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Iraqi PM says he will resign after weeks of violent protests Iraqi PM says he will resign after weeks of violent protests
(about 1 hour later)
Adel Abdul Mahdi bows to pressure following 50 deaths in latest security crackdownAdel Abdul Mahdi bows to pressure following 50 deaths in latest security crackdown
The Iraqi prime minister has announced his resignation after the country’s top Shia Muslim cleric called for lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Iraq’s prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, has announced his resignation, bowing to the country’s top cleric and relentless pressure from protesters demanding the fall of his government and an end to rampant corruption.
“In response to this call, and in order to facilitate it as quickly as possible, I will present to parliament a demand [to accept] my resignation from the leadership of the current government,” a statement signed by Adel Abdul-Mahdi said. It was greeted with both jeers and relief on the country’s unsettled streets, which were this week convulsed by a deadly crackdown by security forces that killed nearly 50 people and edged Iraq closer to a widespread collapse in security.
The statement did not say when he would resign. Parliament is to convene an emergency session on Sunday to discuss the crisis. Abdul Mahdi’s resignation, announced on Friday, is due to be discussed at a parliamentary session on Sunday convened to discuss the crisis. It follows a six-week popular uprising aimed at the heart of Iraq’s establishment, which many across the centre and south of the country say long ago ceased to serve citizens and instead used oil revenues to enrich themselves.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani earlier urged parliament to considering withdrawing its support for Abdul-Mahdi’s government to stem spiralling violence. In office for just over a year, the veteran politician had vowed to stay on in the face of a lethal Iranian-backed pushback against the uprising, which has led to almost 400 deaths since it broke out on 1 October. However, an unusually strident demand from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that Iraq’s legislature consider Abdul Mahdi’s position appeared to cut further room for manoeuvre.
Meanwhile, security forces shot dead at least three people in the southern city of Nassiriya as clashes continued.
Iraqi forces have killed nearly 400 mostly young, unarmed demonstrators since mass anti-government protests broke out on 1 October. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes.
The burning of Iran’s consulate in the holy city of Najaf on Wednesday escalated violence and drew a brutal response from security forces, who shot dead more than 60 people nationwide on Thursday.
The unrest is Iraq’s biggest crisis in years. It pits protesters from Shia heartlands in Baghdad and the south against a corrupt Shia-dominated ruling elite seen as pawns of Iran.
Iraq’s current political class is drawn mainly from powerful Shia politicians, clerics and paramilitary leaders including many who lived in exile before a US-led invasion overthrew the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sistani, who weighs in on politics only in times of crisis and wields huge influence over public opinion, warned on Friday against an explosion of civil strife and tyranny. He urged government forces to stop killing protesters and told demonstrators to reject all violence.Sistani, who weighs in on politics only in times of crisis and wields huge influence over public opinion, warned on Friday against an explosion of civil strife and tyranny. He urged government forces to stop killing protesters and told demonstrators to reject all violence.
The government “appears to have been unable to deal with the events of the past two months ... parliament, from which the current government emerged, must reconsider its choices and do what’s in the interest of Iraq”, a representative of Sistani said in a televised sermon. The intensity of the protests had taken on a revolutionary zeal that the country’s well-armed military was struggling to contain even as it deployed overwhelming force against unarmed demonstrators.
Protesters “must not allow peaceful demonstrations to be turned into attacks on property or people”, he said. Such has been the momentum of near-daily demonstrations that the very future of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has been repeatedly placed in question. Until earlier in the week, Iraqi officials believed they had countered calls to topple the leadership and contained the growth of the protests. Up to 200,000 people had taken part in the demonstrations, led by a large disenfranchised working class and joined by some of the middle classes.
Wednesday’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Najaf set off a sharp escalation of violence. But the burning by protesters of the Iranian consulate in Najaf on Wednesday and the deadly crackdown that followed in the southern city of Nassiriya, in which 45 people were killed over the following 48 hours, sparked a new fervour. The governor of Dhi Qar province resigned in response, saying: “It is a dishonour to be part of this system that kills the people of my own country.”
On Thursday, security forces shot dead 46 people in another southern city, Nassiriya, 18 in Najaf and four in Baghdad, bringing the death toll from weeks of unrest to at least 417, most of who were unarmed protesters, according to a Reuters tally from medical and police sources. Karrar Moussawi, a resident of Baghdad, said: “I went out to the protests after 16 years of my people calling out for government reforms and a change in the status quo.
Clashes between protesters and security forces broke out early on Friday in Nassiriya, killing three people and wounding several others, hospital sources said. “How is it that we are one of the richest countries and our people are broke? How is it that we still don’t have access to water though we have two major rivers? We have high unemployment, corruption, no services and they still have the guts to fire at us when we protest.”
Sistani said Iraq’s “enemies and their apparatuses are trying to sow chaos and infighting to return the country to the age of dictatorship ... everyone must work together to thwart that opportunity”. Baraa Abdel Mutaleb, a professor and feminist rights activist in Najaf, said: “We’re in a maddening dictatorship. We are calling for change. The quality of life and the standard is very poor.
“Despite that, we’re not calling for funds or money to come our way while we’re sitting at home. We’re calling for more than that: the infrastructure is garbage, no electricity, the government is practically nonexistent in practical form. They’re attacking our dignity. From yesterday till today, all these corpses.”
Iraqi security leaders had believed that the attack on the Iranian consulate and advances by demonstrators towards one of Shia Islam’s most important shrines in Karbala had licensed them to take even harsher measures against the protest movement. However, they appeared to underestimate the defiance of communities who, after nearly two months of unrest, had nothing to gain by submitting to force now.
“What happened yesterday was chaotic,” said Ahmad al-Akayshi of Najaf. “The protestors tried to reach the burial area of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and they set fire around the area. Security forces began firing at the protesters but they were overwhelmed as the numbers of the protesters grew far more than the forces.”
Mustafa, 37, from Nasiriyah, said: “It was a massacre. They were using heavy machine guns on the protesters. It was like a war. People are only asking for their rights, and they protest, but the government forces treat them as terrorists.
“The government has too much blood of innocent people on their hands; nothing will wash it away after this. Everyone involved in this massacre should be tried publicly. They are firing teargas and smoke grenades at the people, and it has injured hundreds. There isn’t enough to take care of these people.
“Bodies were lying on the ground like in a battlefield. It was a massacre. They didn’t show any mercy to the people who are only marching with a flag in their hands, asking for a better life.”
Additional reporting by Mohammed Rasool