In Baghdad and outside it, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets yesterday in solidarity with the Egyptian revolution, and to demand that the government supply basic needs to Iraqi citizens living in poverty as unemployment reached 45%.
About 1,000 Iraqis demonstrated yesterday at Al-Hamza, a town south of Baghdad, protesting food, water and power shortages. In Kut, also south of Baghdad, protesters called for the resignation of the provincial governor Latif Hamed. And after 3,000 protested at Al-Diwaniyya, authorities called a curfew in effect starting at 2 pm Thursday.
Religious leaders across Iraq called for social justice, reminding the Iraqi government that Iraq is not immune to the events that have swept other Arab countries.
In the meantime the Iraqi House of Representatives announced its support of the Egyptian people and its demands for democracy yesterday, according to a Radio Sawa reporter in Baghdad.