10 protesters shot dead in Baghdad, Basra
Iraqi security forces use live rounds again
BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces shot dead at least six anti-government protesters in Baghdad on Thursday and killed four others as they broke up a sit-in in the southern city of Basra, police and medical sources said.
Scores more were wounded in the clashes as weeks of deadly violence in Iraq over protests against an entrenched political elite showed no signs of abating.
Security forces used live fire against protesters near Shuhada Bridge in central Baghdad. Gunfire was used against demonstrators in Basra, the main source of Iraq’s oil wealth, who had staged a days-long sit-in.
Elsewhere in southern Iraq, dozens of protesters burned tyres and blocked the entrance to the port of Umm Qasr, preventing lorries from transporting food imports, just hours after operations had resumed, port officials said.
The Iraqi government has failed to find a way out of the biggest and most complicated challenge it has faced in years. The unrest has shattered the relative calm that followed the defeat of Islamic State in 2017.
A crackdown by authorities against mostly unarmed protesters has killed more than 260 people since demonstrations began on Oct 1 over lack of jobs, chronic power and clean water shortages, poor education and healthcare and corruption.
Protesters, mostly unemployed youths, blame a political elite that has ruled Iraq since the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and demand a complete overhaul of the political system.
The economy is beginning to feel the pinch.
Internet outages imposed by the government to try to stem unrest have hit the private sector, a central bank source said.
The source said private banks in Iraq had recorded losses of some US$16 million (486 million baht) per day since the internet was first shut down at the beginning of October.
Combined losses by the private banks and mobile phone companies, money transfer services, tourism and airline booking offices had averaged more than $40 million per day, the source said — almost $1.5 billion for Iraq in just over a month.
Umm Qasr briefly resumed operations early on Thursday after most protesters cleared the area. But several dozen activists, relatives of a demonstrator killed during weeks of violence, then returned to block the main gate, port officials said.
Umm Qasr receives most of the grain, vegetable oils and sugar that Iraq depends upon.
Oil and security officials said operations resumed on Thursday at the nearby Nassiriya oil refinery.