SULAIMANIYAH: Five people were killed and dozens wounded in
Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday as security forces opened fire during clashes
with protesters amid growing anger over a failed push for independence.
Demonstrators
in the autonomous Kurdish area in the north of the country torched the
offices of a mayor and political parties as protests broke out for a
second day over the disastrous fallout from a September referendum.
The
vote delivered a resounding “yes” for independence, but drew sweeping
reprisals from Baghdad which dealt a heavy blow to Kurdistan’s already
flagging economy.
Demonstrators set fire to the offices
of two political parties in Raparin in Sulaimaniyah province, said a
spokesman for the local health department, Taha Mohammad.
“Clashes erupted with the security forces who opened fire, leaving five dead and at least 70 wounded,” he said.
Earlier, medical sources said some 100 people were injured as protests hit second city Sulaimaniyah and a string of other towns.
In
Sulaimaniyah, security forces fired in the air to disperse
demonstrators and mounted roadblocks on major roads and around the
offices of the main political parties.
The city is a
bastion of opposition to former regional president Massud Barzani who
organised the independence vote, but all five of the region’s main
political parties saw their offices attacked on Monday.
Protests
were also held in the Sulaimaniyah province towns of Rania and Kifri,
and in Halabja and Koysinjaq in neighbouring Arbil province.
In
Koysinjaq, demonstrators set fire to the mayor’s office, while in Kifri
hundreds stormed the offices of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party
after pelting the building with stones, witnesses said.
The
disputed areas are a large swathe of historically Kurdish-majority
territory outside the autonomous region that Kurdish leaders have long
wanted to incorporate in it.
