New protests hit southern Iraq, a month into unrest

Protesters flooded the streets of southern Iraq again on Sunday, nearly a month into a wave of unrest over corruption and decaying public services, AFP correspondents said. In oil-rich Basra, the southern port city where the protests broke out on July 8, tribal chiefs and Shiite religious leaders joined several hundred demonstrators in front of the provincial headquarters. Security forces were deployed en masse as demonstrators railed against chronic power cuts, water shortages and endemic unemployment, along with state incompetence and foreign interference.
While there were no clashes over the weekend, fourteen people have been killed since the unrest flared, including at least one person shot dead by security forces. In Samawa, further west, protestors have been staging a sit-in for more than a week, condemning the misappropriation of billions of dollars from the state budget over recent years. Daily demonstrations have continued despite government pledges to pump billions of dollars into oil-rich but neglected south.