Iraq: Renewed Student Protests in Sulaymaniyah amid Heavy Police Presence
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Student protesters are demanding the restoration of between $40 US and $66 US in monthly payments.
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Tear gas canisters were thrown at protesters.
University students in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, lit fires on Wednesday outside the offices of Kurdistan Democratic Party and Change in Sayed Sadiq, demanding the restoration of between $40 US and $66 US in monthly payments.
Security forces used tear gas canisters and stun grenades to disperse the student protesters, causing suffocation among them.
Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that a large security presence was recorded in the vicinity of Sulaymaniyah University in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, following the demonstrations.
Our reporter added that the body of an Iraqi civilian was found in the Mawlawi market in Sulaymaniyah, which witnessed demonstrations on Wednesday, without announcing the cause of death.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi commented on the protest by saying, "the recent painful events in the Kurdistan region, especially in the dear Sulaymaniyah, call for a responsible stance to protect social peace in the country."
Al-Kadhimi added that "peaceful demonstrations are a constitutionally guaranteed right, and attacks on demonstrators, public, or private property, are unacceptable."
Most of the protesters are university students demanding Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government to resume paying their student allowances after they were cut off in 2014.
