IRAQ faces the prospect of a deepening political crisis after four days of anti-government demonstrations have left at least 64 people dead.
Authorities have now lifted a round-the-clock curfew in the capital meant to quell the unrest.
By yesterday afternoon, dozens of protesters began gathering in the streets around Baghdad’s main Tahrir square, which remained closed to cars amid heavy security. Shops and traffic returned to normal elsewhere in the city.
The disruption is the most serious challenge for Iraq since the defeat of Daesh two years ago.
Security forces had opened fire directly at hundreds of protesters in central Baghdad on Friday, despite calls from Iraq’s top Shia cleric for both sides to end four days of violence “before it’s too late”.
It turned out to be the deadliest day of violence in the capital, with 22 protesters killed, Iraqi officials said.
Health and security officials said 183 people were injured in the protests.
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According to officials, these figures raised the national death toll to at least 64 people killed since the demonstrations erupted in the capital and the major southern cities on Tuesday.
The semi-official Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, affiliated with the parliament, put the death toll at 93, and said nearly 4000 people had been injured.
Even after lifting the curfew at 5am local time yesterday, security remained heavily deployed in Baghdad, and access to the Green Zone, the area housing government offices and foreign embassies, was restricted.
Municipal workers cleared the streets of the bullets and debris left behind by the latest confrontations.
Reports describe heavy security deployment in the streets leading to Tahrir square, which has been a gathering point for protesters.
The bridge leading to the square was also closed by a handful of police armoured vehicles. Special forces and army vehicles were deployed around the square and as far as a mile away.
Still dozens of protesters gathered in the square and the streets nearby, raising banners demanding the resignation of the prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and an investigation into the killings of protesters.
Parliament is to convene for an emergency session later in the day to discuss protesters’ demands. Both Abdul-Mahdi and parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi called on protest representatives to meet to hear their demands.
But with a call from the largest bloc in parliament to boycott, it was not clear if a session would take place.
Curfew remained in place in other southern cities, where violence has been deadly and where there are concerns more rallies have been organised.
Spontaneous rallies started as mostly young demonstrators took to the streets demanding jobs, improved services like electricity and water and an end to corruption in the oil-rich country.
In a desperate attempt to curb the growing rallies, authorities blocked the internet and imposed a round-the-clock curfew in the capital.
But the protesters, many of whom camped on the streets, continued to turn up in Baghdad and a number of southern cities, including Nasiriyah, Amarah, and Kut.
On Friday, influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on Abdul-Mahdi’s government to resign and hold early elections.
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