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Nearly 50 Dead as Iraq Protests Take New Violent Turn

Agence France-Presse

   BAGHDAD - Nearly 50 people have died in renewed anti-government
   protests across Iraq, officials said Saturday, with clashes breaking
   out as demonstrators turned their fury against government and
   paramilitary offices.

   The death toll from protests this month has climbed to 205, including
   dozens who were killed as they torched government buildings or offices
   belonging to factions of Hashed al-Shaabi force over the past two days.

   The demonstrations first erupted on Oct. 1, with protesters railing
   against government corruption and unemployment, while a second wave
   broke out late Thursday.

   This latest round of demonstrations has been notably violent, with 48
   people killed in as many hours.

   Three protesters were killed in the capital Baghdad on Saturday, with
   medics and officials reporting trauma wounds sustained by tear gas
   canisters lobbed at demonstrators.

   But the majority of victims have been in the Shi'ite-majority south,
   where protesters torched dozens of provincial government buildings,
   party offices and Hashed centers.

   On Saturday, three people were shot dead while setting fire to a local
   official's home, a police source told AFP.

   The previous night, 12 protesters died in Diwaniyah while setting fire
   to the headquarters of the powerful Badr organization.

   Top Hashed commanders have threatened "revenge" after their offices
   were attacked, and denounced those they said aimed at sowing "discord
   and chaos" in the country.

   In a bid to contain the violence security forces have announced curfews
   across most of Iraq's southern provinces -- but brief protests
   nevertheless took place in Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Babylon and Najaf.

   In the southern port city of Basra, protesters failed to come out in
   large numbers after security forces strictly enforced a curfew.

   Fears of 'armed spoilers'

   The Hashed was founded in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group but its
   factions have since been ordered to incorporate into the state security
   services.

   "Public anger is directed at them in addition to governorate councils,
   for they were the obvious face of 'the regime'," wrote Harith Hasan, a
   senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

   But the attacks could also hint at political rivalries between the
   Hashed and populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has thrown his weight
   behind the demonstrations.

   "The Sadrists, especially in their traditional strongholds such as
   Missan, saw this an opportunity to act against competing militias,"
   such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Badr, and Kataeb Hezbollah, Hasan said on
   Twitter.

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