Bahrain Mirror: The Iraqi government announced Saturday night to take development measures to contain protests in southern Iraq the day after the killing of two people with unexplained circumstances and to restore security, especially in the province of Basra where the authorities imposed a curfew overnight.

Several areas in southern Iraq saw scattered demonstrations involving tens of people, some of them violent, especially in the city of Basra where protesters attacked the headquarters of the Badr organization and tried to burn it, resulting in a conflict between them and security forces injured least three protesters injured, according to an AFP security source.

As a result, the security authorities of the province of Basra imposed a curfew from 10:00 to 7:00.

For its part, Prime Minister Haider Abadi prepared a statement on Saturday night to "expand and speed up investment opportunities for housing, school and service sector building and the launch of work skills to raise the unemployed and start financial allocations to the province of Basra, worth 3.5 trillion dinars instantly (about three billion dollars)."

Abadi also instructed, according to the same statement, "to launch Basra to dispose of water and dismantle bottlenecks in power grids and provide the necessary healthcare services."

Abadi also ordered the dissolution of Najaf airport board the day after he was stormed by angry demonstrators.

Internet service has been cut all over Iraq since Saturday afternoon and was still cut off until the evening.

Dozens of protesters participated in separate demonstrations Saturday morning near the western crest and oil reader in northern Basra, in addition to a seat in front of the Umm Qasr port in the southern part of the city and in front of the building of the province of the city center.

Demonstration continued in Basra on Saturday for the seventh consecutive day to protest against unemployment and lack of services.

The deaths of the demonstrations to three on Friday night after two protesters died of their wounds "through random shot in Amara" in the southern province of Maysan, according to a spokesman for the health department Ahmad al-Kanani.

The source of the fire was not known.

Arabic Version