Iraqi parliament approves the resignation of the government .. And mourning marches roam the country

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament on Wednesday approved the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi's government, nearly two months after a wave of protests killed more than 420 people, while thousands of Iraqis marched to mourn the victims of demonstrations in several provinces.

The parliamentary vote came two days after Abdul Mahdi announced his intention to resign, following the request of the Shiite authority from the parliament to withdraw confidence from the government, and the parliament opened its session in the afternoon, and approved the request to resign within minutes, which makes the government of the Mahdi government currently «discharge Acts », according to the Constitution, and announced the President of the Parliament Mohammed Halbousi that he will address the President of the Republic Barham Saleh to assign a new prime minister.

Hours before the parliament session, a protester was shot dead in central Baghdad, according to a medical source.

Hundreds of students went out wearing black clothes yesterday morning in a mourning demonstration inside the campus of Mosul University.

In Salah al-Din province north of Baghdad, there were no protests, but her local government announced a three-day mourning for the lives of victims of the south, and on the same level, eight provinces declared southern mourning, and stopped working in government departments yesterday.

Protesters continued to demonstrate in all southern cities as mourning marches, arguing that the resignation of the prime minister was not a complete departure of the political system.

Thousands of university students began a strike in solidarity with the victims of the protests.More than 20,000 students gathered in the festivities square opposite the university presidency and stood to read Surat Al-Fatiha to pay tribute to the lives of young Iraqis who have fallen since the demonstrations began two months ago.

The students raised Iraqi flags and small banners calling for an end to the political chaos that hit the country, and change the rules of the political game, so as to ensure the transfer of Iraq from the state of chaos to the state of stability and construction, and called the university administration students to maintain calm and order, and not to exceed the university buildings.

According to eyewitnesses, tribal and tribal leaders raised their weapons and entered the demonstration yards to protect demonstrators and government buildings and control security, to prevent the spread of unrest and clashes with security forces.

Witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that major tribal and tribal leaders entered the confrontation line to end the security chaos in the provinces of Dhi Qar, Najaf, Karbala, Diwaniya, Maysan, Wasit, Hilla, Karbala and Basra. . The witnesses explained that «tribesmen set up a special pavilion for each clan, and deployed their men in the streets and at government buildings and prisons, and at the entrances to the provinces and administrative borders adjacent, to prevent the infiltration of saboteurs». The witnesses said that the demonstrators welcomed the steps of the clans, after the cities witnessed acts of violence far from the demands of the demonstrators, represented by the burning of government buildings and civil.

In Najaf, witnesses said that security unrest, especially in the vicinity of the shrine of Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, continues after the failure of all mediation of clerics and tribal leaders to prevent demonstrators from storming the shrine in search of suspects inside his basements.

Witnesses said that the fire broke out at the outer wall of the shrine, while the library and all the external doors were burned, despite the firing by the so-called «forces of Ashura Brigades» of the Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim, which is protecting the shrine.

In Basra province, protesters continued to block roads leading to a number of crude oil production fields.

Baghdad has seen demonstrators blocking roads and burning tires to prevent staff, school and university students from reaching their workplaces. Meanwhile, an Iraqi court issued yesterday the first sentence against a police officer convicted of killing demonstrators in the city of Kut, south of Baghdad, according to a judicial source. According to the source, the criminal court ordered the execution of a police major by hanging, while sentenced another to the rank of lieutenant colonel for seven years, after a lawsuit filed by the families of two of the seven killed by live bullets on November 2 in Kut, the capital of Wasit province. The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq, yesterday, that the investigative judiciary formed to hear cases of demonstrations in the province of Dhi Qar issued a warrant of arrest and travel ban against a senior military commander, Lieutenant General Jamil al-Shammari. A statement issued by the Supreme Judicial Council said that «the investigative body at the presidency of the Court of Appeal of Dhi Qar issued a warrant of arrest and travel ban against al-Shammari for the crime of issuing orders that caused the killing of demonstrators in the province». More than 32 demonstrators were killed and 250 injured.

- The Iraqi judiciary issues a warrant of arrest and travel ban against a senior military commander.

- The first death sentence against a convicted officer for killing demonstrators in Kut.