BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces in the southern oil-rich province of Basra have started arresting protesters who took part in the week-long demonstrations there to demand more jobs and better services, activists said Monday.
Protests in the city of Basra, the provincial capital and Iraq’s second-largest city, are not unusual in scorching summer weather but they boiled over last Tuesday, when security forces opened fire, killing one person and wounding five.
Within days the rallies spread to other provinces. In some places, protesters broke into local government buildings and burned the offices of some political parties.
The government rushed to contain the protests with promises of thousands of jobs, mainly in the oil sector, and an urgent allocation of 3.5 trillion Iraqi dinars ($3 billion) for electricity and water projects. It blamed “infiltrators” for the damages.
The arrests started on Sunday night, with police chasing protesters down main roads and alleys following demonstrations in the city of Basra, and also in the countryside and around oil fields, two activists told The Associated Press.
The activists could not give a specific number for those arrested, saying only “hundreds.” They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety. Officials were not immediately available to comment.
The activists said Internet was back on after a two-day shutdown, but a heavy deployment of security forces outside the local government building in Basra prevented protesters from gathering there Monday.
Police also closed off surrounding streets with barbed wire.
Meanwhile, authorities reopened the country’s second-busiest airport, in the city of Najaf, following a two-day shutdown after a mob broke into the facility on Friday, damaging the passenger terminal and vandalizing equipment.
Transportation Minister Kadhim Finjan Al-Hamai was at the Najaf airport to announce the reopening on the Iraqi state TV as an Iraqi Airways plane landed behind him. He said 18 local and international flights were to land on Monday.
The shutdown had caused “heavy losses” to the government, the airport and airline companies, he said without elaborating.
Kuwait Airways, the Royal Jordanian and Iran’s Aviation Authority suspended their flights to Najaf on Sunday, citing security concerns. The United Arab Emirates’ FlyDubai canceled Saturday’s flights to Najaf and said it was suspending its flights until July 22.
Iraq’s vital Um Qasr port on the Arabian Gulf, and two main border crossings — Safwan with Kuwait and Shalamcheh with Iran — were closed to both passengers and goods as protesters had blocked the main roads leading to the sites.
Basra is home to about 70 percent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves of 153.1 billion barrels. It is located on the Arabian Gulf bordering Kuwait and Iran, and is Iraq’s only hub these days for all oil exports to the international market.
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Iraqi police arresting protesters in the south — activists
Iraqi police arresting protesters in the south — activists
- The government rushed to contain the protests with promises of thousands of jobs, mainly in the oil sector
- Basra is home to about 70 percent of Iraq’s proven oil reserves of 153.1 billion barrels
114 killed in week of attacks in Sudan’s Darfur: medical sources
PORT SUDAN: Attacks by Sudan’s army and its paramilitary foes on two towns in the western Darfur region over the past week have killed 114 people, medical sources told AFP Sunday.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which in October seized the army’s last holdout position in Darfur.
The RSF has since pushed west to the Chadian border and east through the vast Kordofan region, where a drone strike on the North Kordofan capital of El-Obeid on Sunday caused a blackout in the key army-controlled city.
A medical source reported Sunday that 51 people were killed the day before in drone strikes attributed to the army on the North Darfur town of Al-Zuruq, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of the RSF-overrun state capital El-Fashir.
The strike hit a market and civilian areas, the source said.
Al-Zuruq, under RSF control, is home to family members of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the former deputy of his now rival, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
“Two of the Dagalo family were killed, Moussa Saleh Dagalo and Awad Moussa Saleh Dagalo,” an eyewitness to the burial told AFP.
Both the RSF and the army are accused of targeting civilian areas, in what the UN has called a “war of atrocities.”
RSF fighters advancing westward toward the border with Chad last week killed another 63 people in and around the town of Kernoi, a medical source in the local hospital told AFP Sunday.
“Until Friday, 63 were killed and 57 injured... in attacks launched by the RSF around Kernoi,” they said, speaking on condition of anonymity for their safety.
Local sources told AFP that 17 people were still missing.
The entire Darfur region is largely inaccessible to reporters and is under a years-long communications blackout, forcing local volunteers and medics to use satellite Internet to get news to the world.
According to the United Nations, over 7,000 people were displaced in just two days last month from Kernoi and the nearby village of Um Baru.
Many are from the Zaghawa group, which has been targeted by the RSF. Members of the group have fought in the current war alongside the army in a coalition known as the Joint Forces.
‘Attacked by drones’
Since the war began, tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
Much of the worst fighting has been in Darfur, reviving memories of mass ethnic atrocities committed in the 2000s by the Janjaweed, the RSF’s predecessor.
The war’s fiercest violence is currently unfolding in Kordofan, Sudan’s vast oil-rich southern region that links Darfur to the capital Khartoum, which the army recaptured last year.
Drone strikes on North Kordofan capital El-Obeid caused a power outage, the national electricity company said.
“El-Obeid power station ... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the company said.
Following its victory in El-Fasher, the RSF has sought to recapture Sudan’s central corridor, tightening its siege with its local allies around several army-held cities.
Hundreds of thousands face mass starvation across the region.
Last year, the army broke a paramilitary siege on El-Obeid, which the RSF has sought to encircle since.
The Joint Forces said last week they had retaken several towns south of El-Obeid, which according to a military source could “open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — one of South Kordofan’s besieged cities.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
The war has forced more than 11 million people to flee internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which in October seized the army’s last holdout position in Darfur.
The RSF has since pushed west to the Chadian border and east through the vast Kordofan region, where a drone strike on the North Kordofan capital of El-Obeid on Sunday caused a blackout in the key army-controlled city.
A medical source reported Sunday that 51 people were killed the day before in drone strikes attributed to the army on the North Darfur town of Al-Zuruq, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of the RSF-overrun state capital El-Fashir.
The strike hit a market and civilian areas, the source said.
Al-Zuruq, under RSF control, is home to family members of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the former deputy of his now rival, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
“Two of the Dagalo family were killed, Moussa Saleh Dagalo and Awad Moussa Saleh Dagalo,” an eyewitness to the burial told AFP.
Both the RSF and the army are accused of targeting civilian areas, in what the UN has called a “war of atrocities.”
RSF fighters advancing westward toward the border with Chad last week killed another 63 people in and around the town of Kernoi, a medical source in the local hospital told AFP Sunday.
“Until Friday, 63 were killed and 57 injured... in attacks launched by the RSF around Kernoi,” they said, speaking on condition of anonymity for their safety.
Local sources told AFP that 17 people were still missing.
The entire Darfur region is largely inaccessible to reporters and is under a years-long communications blackout, forcing local volunteers and medics to use satellite Internet to get news to the world.
According to the United Nations, over 7,000 people were displaced in just two days last month from Kernoi and the nearby village of Um Baru.
Many are from the Zaghawa group, which has been targeted by the RSF. Members of the group have fought in the current war alongside the army in a coalition known as the Joint Forces.
‘Attacked by drones’
Since the war began, tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced.
Much of the worst fighting has been in Darfur, reviving memories of mass ethnic atrocities committed in the 2000s by the Janjaweed, the RSF’s predecessor.
The war’s fiercest violence is currently unfolding in Kordofan, Sudan’s vast oil-rich southern region that links Darfur to the capital Khartoum, which the army recaptured last year.
Drone strikes on North Kordofan capital El-Obeid caused a power outage, the national electricity company said.
“El-Obeid power station ... was attacked by drones, leading to a fire in the machinery building, which led to a halt in the electricity supply,” the company said.
Following its victory in El-Fasher, the RSF has sought to recapture Sudan’s central corridor, tightening its siege with its local allies around several army-held cities.
Hundreds of thousands face mass starvation across the region.
Last year, the army broke a paramilitary siege on El-Obeid, which the RSF has sought to encircle since.
The Joint Forces said last week they had retaken several towns south of El-Obeid, which according to a military source could “open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — one of South Kordofan’s besieged cities.
Since mid-December, some 11,000 people have been displaced from North and South Kordofan states, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
The war has forced more than 11 million people to flee internally and across Sudan’s borders, many of them seeking shelter in underdeveloped areas with a lack of nutrition, medicine and clean water.
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