Idiris Okuduci, Rewa Mahmood Hasan and Hawkar Amin
December 08, 2020•Update: December 08, 2020
SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq
Two protesters, including a child, and one Peshmerga force were killed as violence broke out during ongoing protests in northern Iraq over deteriorating economic conditions, local sources said on Tuesday.
Security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Sulaymaniyah’s Tekye village and Seyid Sadik district, according to the sources.
Clashes between security forces and protesters left one person dead and four more people injured in Tekye, the sources said.
Separately, a child died from police fire in Seyid Sadik district.
Later in the day, Besam Ali, an official of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said a Peshmerga force was killed and two more injured in Sulaymaniyah.
The casualties occurred when protesters attacked a KDP building, the official said in a statement.
Angry demonstrators had also set fire to the KDP offices in Halabja province.
There has been no official statement on the incidents from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
On Monday, two protesters were killed in demonstrations held in the Sulaymaniyah province.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators set ablaze offices of the KDP, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, and the Islamic Group.
The KRG has been struggling to pay the salaries of civil servants since April, when Baghdad stopped paying them as a result of disputes over oil wealth management and the distribution of its revenues, as well as revenues from border crossings.
The number of KRG civil servants is estimated at 1.2 million, receiving total salaries of $700 million per month.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz
