BAGHDAD — Security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas at protesters in the Iraqi capital and in a southern city on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding 39 as thousands of protesters took to the streets and set fire to political party offices, government and human rights commission members said.
The clashes came hours after authorities lifted a round-a-clock curfew in Baghdad meant to quell the unrest, now in its fifth day and sparked by popular anger over a lack of jobs and endemic corruption in the oil-rich country. The upheaval is the most serious challenge for Iraq since the defeat of the Islamic State group two years ago.
Saturday’s violence brought to 73 the total number of people killed over five days of protests, deepening the country’s political crisis. The semiofficial Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, affiliated with the parliament, put the death toll at 94. It said nearly 4,000 people have been wounded since Tuesday.
The bloodiest violence in Baghdad came Friday, when 22 people were killed. Health officials said many of the victims were wounded in the head and chest.
In a desperate attempt to curb the growing rallies, authorities blocked the internet Wednesday and imposed the curfew on Thursday. The curfew, ignored by protesters, was lifted at 5 a.m. Saturday, allowing shops to open and traffic to flow in most of Baghdad. But by early afternoon, dozens of protesters began gathering in the streets around central Tahrir Square, which remained closed to cars. Armored vehicles and troops sealed off the area leading to the square, while special forces and army vehicles deployed around the square and as far as 1.2 miles away.
Health and security officials said four people were killed when forces fired at protesters gathered in a street near the square.
Hundreds of protesters retreated amid intense tear gas and live fire by security forces, but at least three more were killed by gunfire.
Thousands of protesters later took to the streets in the southern cities of Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah, according to Iraqi officials and a member of the semiofficial human rights commission, defying a curfew that was still in place there.
In Diwaniyah, at least one protester was killed as demonstrators marched toward local government offices, a medical official and human rights official said. They did not provide details.
In the restive city of Nasiriyah, demonstrators torched the offices of three political parties and a lawmaker. Security forces responded with gunfire, but there was no immediate word on casualties, said the officials, who described the protest as “very large.”
Another protester was killed and 13 wounded in the southern Baghad neighborhood of Zaafaraniyeh, health and police officials said. Nearly 40 people were wounded in the capital, said medical officials. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rasoul Saray, a 34-year-old unemployed Baghdad resident who took part in the protests, said security officials at checkpoints were stopping men and turning them away in various suburbs, apparently fearing they would join the protests. Saray said he saw one young man get arrested after security officials inspected his mobile phone and found a recorded protest video.
