Iraqi PM orders Baghdad curfew lifted
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi has ordered the lifting of the curfew imposed in Baghdad starting Saturday morning, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.
Abdul-Mahdi early on Thursday imposed an indefinite curfew on vehicles and individuals in Baghdad, after two days of violent protests, in an apparent attempt to quell further violence.
Protests first broke out in the capital earlier this month, and have since spread across the Shiite-dominated south, in anger over corruption, unemployment and poor services. The chaos has resulted into at least 73 deaths and more than 3,000 injuries.
The influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has called on the government to resign and early elections be held to bring the country out of a crisis, saying in a statement that shedding the blood of “Iraqis cannot be ignored.”
Parliament speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi also said that Iraq needed to revolt against corruption and that the nation supports the demonstrators’ peaceful demands.
