Thursday 21 / August / 2025
Baghdad: Iraq has been rocked by days of protests, as thousands of mostly young men have been demonstrating in different parts of the country against corruption, unemployment and poor public services.
Security forces have responded using water cannon, tear gas, live rounds and rubber bullets. Dozens of protesters have been killed and hundreds more wounded.
Tensions have been exacerbated by a near-total internet blackout as the authorities seek to prevent protesters from communicating with each other or posting footage of the chaotic demonstrations online.
The mostly leaderless demonstrations are the biggest challenge yet to the one-year government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has imposed curfews in the capital, Baghdad, and other cities to try to stop the protests gathering steam.
Unknown gunmen attacked the offices of several television stations in Baghdad, according to journalists on the ground.
The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel said masked gunmen who arrived in black cars wearing black clothes stormed the offices of the television station, attacked some employees and smashed equipment before fleeing the scene.
Majed Hamid, the channel's correspondent in Baghdad, said several colleagues were injured. He added that the station had been receiving threats for several days.
Gunmen also attacked the offices of Iraq's Dajla and NRT news channels in Baghdad, according to employees at the stations. Both of those stations are privately owned.
The top United Nations official in Iraq denounced the violence during protests that has killed nearly 100 people across the country and wounded thousands of others, saying it "must stop".
"Five days of reported deaths and injuries; this must stop," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the special representative of the UN secretary general in Iraq, said in a post on Twitter.
"Those responsible for violence should be held to account," she added.
According to Iraq's semi-official High Commission for Human Rights, 99 people have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded since the protests erupted on Tuesday.
Iraqi officials said at least five more protesters were shot and killed in anti-government demonstrations that raged in four neighbourhoods in Baghdad, bringing the day's death toll to 14, according to reports.
Medical and police officials said two protesters were killed in the western Baghdad neighbourhood of Shula when security opened fire on rallies after dark. Officials said two more protesters were killed in the area near Tahrir Square, where they have been under fire from security forces, bringing the toll there to nine.
In the southern suburb of Zaafaraniyeh, one more protester died of his wounds, according to a medical official there cited journalists, bringing the area's death toll to two. One protester was also killed in the southern city of Diwaniyah where protesters marched on local government's offices, according to reports.
The Speaker of Iraq's parliament Mohamad al-Halbousi met representatives of protesters in an apparent bid to defuse the political crisis.
Al-Habousi told those gathered that the government would look to roll out a series of measures to curb corruption and kickstart Iraq's economy, including lending money to small businesses and creating new jobs.
A journalist, reporting from Baghdad, said the meeting felt like a "campaign rally".
"It felt like he [al-Halbousi] was manoeuvring himself into an election that may well come,” they added.
Iraqi officials and a member of the country's semi-official human rights commission said thousands of protesters had taken to the streets in two southern cities and set fire to political party offices, according to reports.
An Iraqi security official and the rights commission official said that protesters in Nasiriyah had set ablaze the offices of two political parties in the restive southern city. The two officials said the security forces responded with fire, but there was no immediate word on casualties. The officials described the protest as "very large."
In another southern city, Diwaniyah, protesters marched toward local government offices, according to reports. There were no reports of violence there.
A journalist said an emergency session of parliament scheduled for Saturday afternoon did not take place after a number of key politicians failed to show up for the meeting.
"Three major blocs decided they were going to boycott that session because they said the government didn't have an agenda it could implement so therefore it was not worth going to the meeting,” the journalist said.
"There is a political crisis now brewing.”
