Thousands took to the streets in Baghdad to protest unemployment and the government's failure to provide basic services. But protesters were repelled by police using water cannon, stun grenades and tear gas.
Image: picture-alliance/Xinhua/K. Dawood
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Protesters in Iraq clashed with police on Tuesday during anti-government demonstrations in Baghdad and several other cities.
At least two people were killed and 200 wounded in what was some of the worst unrest to take place in the Iraqi capital in more than a year.
The demonstrations were organized on social media and began with a peaceful gathering of some 1,000 people, who marched into Baghdad's central Tahrir Square.
But things took a turn when police employed water cannon, and hurled stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Anger at authorities
Protesters, many of them university students, rallied against what they see as the government's rampant corruption and its failure to provide basic services and create jobs.
"This is not a government, it is a bunch of parties and militias who destroyed Iraq," one protester, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals, told the Reuters news agency.
Protesters draped in flags confronted police that attempted to repel themImage: Getty Images/AFP/A. Al-Rubaye
As they marched, protesters held Iraqi flags and chanted "those thieves robbed us!"
"The problem is that parliament is a bunch of gangs that have divided up everything amongst themselves," Abbas Fadel, a 30-year-old protester, told news agency AFP.
Unemployment and corruption
Iraq's government said in a statement that "groups of riot inciters" were responsible for the violence. Authorities said the security forces were working to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters.
According to the World Bank, the country has a high youth unemployment of around 25%. Iraq ranks as the 12th most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International.
Despite being rich in oil, the country had struggled for decades, first under the rule of Saddam Hussein and then after a US-led invasion in 2003 unleashed a civil war, which was followed by an Islamic State insurgency that was finally defeated in 2017.
jcg/se (AP, AFP, Reuters)
Iraq: Where water used to flow
The Mesopotamian marshlands in southern Iraq were once the largest wetland ecosystem in Western Eurasia. But after years of drought and political turmoil, they're in danger of disappearing.
Image: John Wreford
A parched land
The Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq are a rare area of wetland in a sea of desert, and are fed by the waters of the Tigris-Euphrates river system. Drought is often an issue in Iraq but a lack of rainfall, internal political strife and the damming of rivers further upstream in Turkey have combined to make the current situation even more dire.
Image: John Wreford
Food remains scarce
Buffalo struggle to find enough to eat in the parched landscape of the Central Marshes near the town of Al-Chibayish. Temperatures in this part of Iraq can often rise above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer and climate change is already taking its toll. Drought is becoming more frequent, leading to increased desertification and the reduction of fertile ground.
Image: John Wreford
Keeping a unique culture alive
The Marsh Arabs — also known as the Ma'dan — are comprised of many different tribes. They have developed a unique culture that relies entirely on the diversity of the marshlands they inhabit. For centuries, subsistence farming of water buffalo and fishing have been the mainstays of their survival.
Image: John Wreford
Supporting the local economy
Umm Hassan makes buffalo cream at home which she sells to others in the area. The local economy revolves around the wetlands. The milk is delivered by boat from the buffalo herders, but as the buffalo struggle to find suitable grazing, the yield is falling.
Image: John Wreford
Poisoned earth
A traditional Marsh Arab boat sits on the cracked and dry earth of the Central Marshes. Considered by many to be the location of the biblical Garden of Eden, the marshes once covered over 15,000 square kilometers. During the 1991 Shia uprisings in Iraq, then-president Saddam Hussein drained and poisoned the marshes, driving most of the population into the already overcrowded cities.
Image: John Wreford
A victim of drought
The corpse of a dead water buffalo dumped along a track away from the water of the marshes. Water buffalo have been kept in the marshes since the Sumerian Dynasty. The Sumerians' developments in agriculture, irrigation and the domestication of animals is in part the reason Mesopotamia is known today as the Cradle of Civilization.
Image: John Wreford
A meager catch
Hiba, Zeinab and Hassan sort through their catch of fish. Because of low water levels, the size and quantity of fish is small. The Marsh Arabs once used spears for fishing, but now some are resorting to the illegal use of high voltage electric generators. Many fish species have already completely disappeared from this wetland ecosystem.
Image: John Wreford
Looking after the herd
A young Marsh Arab boy looks after his family's herd of water buffalo in the Hammar Marshes. The family has a herd of around 15, but have lost several to malnutrition and disease. Traditionally the buffalo would leave at sunrise to feed in the marshes and return at sunset. It is now common for them to return before midday, still unfed.
