February 18, 2011
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — A Kurdish regional
opposition's offices were targeted by looters,
officials said on Friday, after Iraq's most violent
protests since uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia left
three dead in two days.
Rallies against corruption, poor basic services and
high unemployment in several cities across Iraq have
also left
2 killed and
more than 100 people wounded.
The rare demonstrations in the autonomous Kurdistan
region were the deadliest since the 2003 US-led
invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi and Kurdish leaders have pledged to bring the
perpetrators of the violence to justice. They have
also attempted to head off the protests by slashing
the salaries of ministers and MPs and diverting cash
earmarked for the purchase of fighter jets to buy
food for the needy.
On Friday, officials said looters had targeted seven
offices belonging to the Gorran opposition
party in the Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region,
and Duhok in response to violent protests a day
earlier in the region's second city of Sulaimaniyah
against the main ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Gorran has denied any involvement in Thursday's
demonstration, which left two dead, men aged 18 and
25, and 54 people wounded, according to provincial
health chief Raykot Hama Rashid, when security
forces fired into the air to disperse crowds.
By midday on Friday, an AFP journalist and Erbil
province's governor said Kurdish security forces had
evicted the looters from the Gorran offices
and party officials, who accused KDP loyalists of
involvement in the attacks,www.ekurd.netsaid
they would return to the sites once the situation
had calmed.
For decades, the KDP of regional president Massoud
Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of
Iraq's President Jalal Talabani have lorded over the
region,
|
The Kurdish regional opposition's headquarters in
Erbil and Duhok were targeted by looters and set on
fire. Photo: hawlati.co
Iraqi Kurdish anti-government protesters march in
the city of Sulaimaniyah. A Kurdish regional
opposition's offices have been targeted by looters,
according to officials, after Iraq's most violent
protests since uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia left
three dead in two days. Photo: AFP/GETTY |
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