very tragic and unacceptable," said Karim al-Jubouri, a participant in the Anbar stance.

"Thousands gathered in Anbar and lit candles to the victims of the protests," Jubouri said.

In the northern province of Salah al-Din, hundreds of protests in support of demonstrations in the southern cities of the Shiite majority and the capital Baghdad, and lit candles on the lives of the dead.

According to the Anatolia news agency that hundreds in Diyala province in the east of the country demanded during a pause in solidarity with the families of the victims of the protests and wounded to bring those involved in the suppression of the protests to the judiciary quickly.

The northern province of Nineveh also witnessed mass rallies in the streets in support of popular protests.

Forty-seven demonstrators have been killed since Thursday in Nassiriya, the capital of Dhi Qar province, during clashes with security forces that used live bullets against protesters, Anatolia told medical sources and eyewitnesses.

The violence in Dhi Qar, along with Najaf in the south, where 23 protesters were killed in two days, is a major escalation of anti-government protests. The bloody incidents came a day after protesters burned the Iranian consulate in Najaf.

The bloody violence prompted top Shi'ite cleric Ali al-Sistani on Friday to call on parliament to seek a no-confidence vote from the government of Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who preempted the move by announcing his intention to resign without specifying a date.

Since the protests began, according to Anatolia, 418 people have been killed and 15,000 wounded, according to figures from the parliamentary Human Rights Commission, the Human Rights Commission and medical and human rights sources.

Protesters initially demanded jobs, improved services and the fight against corruption before protests spread unprecedentedly, including the departure of the government and the political elite accused of corruption.

personnal causes
As mass demonstrations continued in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and a number of central and southern provinces, most Iraqi provinces were embroiled in demonstrations, with the exception of North and West.

Earlier, some activists and analysts said entering northern and western cities such as Mosul, Tikrit and Ramadi on the protest line was only a matter of time.

The political researcher and one of the participants in the 2013 Mosul demonstrations, Ghanem al-Abed, suggested that the northern and western provinces will join the demonstrations soon.

He explained that the reasons that motivate these provinces to participate in the demonstrations stronger than their counterparts for which the demonstrators came out of Baghdad and the rest of the provinces, all cities of these provinces are devastated, and exhausted by the recent war against the Islamic State, and the spread of corruption in government departments.

Al-Abed believes that the delay of these provinces in joining the protests is due to accusations made by parties affiliated with the government against demonstrators in these cities and "demonize" their demands in 2013.

For his part, political analyst Raad Hashim of Salah al-Din province (north of Baghdad) that the public of the northern and western provinces and because of just emerging from a major displacement crisis due to the war, and the control of militias in their cities, there is a great fear of demonstrations.