Clashes escalate in Iraq hours after top cleric preaches calm

BAGHDAD — Security forces opened fire at hundreds of anti-government demonstrators Friday in central Baghdad, killing at least 17 protesters and injuring dozens, hours after Iraq's top Shiite cleric warned both sides to end four days of violence “before it's too late.”

The latest deaths raised the number of people killed in clashes during ongoing protests to 59 and marked a sharp escalation in the use of force against unarmed protesters.

But neither the government nor demonstrators appear to be willing to back down from unrest that has presented the most serious challenge for Iraq since the defeat of the Islamic State group two years ago.

Spontaneous rallies, which began Tuesday, started as mostly young demonstrators took to the streets demanding jobs, improved services like electricity and water, and an end to corruption in the oil-rich country.

In a desperate attempt to curb massive rallies, authorities blocked the internet and i mposed an around-the-clock curfew in the capital.

Earlier, Iraq's most senior Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali alSistani urged both sides to end the violence and blamed politicians for failing to enact promised reforms related to the economy and corruption.

“The government and the political sides have not fulfilled the demands of the people to fight corruption,” al-Sistani said in a sermon delivered by his representative Ahmed al-Safi in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Al-Sistani is looked to by many across Iraq's predominantly Shiite south for guidance.