MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : KURDISTAN PEOPLE CONTRA KDP & PUK – Death toll in Iraqi Kurdistan protests rises to six: medics, officials

December 8, 2020 by Kurdish protesters in Said Sadiq, Iraqi Kurdistan, December 8, 2020. Photo: SM

SULAIMANI, Iraqi Kurdistan region,—The toll from protests against Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government KRG has risen to six dead, medics and officials said Tuesday, as rage swells over delayed public sector salaries, corruption, pay cuts, deteriorating economic conditions, lack of public services and job opportunities.

After a first protester was shot dead in the town of Chamchamal by Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP guards on Monday afternoon, another two demonstrators died overnight in deadly rallies in two other districts, according to a local official and the Baghdad-based Iraqi Human Rights Commission.

On Tuesday afternoon, at least three more protesters died in two other locations, local officials, medics and the Commission told AFP.

Violence continued in  Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani governorate as protesters returned to the streets on Tuesday, demanding basic services, job opportunities, and an end to public sector salary cuts and delays.

By late evening on Tuesday, four people had been killed during the day’s events, bringing the overall death toll to seven according to NRT TV.

One protester, a 22-year-old, was killed in Takiya on Tuesday, Five other demonstrators were wounded in Takiya and two in Chamchamal.

In the late afternoon, head of Said Sadiq Municipality’s media department Taha Ahmed said that a 13-year-old protester was killed during a demonstration in the town. Earlier in the day, gruesome footage of his injuries circulated on social media, showing what appeared to be a gunshot wound.

Ahmed said that fourteen people had been injured during protests in the district over the past twenty-four hours, including four police and ten protesters, one of whom died of their injuries on Tuesday.

Protesters have rallied outside the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and smaller parties in several towns in the Sulaimani region in recent days.

Protesters set fire to the offices of several Kurdish political parties, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Change Movement (Gorran)

Following deadly protests across Sulaimani governorate on Monday the authorities in the Kurdistan Region restricted internet access to the population, according to a leading internet monitor.

Netblocks wrote in a tweet that “real-time network data show localized connectivity at 48% of ordinary levels” in Sulaimani governorate as of late afternoon and continuing overnight.

Ekurd.net | AFP | nrttv.com