Fresh clashes between\u00a0 Iraq’s\u00a0 security forces and anti-government protesters broke out in Baghdad and across the south of the country on Friday, despite a call for calm by the country’s top Shia leader.<\/p>\n
Two Iraqi protesters died in the southern city of Basra when security forces intervened in anti-government demonstrations, a medical source said Saturday.<\/p>\n
More than 100 people were also injured by live bullets or tear gas canisters, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Iraqi security forces opened fire on protesters in Basra while dispersing them, killing three, according to a medical source.<\/p>\n
Iraq’s youth unemployment is around 25% according to World Bank figures. It is also the 12th most corrupt country in the world according to several organizations that monitor transparency.<\/p>\n
At least 270 people have been killed since the protests over a lack of jobs and services began in Baghdad on October 1 and quickly spread to southern provinces.<\/p>\n
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most powerful and influential Iranian TwelverShia marja in Iraq, wields enormous influence over public opinion in Shia-majority Iraq, held security forces accountable for any violent escalation and urged the government to respond as quickly as possible to demonstrators’ demands.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, al-Sistani warned against the exploitation of the unrest by “internal and external” forces which he said sought to destabilise Iraq for their own goals. He did not elaborate.<\/p>\n
He said those in power must come up with a meaningful response to the demonstrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fresh clashes between\u00a0 Iraq’s\u00a0 security forces and anti-government protesters broke out in Baghdad and across the south of the country on Friday, despite a call for calm by the country’s top Shia leader. Two Iraqi protesters died in the southern city of Basra when security forces intervened in anti-government demonstrations, a medical source said Saturday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1460,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11597,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11596\/revisions\/11597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vosa.tv\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}