Intel: Unpaid salaries fuel protests in Iraqi Kurdistan
Ongoing budget disputes with Baghdad have fueled salary delays and a lack of business bailouts in the Kurdistan Region as KRG debt swells to $27 billion.
Outraged after months of not receiving salaries, regular electricity outages and a failure to provide local business bailouts, protests erupted last week in northern Iraq against the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The demonstrations follow months of budget disputes between Erbil and the Iraqi federal government, and a readiness by Iran to start negotiations with the Kurdistan Region for two free trade zones, the Iranian consul-general in Sulaimaniyah told Rudaw on Saturday.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday to voice their frustrations, storming the headquarters of political parties. Smaller protests took place in Ranya and Qaladze.
Elsewhere in the region, attempts at protests were largely shut down by security forces, a source told Al-Monitor. In Dahuk, the city’s main bazaar was closed. And in Erbil, police broke up gatherings and internet access was cut for about three hours during the scheduled times of the demonstration.
