BAGHDAD — Protests flared across Iraq on Thursday as authorities imposed curfews and cut access to the internet, plunging the country into an information blackout.
As night fell, officials said at least 25 people had died and more than a thousand more were wounded after security forces fired tear gas and bullets into crowds of protesters for a third day and demonstrations continued in southern cities.
“The hospitals are filling up,” said Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman for Iraq’s human rights commission. Many cases, he said, were in a critical condition.
Iraq’s widening protests have entered on issues that plague everyday life in the oil-rich state, including corruption, poor services and unemployment. For most civilians, there have been few improvements in the two years since Iraqi forces pushed Islamic State militants from major cities, and for many Iraqis, life is getting worse.
Much of the country woke to an indefinite curfew, declared early Thursday by Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. Without the internet, people gathered what news they could by phone, sending the rumor mill swirling.
In Baghdad, the violent crackdown appeared only to have drawn out more protesters to the streets. Several thousand demonstrators were gathered in the center of the city Thursday night. Helicopters circled low, hovering over clouds of tear gas as the sound of gunfire rang out.
Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad on Thursday. At least 25 people were killed as demonstrations continued for a third day. Hadi Mizban/Associated Press
Protesters piled the wounded into carts and then drove off in a frantic race to the hospital.
Haider Al-Lami, 29, said he had joined the protests because they appeared to have grown organically, rather than as the result of a call from political parties. “This is an uprising from the people who suffer. It represents them and only them,” he said. “I hope this can reform a broken system.”
Abdul Mahdi’s fragile year-old government has struggled to appoint ministers to key positions or to tackle graft that is siphoning money away from public services and into the pockets of politically connected people.
The corruption is so severe, economists now describe it as endemic. In Baghdad, one of the signs raised aloft just read: “Enough.”
Early Thursday, the U.S.-led coalition reported explosions inside or near the city’s “Green Zone,” a heavily fortified pocket of land hosting government institutions, embassies and military bases.
“No Coalition facility was struck. Coalition troops always reserve the right to defend ourselves, attacks on our personnel will not be tolerated,” said U.S. Army Col. Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the coalition.
There are roughly 5,000 U.S. troops stationed in Iraq to assist government forces fight the remnants of the Islamic State group there.
With communications limited across much of Iraq, sporadic casualty reports trickled in from the southern provinces: five in the city of Amarah by early afternoon, then five more in Nasiriyah. Although smaller, the protests showed no signs of abating.
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