9 injured in Sulaimani demonstrations Thursday

SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region — At least nine people, including five policemen and four demonstrators, were wounded in Thursday street protests over delayed salaries in Sulaimani, the city’s mayor told Rudaw.

Mayor Bakhtiar Abdulrahman said none of the injured had suffered “major wounds,” and had left the hospital the same day.

“They were injured in clashes between stone-throwing demonstrators and unarmed riot police who tried to contain the protests,” Abdulrahman told Rudaw, rejecting reports that police fired live ammunition to disperse the angry protesters.

“No policeman was armed at the moment, and we are still investigating what happened at the scene,” he added.

Eyewitnesses told Rudaw gunfire was heard in Sulaimani’s Shari Jwan hotel, which protesters had surrounded earlier after hearing a meeting between representatives of political parties was taking place there.

Demonstrators said they heard “intense shooting,” which apparently came from the hotel and was intended to disperse the young protesters. 

Abdulrahman told Rudaw initial investigations show that the shooting took place outside the hotel by “unknown gunmen.”

The director of the Sulaimani Health Office said earlier that 15 people had been taken to hospitals for Thursday’s clashes and most of them had been injured when police fired tear gas. 

Demonstrations are expected again on Friday as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) struggles to arrange the delayed payments to over 1 million state employees, most of who have not been paid since July this year.

The KRG says heavy war expenses with 80,000 Peshmerga soldiers deployed to the front lines battling ISIS militants and declining oil prices have severely impacted government budgets.