Iraq Demonstrations Leave 40 Killed, More Than 2000 Injured

The number of victims of the Iraqi demonstrations in Baghdad and the southern provinces rose to 40 dead and more than 2,300 injured until Saturday morning.

The Iraqi security accused whom they called "saboteurs" to exploit the demonstrations and killings, at a time they fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators at Baghdad`s Tahrir Square.

Iraqi media reported the arrival of new military reinforcements to Maysan and Basra in the south of the country. The Iraqi authorities decided to extend the curfew in Karbala and Maysan until further notice.

The families of those killed in the demonstrations set fire on the headquarters of the militia "loyal movement" in the city of Amara in southern Iraq.

This came after a night spent by the demonstrators inside the tents erected in the yards of the demonstration in Baghdad and other provinces, with slogans condemning corruption and friction with the security members, especially with the imposition of Iraqi security curfew in Dhi Qar, Basra, Missan, Wasit, Muthanna, Babylon, and Diwaniyah.

According to eyewitnesses, the Iraqi government sent security reinforcements to the yards of demonstrations in most provinces centered around government buildings, and redeployed again, as well as some concrete barriers and barbed wire around important buildings."

The number of victims of the demonstrations to 40 dead, according to Iraqi medical sources said it toll until eight in the morning on Saturday.

The previous statistics documented by the Iraqi Human Rights Commission that the number of dead demonstrations amounted to 30 people, 8 of them fell in Baghdad, and 9 in the province of Maysan, 9 in Dhi Qar, and 3 in Basra, and one in Muthanna.

It added that that the number of injured has risen to 2,322 demonstrators and security forces, 1493 of them in Baghdad, 90 in Muthanna, 10 in Wasit, 151 in Muthanna, 301 in Basra, 112 in Diwaniya, 105 in Maysan, and 50 in Karbala.

The UNHCR added: “50 government buildings and party headquarters were burnt and damaged in the governorates of Diwaniya, Maysan, Wasit, Dhi Qar, Basra and Babil, '' calling on demonstrators to “maintain peaceful demonstrations and not to prejudice public and private property” and urged security forces to “preserve the lives of protesters.”