AMN/ WEB DESK
More than 40 people died yesterday in renewed anti-government protests that gripped Iraq’s capital, Baghdad and swept through several other cities in the country’s south.
The protests yesterday came three weeks after an earlier bout of rallies erupted as a result of widespread anger at official corruption, mass unemployment and failing public services. More than 150 people were killed during those demonstrations amid a crackdown by security forces.
According to the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, Iraqi police fired rubber bullets and volleys of tear gas canisters in response to the fresh protests.
The national rights watchdog said the 30 were killed by gunshots or tear gas canisters in the capital and four southern provinces.
Several died while trying to storm the offices of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, another armed faction, in two southern cities.
Parliament is scheduled to meet today to discuss the protests further.
Security forces imposed a curfew across several southern provinces yesterday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the deaths were the result of substantial rights violations.