A curfew was lifted in Baghdad on Saturday following days of protests which have left nearly 100 dead, but tensions remained after firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr demanded the government quit.
The largely spontaneous protests over chronic unemployment and poor public services that erupted in the capital on Tuesday have escalated into a broader movement demanding an end to official corruption and a change of government.
At least 93 people have been killed and nearly 4,000 wounded, as protests spread to cities across the south, the parliamentary human rights commission said.
Sadr threw his weight behind the demonstrations on Friday with a call for the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.
His movement has the power and organisation to bring large numbers of supporters onto the streets, but at the risk of alienating many of those who have taken to the streets in recent days to express their rejection of all of Iraq’s feuding political factions.
Speaker Mohammad al-Halbusi was due to convene a session of parliament session later on Saturday to discuss job creation and social welfare schemes, after he too extended a hand to the protesters, saying: “Your voice is being heard.” In Baghdad on Saturday, municipal workers were out and about cleaning up the rubbish burned by protesters in recent days.
Shoppers trickled back onto the streets to buy vegetables and other perishable goods the price of which has more than doubled since the deadly protests started.
With the daytime curfew in place since Thursday lifted, demonstrators began gathering near the emblematic Tahrir Square in the morning although many main thoroughfares remained shut and an internet blackout was still in force.
