Iraq: Protests expand with participation of Sunni areas

People gather to protest government due to corruption, unsolved unemployment issue and inadequate public service in front of the governor´s office in Kirkuk, Iraq on 2 October 2019 [Ali Mukarrem Garip – Anadolu Agency]

Protests in Iraq entered its fourth day, Monday, expanding the number of popular participation to include new areas, and strikes in universities, schools and government institutions.

According to the observations of Al Khaleej Online’s correspondent, thousands of citizens continue their protests in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, despite being repressed by security forces, while new areas counted as Sunni neighbourhoods have been actively involved in the protests, taking Nisour Square area in the Karkh area, Baghdad as a new place of protest since Sunday.

Many universities and schools went on strike as well, since pupils and students participated in rallies and demonstrations condemning the government, and demanding their departure.

This comes at a time when labour union and teachers’ union announced, on Monday, going in a strike and participating in the protests.

The central council of the teachers’ Union voted to hold a general strike across Iraq’s schools.

READ: Iraq authorities suspend Saudi TV channels Al Arabiya and Al-Hadath

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.