Iraqi anti-government protesters blockaded an oil field and rallied in southern cities Sunday while political factions remained paralysed in their attempts to form a new government. Several hundred people demanding jobs shut off access to the Nassiriya field, 300 kilometres (190 miles) south of Baghdad, which produces 82,000 barrels of oil per day, executives said. Mass rallies and picket lines also paralysed Kout, al-Hilla, Amara and the shrine city of Najaf, AFP correspondents said. Those demands include an end to a system that doles out state jobs according to ethnicity and religion, and a stop to the endemic corruption estimated to have swallowed up twice Iraq’s GDP in 16 years. The protesters also want justice for those activists who have been murdered, many shot dead in the streets or outside their homes.

Source: The Guardian December 29, 2019 10:30 UTC