14 dead from weeks of demonstrations in Iraq: Official

Iraq’s human rights commission reported on Monday that 14 people were killed and more than 700 injured by Iraqi security forces during weeks of protests of the country’s economic woes and government mismanagement, Anadolu reports.

Fazl Garrawi, member of the Iraqi Human Right commission affiliated to the Iraqi Parliament, told Anadolu Agency that in two weeks of demonstrations across Iraq, 14 people were killed and 742 were injured, including 470 security forces.

Some viral videos on social media apparently showing civilians being killed by Iraqi security forces have drawn public attention to the issue.

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Last Friday, security forces used disproportionate forces against demonstrators, and the whereabouts of many detained amid the crackdown remain unknown.

The protests first erupted in the southern city of Basra, where demonstrators decried poor public services, high unemployment, and chronic power shortages.

Recent days have seen the protests spread from southern Iraq to a number of other cities and provinces, including the nation’s capital, where the government has cut Internet access and banned several social media platforms in hopes of preventing the protests from escalating further.