Dozens of dead and thousands wounded .. Iraq’s parliament holds an emergency session to discuss the protests
Dozens of dead and thousands wounded .. Iraq’s parliament holds an emergency session to discuss the protests
5/10/2019
The Iraqi Human Rights Commission announced that the number of victims during the demonstrations has risen to 93 dead and four thousand wounded, while a medical source confirmed to the Anatolian Agency to increase the number to 100 dead.
Al Jazeera correspondent said that three of the five bridges that lead to the center of the capital Baghdad have been opened, while the authorities continued to close the bridges of liberation and Alsink, which link central Baghdad and the Green Zone closed.
The correspondent added that the authorities allowed people to pass through the Tahrir and Al-Sunk squares with the continued presence of a large number of security forces in the roads leading to these squares.
The Anatolia correspondent in Baghdad that the movement is limited on Saturday after lifting the curfew imposed by the Iraqi authorities to contain the protests, and that most stores closed their doors for fear of security developments.
The Commission announced yesterday the death of sixty people during the protests since last Tuesday on poor living conditions.
But an Iraqi medical source told the Anatolia news agency on Saturday morning that the death toll has reached 100 and is on the rise due to serious injuries, pointing out that hospitals are suffering from a shortage of supplies and blood needed to help the injured.
The source, who declined to be named for security reasons, pointed out that the number of injured is greater than announced, because some prefer not to go to government hospitals for fear of arrest, according to the medical source.
On Friday, Agence France-Presse that the center of the capital Baghdad has turned into a battleground between security forces and demonstrators who flocked in the morning as if they are heading to their work.
The Iraqi parliament is holding an urgent session today to discuss the file of the demonstrations, has called its President Mohammed Halbousi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to conduct an immediate investigation into the events, and to hold accountable aggressors against the demonstrators from the security forces.
The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, called on the Iraqi government to resign our right to blood, and called in a statement to hold early elections under the supervision of the United Nations.
Mohammad Reza al-Haider, head of the security and defense committee in the Sadr-backed bloc, said the decision to suspend the bloc in the House of Representatives would continue until the Iraqi prime minister presented a national program that would satisfy the demonstrators and save the situation.
In turn, the head of the parliamentary victory coalition, Haider al-Abadi, called for early parliamentary elections in Iraq, to avoid government failure and blocking the horizon of the political process.
The speaker of the parliament had deplored the fall of a large number of demonstrators, who said that their only weapon was the word, and urged the Prime Minister to immediately investigate the events and hold accountable aggressors of the security forces on the demonstrators.
At the international level, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called on security forces to show restraint and respect for freedom of expression during demonstrations in the world, in a statement did not mention any country by name.
There have been violent protests in Iraq since Tuesday, starting from Baghdad to demand better public services, job creation and fighting corruption, before spreading to provinces in the south.
The demonstrators raised the ceiling of their demands and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, after the security forces resorted to violence to contain the protests.
Source: Al Jazeera + Agencies
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