Six wounded as protests continue against Kurdistan government
Anti-government protests in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Sulaimaniya (IraqiNews.com) Six people were wounded in Iraqi Kurdistan’s province of Sulaimaniya as protests flared Monday against delayed wages and poor services.
A medical source at the Sulaimaniya emergency hospital told Alghad Press that six people arrived suffering from suffocation with tear gas fired by police.
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds took to the streets against delay of salaries and lack of services in parts of the Kurdistan Region, Kurdish network NRTTV reported.
“Protests broke out in 13 cities in the Kurdistan Region on Monday against the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) austerity measures, delay of payments and lack of services”.
It added that protestors torched the offices of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the opposition Change Movement (Gorran) and the Patriotic Union of the Kurdistan (PUK) in Piramagroon northwest of Sulaimani.
The Baghdad-based Iraqi government had vowed to send salaries of Kurdish public employees following a political crisis and a later military standoff that resulted from the referendum the autonomous Kudistan region held in September for secession from Iraq.
The Iraqi government had adopted penal measures against the Kurdish authorities following the poll, including a ban on financial transactions.
The issues of employees payments and the region’s share in the national budget had always been a subject of dispute between both governments.