Iraq - 81 people were wounded, nine by live fire, in a second day of clashes between protesters and security forces in Iraq's northern city of Sulaimaniyah Monday, a medical official said. "Eighty-one people were wounded, nine of them by bullets. Security forces personnel are among the wounded," said Dr Raykot Hama Rashid, director of the main hospital in Sulaimaniyah, the second largest city in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan province.
The clashes took place in Peeramard Street in central Sulaimaniyah, which has seen near daily demonstrations since mid-February, and where Rashid had said 31 people were injured on Sunday, nine of them by bullets. Security personnel, including from the Kurdish Peshmerga and Asayesh forces, surrounded the street, witnesses said. They said the forces torched a podium, preventing protest leaders from voicing their demands. Protesters have been calling for an end to official corruption, resignation of the regional government and an investigation into the deaths of three young demonstrators in clashes with security forces in February. Five people have been killed -- including two policemen -- and more than 100 have been injured during two months of demonstrations. Protests around Iraq against poor supply of basic services such as electricity grew after uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt toppled entrenched regimes in those countries and spread across the Arab world early this year. Since then, protests have erupted in different parts of Iraq at least every week, especially in the autonomous Kurdish north. But unlike the unrest and uprisings in other Arab countries, protesters in Iraq have not been demanding regime change, only reforms and better living conditions. Last week, Amnesty International said that Iraqi authorities must stop intimidation and the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters demanding reforms, jobs, better services and an end to corruption.AFP
