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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Security forces fired upon a group of demonstrators in southern Baghdad on Sunday lunchtime, killing two and wounding over a dozen, according to a protest spokesperson.
Thousands of people travelled from several southern Iraqi provinces to Baghdad in the early hours of Sunday morning, protesting an end to monthly, government-allocated compensation as part of an economic reform package announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
“They fired on us upon direct orders from Kadhimi and killed two of us,” protester spokesperson Sheikh Amer Shalan Rafawi told Rudaw.
Protesters were stopped at a checkpoint at Daira bridge, south of the capital, where confrontation escalated and security forces fired upon the protesters, Rafawi said. Videos purportedly from the scene show security forces wielding batons and driving Humvees through crowds of protesters.
Kadhimi announced economic reform package in late May as his government faced serious economic crisis due to low oil prices and the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kadhimi ordered authorities to stop paying more than one monthly compensation payment to any of the country's citizens.
Thousands of Iraqis imprisoned for political reasons during Saddam Hussein's regime receive compensation payments from the government, an increasing strain on thinning state coffers. The reform especially impacted Iraq's Shiite south, who were of particular target by the Sunni regime.
Rafawi estimated there to be 12,000 protesters, and said 16 people were wounded as a result of bullet fire.
Rudaw could not obtain government verification for Rafawi's claims, as calls to the interior and health ministries were not returned.
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