Latest Iraq protests

Protests

Iraqis rally in Baghdad, media banned from live coverage

Al Sumaria reports (March 8^th): Hundreds of Iraqis rallied on Monday in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square in protest against lack of services. Demonstrators are calling to dissolve the provincial council and bring all parties involved in corruption to justice. 

Iraqi security forces banned media from covering manifestations live on air. 

http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News/1-61276-Iraqis-rally-in-Baghdad%2C-media-banned-from-live-coverage.html

Iraq Shuts Office of Protest Organizers

NY Times reports (March 7^th): Two political parties that led demonstrations in Baghdad over the past two weeks said Monday that security forces controlled by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had ordered them to close their offices. Officials for the Iraqi Nation Party and the Iraqi Communist Party said in interviews that dozens of armed security forces had come to their offices, two days after another round of demonstrations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html

Iraqi Kurdish protesters to press demands for freedoms and transparency

Azzaman reports (March 11^th): Tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds have risen against their factional leaders, demanding transparency and more freedoms.

The demonstrations have so far concentrated in the Kurdish Province of Sulaimaniya but anger and resentment of policies pursued by the Kurdish region’s government are triggering unrest across the current Kurdish administration.

http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-03-11\kurd.htm

Iraq Kurds protest, man tries to set himself ablaze

Reuters report (March 11^th): A protester tried to set himself on fire in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish zone, where demonstrators have camped out on a square to call for the ouster of the powerful regional administration.

Protests were also held in several other Iraqi cities, although numbers were smaller than in previous weeks and there was no major violence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110311/wl_nm/us_iraq_protests

Iraq protesters call for jobs and better services

AFP report (March 11^th): Hundreds of Iraqi protesters demanded jobs and better basic services, in the latest challenge to the government as a wave of popular uprisings sweeps across the Arab world.

Some 500 protesters turned up in Baghdad's Tahrir Square and about as many in the city of Fallujah west of the capital.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110311/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsunrest

Iraqi protesters accuse security forces of detaining, beating demonstrators

Canadian Press reports (March 11^th): Several Iraqis among a crowd of protesters in Baghdad accused security forces of detaining and beating them for taking part in earlier demonstrations calling for better services and a corruption-free government.

The new accusations came from three protesters gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square — one of at least four demonstrations Friday morning in major Iraqi cities. The largest rally was in northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, with an estimated turnout of 4,000.

Protester Sami Majid, 23, said he was among crowds during a deadly demonstration in Baghdad on Feb. 25, which was billed as the Iraqi "Day of Rage," when he was detained by police who held him at a military base in the capital's east.

"They beat and kicked me, then forced me to sign a commitment that I would not participate in demonstrations or raise riots," Majid said. He joined about 300 other protesters at Tahrir Square who held the soles of their shoes in the air — a sign of disrespect in the Middle East — and shouted, "Liar, liar, Maliki!" in an affront to the prime minister.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gf9AN5za1ClfK8kBkuJs_EJUF5Og?docId=6213569

Iraqi activists' torture allegations spark fears for detained protesters

Amnesty International reports (March 10^th): A group of anti-government protesters missing since they were arrested this week in Baghdad are feared to be at risk of torture, after other recently released protestors told Amnesty International they were tortured in detention.
  
At least 10 people were detained on Monday while returning home from a Baghdad protest against unemployment, government corruption and poor social services. 
  
The arrests came as other protesters who were detained last month told Amnesty International that they were tortured in detention. 

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/iraqi-activists-torture-allegations-spark-fears-detained-protesters-2011-03-10

This week's protests

Iraq authorities 'using violence and bribes' to curb dissent

The National reports (March 2^nd): Authorities in Iraq are using a mixture of strong-arm tactics and financial persuasion to prevent anti-government protests gaining momentum.

Army and police units have beaten, arrested or threatened scores of political activists and journalists, their colleagues say. Meanwhile, government security and intelligence agencies are trying to root out the organisers of the protests, especially those who are using the internet in an attempt to organise another mass protest.

Hussein Abdul Hadi, a blogger who helped to arrange the "Day of Rage" march in Baghdad, said: "The intelligence services are collecting information about activists and after the demonstrations they have been making arrests and detaining people."

http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/iraq-authorities-using-violence-and-bribes-to-curb-dissent?pageCount=0

Protesters say Maliki is using special security forces to shut down demonstration

Washington Post adds (March 4^th): Witnesses in Baghdad and as far north as Kirkuk described watching last week as security forces in black uniforms, tracksuits and T-shirts roared up in trucks and Humvees, attacked protesters, rounded up others from cafes and homes and hauled them off, blindfolded, to army detention centers.
Entire neighborhoods - primarily Sunni areas where residents are generally opposed to Maliki - were blockaded to prevent residents from joining the demonstrations. Journalists were beaten.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030304953.html

Protesters converge on Iraq capital

Al Jazeera reports (March 4^th): Thousands of people have converged on Baghdad's Tahrir, or Liberation, Square to protest against corruption and unemployment, despite a vehicle ban that forced many to walk for hours to the heart of the Iraqi capital.
Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf reported from Baghdad that the situation was heading towards a stand-off, as security forces demanded the protesters leave, blocking their route across a bridge leading to the Green Zone, where the government has its base.
Concrete blocks were set up by authorities on all of Baghdad's bridges ahead of the protests.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/20113492534217409.html

Iraqi forces use water cannon to disperse protests

Reuters report (March 4^th): Iraqi security forces used water cannon and batons to disperse protesters in the southern oil hub of Basra as thousands of Iraqis rallied around the nation against corrupt officials and poor basic services.

In central Basra around 700 protesters near the provincial council building were forcibly removed by Iraqi soldiers and police after they refused to stop demonstrating.

A Reuters reporter at the scene said some journalists were also beaten by security forces. A vehicle ban was in effect.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/iraqi-forces-use-water-cannon-to-disperse-protests/

Journalists detained in Basra 

Aswat-al-Iraq adds (March 4^th): Security forces dispersed a demonstration in front of the Basra council after clashes with protestors, eyewitnesses said, noting that a protestor was wounded and a number of journalists were arrested.

“Security forces used force to disperse demonstrators, wounding one of them, and detained a number of journalists, mainly channels and news agencies’ reporters,” eyewitnesses told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=141306&l=1

Iraqis protest again, this time in 'Day of Regret'

Washington Post adds (March 4^th): With a curfew on cars and bicycles, security tight and a recent history of security forces shooting, beating and detaining demonstrators, around 2,000 people were gathered for protests in Baghdad's Tahrir Square by noon Friday.

Once again, they held up signs saying, "All of Us Are One Nation" and "More Services" and "No No to Corruption." Small protests were forming in several cities across the country, including Basra, Dhaqar and Najaf.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030401061.html

Iraqis get the Tahrir spirit

Last Friday's day of rage shows Nouri al-Maliki is in danger of becoming the Mubarak of Baghdad

• Sami Ramadani
• The Guardian, Wednesday 2 March 2011
• As the walls of fear are being knocked down in one Arab country after another, the ugly concrete walls "of separation and intimidation" erected by the US-led forces in Iraqi cities have become a target of protesters. During last Friday's "day of rage", 29 people were killed by security forces. Another day of protest is planned for this Friday (4 March) "to honour the 29 martyrs". The regime's tactics – which include the shooting of peaceful demonstrators – show that the post-occupation edifice built by the US is not much different from the assortment of American-backed dictatorships across north Africa and the Middle East.
  It was George Bush who – referring to Syrian troops in Lebanon – declared that free and fair elections were not possible under occupation. Iraqis for once find themselves in agreement with him as they question the legitimacy of elections under occupation that produced a toothless parliament with no more power than Egypt's under Mubarak.
  Like all regimes threatened by mass uprisings, Iraq is a police state that shows its true face once challenged by the people. And the more radical the challenge, the more violent the reaction. In Egypt and Tunisia hundreds were killed and thousands injured to bring about the downfall of Ben Ali and Mubarak. But the most radical demand – the regime's overthrow – has yet to be tested.
  In Iraq a majority of Friday's protesters wanted to "reform" rather than overthrow a "corrupt" regime. However, the lesson the regime appears to have drawn from the great uprisings sweeping the region is to anticipate and act to stop people, especially in Baghdad, from congregating in large numbers.
  Extraordinary measures were taken to prevent people converging on the capital's Tahrir Square. All of Baghdad's many bridges over the Tigris – linking the two halves of the city – were closed, all vehicles and bicycles banned. New concrete blast walls sealed off Jamahiriya bridge, which leads to the hated Green Zone. A city of over 6 million people had been turned into a massive site for police and army encampments and fortifications.
  Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, was clearly motivated by fear of the masses, declaring that although he was in favour of protecting the right to protest, he thought it best that in future people should gather only in Baghdad's football stadium or al-Zowra'a park – rather than march for rallies in Tahrir Square. Presumably he was petrified by the thought that a great banner, similar to the one that adorned Cairo's Tahrir square, would go up proclaiming: "The people want to overthrow the regime".
  For its part, the world's biggest US embassy – the power behind the throne – took the unprecedented step of broadcasting in Arabic, on state TV, a thinly veiled threat to protesters not to go too far in their demands. The US, it stressed, fully backed the "democratically elected" regime, while supporting the right to peaceful protest. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama must be pretty confused as to which dictatorship they should now abandon and which to prop up.
  Maliki has so far made four state-TV broadcasts. In the first two he urged people to stay at home, because "Ba'athists and al-Qaida terrorists" had infiltrated the protesters and were planning to kill them. In the third, he was visibly shaken, thanking the protesters and promising reform "within one hundred days". Lastly, he implied the state would react violently andeven torture journalists if they wanted to "overthrow" him and his regime, because he was "democratically elected".
  His accusations that the protesters were "Ba'athists" was answered with the most popular chant of last Friday: "Nouri al-Maliki is a liar." Other slogans asserted: "The people's oil is for the people not for the thieves"; "We want dignity, jobs and services"; "No to terrorism, no to Saddam's dictatorship, and no to the dictatorship of thieves"; "No to the occupation"; "We are not Ba'athists, repression is Ba'athist"; and an old favourite of many previous rallies, "Sunnis and Shia, this homeland we shall never sell". In Iraqi Kurdistan, where at least six were killed, protesters demanded that Kurdish leaders Barzani and Talbani must follow Mubarak.
  The Iraqi struggle for "dignity and freedom" is even more difficult than that of Libya's heroic people. It faces 50,000 US troops (plus tens of thousands of contracted mercenaries) and Iraqi forces numbering over 1.5 million. The indifference of the BBC and other media is conspicuous and hypocritical, particularly following the torture of four Iraqi journalists.
  However, inspired by the uprisings of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, Iraqis have embarked on a new phase in their struggle.

ROUTE IRISH

ROUTE IRISH is a fast-paced conspiracy thriller that delivers a fresh insight into the moral and political corruption at play in Iraq. As well as exploring the actions of private security firms on the ground in Iraq, Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty (Looking for Eric, The Wind That Shakes the Barley) examine the effects of combat on security contractors – the new “soldiers” of modern warfare - who witness the horrors of combat and are subject to post-combat stress yet receive little support from the state upon return home.

Largely set and shot in Liverpool, Director of Photography Chris Menges (The Reader, The Killing Fields) expertly transports the stress and adrenaline of frontline combat to the film’s British locale through the use of frequent flashback sequences to the streets of Baghdad. Mark Womack, in his first film role following parts in high-profile TV dramas including Liverpool 1 and Sorted, leads the cast which includes renowned stand-up comedian John Bishop, Andrea Lowe (The Tudors) and Southern Kurdistan musician Talib Rasool. ROUTE IRISH is produced by Rebecca O’Brien with Executive Producers Pascal Caucheteux and Vincent Maraval.

ROUTE IRISH will be released in cinemas, on Sky Movies Box Office and via Curzon on Demand on 18 March

Running time: 109 minutes / Certificate: TBC / Images: www.image.net

For further information please contact:

Artificial Eye Publicity team:

Claire Gascoyne: Claire.gascoyne@artificial-eye.com / 020 7438 9508

Jake Garriock: Jake.garriock@artificial-eye.com / 020 7438 9528

Iraq's day of rage - and its aftermath

Thousands join 'Day of Rage'

The Guardian reports (February 25^th): Anger over corruption and abysmal basic services erupted in a "Day of Rage", with the most serious clashes in Mosul and Hawija, in the north, and Basra in the south. At least six people were killed – three in Mosul and three in Hawija – and 75 injured in clashes with security services as protesters tried to attack government buildings.

Thousands of people made their way to the city's Tahrir Square, but soldiers had closed it off with razor wire, using percussion grenades and firing in the air in an attempt to disperse crowds.

In Basra, the city's governor, Shaltagh Abboud, said he would resign after 18 people were wounded in skirmishes between the 4,000 protesters and state security. There were also clashes in Falluja and Nassiriya.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/thousands-join-day-of-rage-across-middle-east

Five killed as unrest erupts around Iraq

CNN adds (February 25^th):  Demonstrators clashed with security forces around Iraq in confrontations that killed at least five people and wounded many others.

raqi security forces opened fire to disperse crowds after protesters tried to enter the provincial council building in Anbar province. Security forces also opened fire to disperse crowds in two small towns in Salaheddin province, wounding eight protesters, police said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/25/iraq.protests/index.html

Demonstrations Turn Violent in Iraq

NY Times adds (February 25^th):  Iraq’s “day of rage” on Friday ended with nearly 20 protesters killed in clashes with security forces. Dozens more were wounded, and several local government offices lay smoldering and ransacked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?ref=middleeast

Protesters across Iraq clash with security forces

LA Times adds (February 25^th): As many as 5,000 people, mainly young men, had massed in Baghdad's Tahrir Square in the late morning. They tried to push past a barrier of blast walls over the Jumhuriya Bridge and into the heavily protected Green Zone, site of the parliament and politicians' homes. ¿¿¿

As the protesters toppled part of the barrier, hundreds of riot police officers marched over the bridge to block their path. The officers came under a hail of stones as angry demonstrators chanted that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was a liar and that they would not leave.

"Most people want to get inside the Green Zone and ask Maliki where the country's money is," said Adel, 33, a taxi driver who did not want to give his last name.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-protest-20110226,0,2300792.story

4 Iraqis Killed; 189 Wounded

Antiwar.com adds(February 25^th): At least 34 Iraqis were killed and 189 more were wounded in demonstrations and other violence. The figures are likely to be higher as some reports had propotionally low figures for civilian wounded. Also, members of Human Rights Watch reported seeing Baghdad police attack protestors earlier this week, while Reporters Without Borders condemned aban on live coverage of events from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.

http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/25/friday-21-iraqis-1-us-soldier-killed-57-iraqis-wounded/

Iraq “day of rage” protests shake US occupation regime

WSWS reports (February 26^th): Tens of thousands protested in cities throughout Iraq  against the economic oppression and corrupt officials imposed by the US occupation regime, as well as the US occupation itself.

Complaining of joblessness, worsening electricity outages, food shortages, and rising food prices, they denounced or demanded the resignation of several national and local officials. Even though Iraq has the world’s second-largest oil reserves, social conditions are atrocious. The official unemployment rate is over 15 percent (in reality much higher), large parts of Iraq have only a few hours of electricity a day, and the country is still occupied by 47,000 US troops—with Iraq’s oil fields now largely in the hands of Western energy firms.

Iraqi security forces fired on protestors in several of the at least 17 cities where protests took place. Fifteen demonstrators were confirmed killed and at least 130 were wounded.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/iraq-f26.shtml

Deadly protests rock Iraq

Al-Jazeera reports (February 26^th): Al Jazeera has obtained pictures which appear to show police shooting at protesters in the Iraqi city of Falluja, during Friday's deadly nationwide "day of rage".

An unprecedented lockdown of Iraq's capital failed to deter thousands of Iraqis from protesting, serving notice that the anti-government rage sweeping the Middle East will not be easily extinguished in Baghdad.

The "day of rage" protests rocked other Iraqi cities as well, as demonstrators burned or tried to storm government buildings from the southern port of Basra to the northern cities of Mosul and Falluja, where at least 12 protesters were shot dead by security forces.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112266209569837.html

Iraq 'Day of Rage' protests followed by detentions, beatings

Washington Post reports (February  26^th): Iraqi security forces detained hundreds of people, including prominent journalists, artists and intellectuals, witnesses said, a day afternationwide demonstrations brought tens of thousands of Iraqis into the streets and ended with soldiers shooting into crowds.
Four journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after they had left a protest at Baghdad's Tahrir Square. They said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by soldiers from an army intelligence unit.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022601854.html

 Bad Day for freedom of press and democracy in Iraq

Aswat al-Iraq reports (February 26^th):  The Iraqi Society for the Defense of Press Freedoms have condemned the detention of journalists, who covered the  Baghdad demonstrations on Friday, considering the 25^th of February as a “bad” day for the freedom of press and democracy in Iraq.

It said that “Al-Diyar TV Channel had been attacked by a military force, who detained 7 of its members and stopped its transmission, because it carried reports about the demonstrations in Baghdad’s al-Tahrir Square and some other provinces.

http://en.aswataliraq.info/Default1.aspx?page=article_page&id=141194&l=1

Iraq PM gives ministers 100 days to shape up

CNN reports (February 27^th): Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave government ministers 100 days to deliver results and eliminate corruption or be fired, the government announced after an emergency cabinet meeting.

On Saturday, protesters in Samarra defied curfew to attend the funerals of two people killed during protests there, chanting "God is great" and "Down with the government."

Security forces battled some of the protesters and later opened fire to disperse the crowd, wounding at least eight, police said.

Demonstrators attacked the city council building and set it on fire in Kubaisa, a small town in Anbar province west of Baghdad, police said.

Ali Ghaim al-Maliki, the head of Basra's security council, told reporters that at least 71 people were wounded in Friday's clashes -- including 51 security forces and 20 anti-government protesters.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/27/iraq.politics/index.html

International seminar on the situation of Iraqi Academics

For more information:
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/Seminar/#id=main12sub1&ts=1298814207325&page=1&language=en

More protests in Iraq

A selection of recent press stories on popular protest and the brutal response from the authorities:

Iraq man dies of self-immolation to protest rising unemployment

Haaretz reports (February 13^th): n Iraqi man has died after setting himself ablaze in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to protest against unemployment, police sources said. The 31-year-old man set himself on fire when he could not find a job, the sources told the German Press Agency DPA. He was married and had four children.

Thousands of Iraqis have been protesting this month, demanding better living standards, improved services and less corruption.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/iraq-man-dies-of-self-immolation-to-protest-rising-unemployment-1.343162

Mass protests at government corruption

Morning Star reports (February 14^th): Thousands of working people rallied in central Baghdad to protest against rampant government corruption and the shabby state of public services in their occupied country.

The protesters massed in the capital's al-Tahrir Square in Bab al-Sharji and chanted slogans demanding that the government take action to get people into work, raise wages and rein in soaring food prices.

Many raised banners bearing the image of a broken heart, a reference to Valentine's Day, while others held up placards demanding that corrupt officials be held to account.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/101086

Iraq protesters demand electricity, jobs

AFP reports (February 15^th): Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Iraqi cities, inspired by popular protests around the Arab world, to demand job-creation programmes and better electricity supplies.
The biggest turnout was in Fallujah where about 800 protesters marched through the city of western Iraq that a bastion of the insurgency after the US-led invasion of 2003.
Groups of around 200 demonstrated in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq and the poor Shiite district of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/5644/Business/Economy/Iraq-protesters-demand-electricity,-jobs.aspx

Three reported dead in Iraqi protests

LA Times reports (February 17^th): Three people were reported killed and dozens wounded during a demonstration in the southeastern city of Kut after protesters set fire to several government buildings as the country was roiled by demonstrations for the second time in three days.

The protest in Kut, capital of Wasit province, was the latest demonstration in Iraq inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that ousted longtime Arab heads of state.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq-protests-20110217,0,7978299.story

Fresh protests hit Iraqi cities

Al-Jazeera reports (February 18^th): Violent protests have taken place at various locations in Iraq, with anti-government protesters rallying against corruption, poor basic services and high unemployment.
In Basra, the country's second largest city, about 1,000 people rallied, demanding better service delivery from the government, jobs and improved pensions.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011218104510878522.html

Protests spread throughout Iraq

 

WSWS reports (February 18^th): Protests spread to cities throughout Iraq, as demonstrators demanded jobs and social services and voiced their opposition to the various corrupt local authorities supported by the US-backed occupation regime. 

In Suleimaniyah, health officials stated that nine people were killed and over 47 injured when Kurdish peshmerga forces fired into a crowd of at least 3,000 people, protesting at the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Massoud Barzani. Demonstrators were protesting KDP corruption, and the lack of jobs and basic services. They chanted “Government resign,” “Work for the unemployed” and “The corrupt must face justice.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/iraq-f18.shtml

Hundreds protest in Basra

Emg.rs  reports (February 18^th): Several hundred demonstrators gathered Thursday in Basra, south Iraq, demanding the local governor's ouster while protesters in Nasir stormed a local government building, which are the latest examples of the anger sweeping the country over poor government services and high unemployment. 

About 600 people massed in front of the Basra provincial headquarters, guarded by the police. With the exception of some pushing and shoving, witnesses said the protest was largely peaceful, the AP reported. 

http://www.emg.rs/en/news/world/147633.html

Thousands protest in Iraq's Kurdish north over shooting; orphans, widows rally in Baghdad

CP reports (February 19^th): Demonstrators thronged streets in northern Iraq to demand justice over a deadly shooting at a protest earlier this week. In Baghdad, hundreds of orphans and widows rallied to call on the government to take care of them.

The uprisings sweeping the Middle East have galvanized many in Iraq to demand better services from their leaders. The demonstrations in the capital and the northern city of Sulaimaniyah were peaceful, but five protesters were killed earlier this week.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jXkUlhwYfaCg8IIn8sMyp3DqZ7LA?docId=6004225

5 Iraqis Killed, 18 Wounded

Anti-war.com reports (February 19^th): At least five Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in the latest violence, while one U.S. airman was killed in a non-combat incident. Demonstrations continue in Baghdad, Basra, and other locations, but today’s hotspot is again Suleimaniya.

Ten demonstrators suffered blunt-force injuries when about 1,000 people attempted to storm a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) office in Suleimaniya. Another protest drew about 2,000 students on the campus of Suleimaniya University. The protestors demanded the resignation of the head of that office and called on Massoud Barzani, a member of the KDP and president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to apologize for a deadly attack on protestors two days ago at the same offices. At leastfour more people were reported wounded.

http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/02/19/saturday-5-iraqis-killed-14-wounded/

Iraqi Refugees in Syria Voice Support for Protests in Iraq

Xinhua reports (February 17^th): Iraqi refugees in Syrian voiced support for recent protests in their home country.

"These protests express people's anger on the bad government's services," Walid al-Hasani, a 55-year-old Iraqi refugee living in Damascus, told Xinhua, referring to protests in Iraq against rampant corruption, lack of public services, unemployment and unfair apportionment.

http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/02/17/2321s621187.htm