BAGHDAD — Iraqis complaining about corruption and poor services, epitomized by power cuts during a heatwave, took to the streets on Tuesday, underlining the pressures on a government struggling to fend off radical insurgents.
The unrest, though limited and largely peaceful, could weigh down the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi just as its forces are gearing up for a fresh offensive to retake western Anbar province from ISIS.
Witnesses said hundreds of demonstrators chanted against the government in the late afternoon heat in the provincial capital of Amara, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, demanding electricity, jobs and government reforms.
Temperatures surpassing 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) across Iraq in recent days have exacerbated regular summer power shortages and prompted the government to declare a four-day holiday last weekend.
Anti-government protests in recent weeks have broken out in the southern cities of Basra, Najaf, Babil and Nasiriya as well as in the capital Baghdad on Friday.
“On top of Daesh, we have to suffer power outages,” protesters in Amara chanted. A few demonstrators carried a coffin marked with the word “parliament”.
Iraq’s electricity grid has been worn down by years of war and under-investment. It will probably supply only 11,000 megawatts of Iraq’s 21,000-megawatt peak demand this summer, the electricity minister told parliament last week.
Electricity supplies collapsed in the chaos after the U.S. invasion in 2003 when power plants were looted or not properly maintained. Insurgents have targeted transmission towers and other infrastructure in subsequent years.
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