Protesters flood Iraq streets anew as death toll nears 100 – World

The renewed protests took place under live fire in the capital of Iraq and the south of the country on Saturday while the government struggled to agree on a response to the days of demonstrations that have left almost 100 dead.

The meetings of protesters, largely spontaneous, whose demands have evolved since they began Tuesday from employment and better services to the fundamental change of the government, have increased despite an Internet shutdown and the overtures of the country's elite .

Hours after the curfew was lifted in Baghdad on Saturday morning, dozens of protesters demonstrated around the oil ministry in the capital, facing live shots in their direction, a AFP said the photographer.

Security forces separated the main protest outside the oil ministry into smaller isolated groups and conducted house-to-house searches.

Five protesters were killed on Saturday in Baghdad raising the death toll from Tuesday to 99, according to the parliament's human rights commission.

Nearly 4,000 people have been injured since protests began in Baghdad and spread to cities across the south, he added.

The commission said that most of those who died fell in Baghdad, while another 250 people were treated in the capital for sniper wounds.

"We demand clarification from the Iraqi government about the wounded in Baghdad by sniper shooting, which continues today," the commission said.

Thousands also descended on Saturday in the government buildings in the southern cities of Diwaniyah, where shots were fired into the air, and in Nasiriyah, AFP The correspondents said.

Parliament was to meet at 1pm (1000 GMT), but could not reach the quorum, after the block of 54 lawmakers and other factions of the fire brand clerk Moqtada al-Sadr boycotted the session.

The former leader of the militia supported his weight behind the demonstrations on Friday with a call for the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.

Sadr's movement has the power and organization to take a large number of supporters to the streets, but at the risk of alienating many of those whose protests in recent days have been based on the rejection of all the enemy factions of Iraq.

& # 39; We don't want parties & # 39;

Parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi extended a hand to protesters saying "His voice is being heard," and hoped to discuss job creation and social welfare plans with lawmakers in the session.

But protesters, mostly young people, have insisted that their movement is not linked to any religious party or establishment and they have mocked the recent proposals of politicians.

“These men do not represent us. We don't want parties anymore. We don't want anyone to speak on our behalf, ”said a protester Friday night.

Abu Salah, a 70-year-old Baghdad resident with white, shabby hair and a matching beard, said the streets would be full until Iraqis saw a real change.

"If living conditions don't improve, the protests will get even worse," he said. AFP.

Iraq has a population of just under 40 million people, and is currently the fifth largest producer and exporter of oil in the world, and the second largest producer of OPEC.

Youth unemployment is 25 percent, double the general rate, according to the World Bank, which adds that approximately 22.5 percent of the population lived in poverty in 2014.

The protests have presented the greatest challenge until the Iraqi Prime Minister, who came to power a year ago as a consensus candidate who promises reforms but whose response to protesters has been lukewarm.

"Abdel Mahdi should have made decisive changes, such as the dismissal of leading politicians accused of corruption," said Iraqi analyst Sarmad al-Bayati.

Political and religious divisions are deep in Iraq, and protests are usually called by parties or sects, which makes the last five days exceptional, said Fanar Haddad, an expert at the Institute of the Middle East at the University of Singapore.

"This is the first time we hear people say they want the regime to fall," Haddad said.

& # 39; There are no magic solutions & # 39;

Sadr, a former militia leader turned a nationalist politician, demanded on Friday that the government resign to clear the way for a new election overseen by the United Nations.

His bloc is the largest in parliament, and his intervention sets the stage for a possible confrontation with the speaker, who has made his own attempt to draw political capital from the protests.

Halbusi sought to calm the protesters on Saturday by announcing at a press conference a long list of promised reforms on employment and social welfare, but it was not clear if he could appease them.

The prime minister said Friday that "there are no magic solutions" to rid the country of corruption and unemployment after decades of conflict.

The Iraqi Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, used his weekly prayer sermon on Friday to urge the authorities to respond to the protesters' demands, warning that the protests could intensify unless clear action is taken immediately.