AFP, Nasiriyah :
Iraqis kept up angry anti-government protests in Baghdad and the south on Saturday to demand a broad overhaul of a system seen as corrupt and under the sway of foreign powers, a day after the premier vowed to quit.
Protesters have hit the streets since early October in the largest grassroots movement Iraq has seen in decades, sparked by fury at poor public services, lack of jobs and widespread government graft.
Security forces and armed groups responded with violence to demonstrations, killing more than 420 people and wounding 15,000, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics and an Iraqi rights commission.
The toll spiked dramatically this week as a crackdown killed dozens in Baghdad, the Shiite shrine city of Najaf-where another protester was killed Saturday-and the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah.
Facing pressure from the street and the country’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced on Friday that he would submit his resignation to parliament, due to meet Sunday.
But demonstrations have not subsided, with crowds in Baghdad and across the Shiite-majority south sticking to their weeks-long demands for complete regime change.
“We’ll keep up this movement,” said one protester in the southern city of Diwaniyah, where thousands turned out on Saturday.
“Abdel Mahdi’s resignation is only the first step, and now all corrupt figures must be removed and judged.”
Iraqis kept up angry anti-government protests in Baghdad and the south on Saturday to demand a broad overhaul of a system seen as corrupt and under the sway of foreign powers, a day after the premier vowed to quit.
Protesters have hit the streets since early October in the largest grassroots movement Iraq has seen in decades, sparked by fury at poor public services, lack of jobs and widespread government graft.
Security forces and armed groups responded with violence to demonstrations, killing more than 420 people and wounding 15,000, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics and an Iraqi rights commission.
The toll spiked dramatically this week as a crackdown killed dozens in Baghdad, the Shiite shrine city of Najaf-where another protester was killed Saturday-and the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah.
Facing pressure from the street and the country’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, prime minister Adel Abdel Mahdi announced on Friday that he would submit his resignation to parliament, due to meet Sunday.
But demonstrations have not subsided, with crowds in Baghdad and across the Shiite-majority south sticking to their weeks-long demands for complete regime change.
“We’ll keep up this movement,” said one protester in the southern city of Diwaniyah, where thousands turned out on Saturday.
“Abdel Mahdi’s resignation is only the first step, and now all corrupt figures must be removed and judged.”
