Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Iraq's capital and other cities on Friday, demanding that the government steps up reforms and provides more electricity and jobs. Inspired by the Arab Spring, Iraqis have been demonstrating on Fridays for months but protests had petered out in recent weeks.
The rallies came days after a prominent anti-American Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, called on the government to create 50,000 jobs, give Iraqis a share of the nation's oil wealth and make more reforms or face protests. Sadr, whose political movement is a key faction in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile coalition government, earlier this year gave the government six months to improve services. The deadline expired at the end of August.
More than eight years after the US-led invasion, Iraqis still suffer from a lack of basic services and the government has been slow to rebuild the country's battered infrastructure. "It is so shameful. Our country is a wealthy oil-rich country and its people are poverty-stricken," said Tareq Khalil, a protester in Baghdad's Tahrir Square. "We're only demanding an improvement in basic services and an improvement in people's living standards".
Military vehicles and soldiers, as well as police, lined the streets. All roads leading to the square were closed to vehicles. Demonstrations also took place in Diwaniya, Hilla, Najaf and the oil port city of Basra in the south, as well as Baquba in the north.
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