104 dead and 6,000 wounded six days in Iraq
104 dead and 6,000 wounded six days in Iraq
7/10/2019
The death toll from the protests (which has been going on in the country for six days) has reached 104, with more than 6,000 wounded, including military personnel, according to Iraqi Defense and Interior Ministry spokesmen.
At a press conference, the defense spokesman denied that the regular forces were behind the killings, accusing what he called malicious hands of involvement in the events, and vowed to uncover the facts once the investigation is over.
For its part, the Interior Ministry said that among the dead eight security forces, and that the number of wounded reached 6107, including 1241 members of the security forces, pointing out that the recent wave of demonstrations witnessed the burning of eight party headquarters and 51 other buildings.
The demonstrations were renewed on Sunday evening in a limited number of parts after a relative calm prevailed since the morning, and medical sources said that five new dead were killed in a demonstration that went out east of Baghdad to demand better living conditions.
At his cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said the government was committed to providing practical programs to alleviate the suffering of the people, prosecute those accused of corruption and manipulate public money.
Abdul-Mahdi asked the demonstrators to refrain from going out to the streets of Baghdad and the provinces, and confirmed the occurrence of burning and destruction of many state institutions and party headquarters during the previous demonstrations.
The protests began last Tuesday from Baghdad, demanding better public services, job opportunities and fighting corruption, before spreading to southern provinces with a Shiite majority.
Iraqis have long protested against poor basic public services such as electricity, health and water, as well as unemployment and corruption, in one of the world’s most corrupt countries, according to the Transparency International index over the past years.
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