The protest started on June 20, in Basra’s the demonstrators gathered outside the city’s new administrative headquarters to vent their anger about poor basic services and unemployment. The old headquarters were burnt down during 2018’s months-long protest. Protesters said the government take about 90 per cent of the country’s oil wealth but most of its residents have not benefited from it. Also the Iraq people problems, from a lack of job opportunities to unreliable and poor public utilities.
Moreover, the protesters returned back on the first of October in Baghdad and in several provinces over high unemployment, poor basic services, and state corruption.
The government imposed a curfew in Baghdad and several southern cities, but protests continued. The authorities had also imposed an internet blackout and shut down 75% of the country’s internet access as the same strategic plan in the Middle East.
On the other side the government put extra security troops were deployed at Baghdad International Airport, the security forces had fired tear gas, water cannon, and live ammunition to disperse the crowds.
The Iraqi parliament’s human rights commission said that at least 99 people have died and nearly 4,000 have been injured. Government officials claim that 104 people have been killed and 6,107 wounded, with 1,200 security personnel among the injured.
All of that by young unemployed men who are demanding jobs and better services. Women appeared among the crowd in Baghdad for the first time, some of whom handed out water to protesters. They wanting a better future for children they didn’t want the corruption from the government again.
We can called it the biggest protest movement in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein has pressed its demand for the removal of the elected government, staring down an embattled political elite and the widespread influence of Iran.