Fierce Clashes in Iraq’s South Despite Scorching Heat

Iraqi demonstrators are seen as they clash with Iraqi security forces during ongoing anti-government protests, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. File photo: Reuters
Iraqi demonstrators are seen as they clash with Iraqi security forces during ongoing anti-government protests, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. File photo: Reuters
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Fierce Clashes in Iraq’s South Despite Scorching Heat

Iraqi demonstrators are seen as they clash with Iraqi security forces during ongoing anti-government protests, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. File photo: Reuters
Iraqi demonstrators are seen as they clash with Iraqi security forces during ongoing anti-government protests, in Nasiriyah, Iraq. File photo: Reuters

Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets of al-Nasiriyah city in Dhi Qar governorate, despite temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius, to protest corruption and lack of government services.

In the latest wave of protests, videos circulated by activists showed hundreds of protesters crossing the “Hadarat Bridge” on their tuk-tuk vehicles and motorcycles towards al-Haboubi Square, chanting slogans against corruption and demanding the dismissal of local officials.

Dozens demonstrated in front of Dhi Qar Oil Company and blocked three of its gates with burning tires. They also demonstrated outside the Diwan of the governorate.

Protesters in the Shyoukh market district and other areas in the governorate forced officials to shut public institutions, and called for the removal of the governor.

Thousands of contract-employees in the Southwest Networks Directorate demanded authorities pay their overdue salaries. They also called for changing their contracts to improve their monthly wages.

The governor of Dhi Qar, Nazim al-Waeli, met with the protesters and vowed to take a series of measures to improve services, noting that his administration will continue to dismiss corrupt officials.

Waeli asserted that any official against whom there is evidence of corruption, will never be allowed to return to his position and will be referred to the competent authorities for accountability. He hoped to meet the demands of the peaceful protests and improve services.

Official documents seen by activists showed that Waeli approved the resignation of about 20 officials.

Activist Raad al-Ghazzi told Asharq al-Awsat that some parties stand behind the protests, which serve their interests and not that of locals or the city.

A number of directors of the health, education and municipalities departments last month submitted their resignations under the pressure of popular demands.

Member of the Youth of Change coalition Abbas al-Saadawi believes that protests are essential to force corrupt individuals to resign.

Saadawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that local officials of Nasiriyah and all regions of Dhi Qar are indifferent to the suffering of the people. He indicated that even though the governorate has the largest power plant in the country, many households do not have electricity, which led protesters to call for the resignation of the plant's director.

He added that parties and people with influence insist on placing their loyalists in government positions without taking competency into consideration, which pushes people to protest.

Dhi Qar governorate is one of the cradles of Iraqi protests that erupted in October 2019.



UN: Israel's War Plans Threaten 'Continued Existence' of Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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UN: Israel's War Plans Threaten 'Continued Existence' of Palestinians in Gaza

Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians inspect the damage at a school used as a shelter by displaced residents that was hit twice by Israeli army strikes on Tuesday, killing more than 25 people, in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, May 7, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN rights chief voiced deepened concerns Wednesday that Israel's plans to expand its offensive in Gaza aim to create conditions threatening Palestinians' "continued existence" in the territory.

Israel's military has called up tens of thousands of reservists for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, which an official said would entail the "conquest" of the Palestinian territory.

"Israel's reported plans to forcibly transfer Gaza's population to a small area in the south of the Strip and threats by Israeli officials to deport Palestinians outside of Gaza further aggravate concerns that Israel's actions are aimed at inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence in Gaza as a group," Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

"There is no reason to believe that doubling down on military strategies, which, for a year and eight months, have not led to a durable resolution, including the release of all hostages, will now succeed," he said.

"Instead, expanding the offensive on Gaza will almost certainly cause further mass displacement, more deaths and injuries of innocent civilians, and the destruction of Gaza's little remaining infrastructure."

Nearly all of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

A more than two-month Israeli blockade on all aid into Gaza has worsened the humanitarian crisis.

According to AFP, Turk warned that stepping up the Israeli offensive "would only compound the misery and suffering inflicted by the complete blockade on the entry of basic goods for almost nine weeks now".

"Gaza's residents have already been deprived of all lifesaving necessities, particularly food, with relentless Israeli attacks on community kitchens and those trying to maintain a minimum of law and order," he said.

"Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime," Turk said, adding that "the only lasting solution to this crisis lies through full compliance with international law".

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 2,507 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,615.