السلام عليكم
Clashes erupt in Iraq despite Shia leader's call for calm
Fresh clashes between Iraq's security forces and anti-government protesters broke out in Baghdad and across the south of the country on Friday, despite a call for calm by the country's top Shia leader.
Security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and threw stun grenades into crowds of protesters gathered at one of the main avenues in the centre of the Iraqi capital on Friday.
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'Won't make a difference'
Protesters, some of whom view al-Sistani as part of the political and religious system they say is the cause of many Iraqis' misery, took little solace from the scholar's words.
"He says he's supporting protests and that we should keep going, but he hasn't helped. The speech won't make a difference either way," said one woman protesting in Baghdad whose son was killed in recent clashes.
"I'm the mother of a student. They took his life," she told Reuters, giving her name as Umm al-Shaheed, Arabic for mother of the martyr.
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Public anger has been directed particularly towards Iran, which supports the parties and paramilitary groups that dominate the Baghdad government and state institutions.
The protests erupted last month over widespread corruption and lack of jobs, then escalated into calls for the entire ruling system to be up-ended.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...144423254.html