BAGHDAD: A curfew was lifted in Baghdad on Saturday following days of protests which have left nearly 100 dead, but tensions remained after firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded the government quit.
The largely spontaneous protests over chronic unemployment and poor public services that erupted in the capital on Tuesday have escalated into a broader movement demanding an end to official corruption and a change of government
At least 93 people have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded, as protests spread to cities across the south, the parliamentary human rights commission said.
Speaker Mohammad al-Halbusi was due to convene a session of parliament session later Saturday to discuss job creation and social welfare schemes, after he too extended a hand to the protesters, saying: “Your voice is being heard.”
Moqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric whose coalition won the largest number of seats in last year’s parliamentary elections in Iraq, has called on the government to resign.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for dialogue between the Iraqi government and the demonstrators as an immediate step towards de-escalation.
The protests come one year after Abdel-Mahdi took office in Iraq, which is still grappling with a lengthy military campaign against the Islamic State extremist group.
