The democratic rebellion in the Middle East has spread to Iraqi Kurdistan, where protesters in Sulaimaniya on Thursday 17th chanted: "Do you remember Mubarak?" The authorities responded with gunfire, killing two and injuring 47.
As of Friday 18 February, activists of the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan are running a round-the-clock protest outside the Kurdistan Regional Government London office at 8th Floor, Winchester House, 259-269 Old Marylebone Road NW1 5RA (Edgware Road Tube), and there are unconfirmed reports of martial law being imposed across Iraqi Kurdistan.
Reuters reports:
In Sulaimaniya [in Iraqi Kurdistan], witnesses said clashes occurred when about 1,000 protesters looking to oust the local government and demanding better basic services threw stones at the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region.
"This is Tahrir Square. Do you remember Mubarak?" protesters chanted, referring to the Egyptian uprising.
Witnesses said security guards at the party headquarters fired shots in response to the stone-throwing. A police source and a medical source said two people died and 47 others were wounded. It was not clear how the deaths and injuries occurred.
In Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, fire damaged the offices of a KDP rival, the Goran political party, according to a party official...
[Meanwhile] in the southern [Iraqi] city of Kut, a second day of unrest brought some 700 people to the local government building, where clashes Wednesday killed three people and wounded 59 during one of the largest and most violent of the recent protests.
Protesters erected tents and said they would camp out.
"We will maintain our sit-in in this square until our demands are met," said Mohammed Halloul, 50.
Calling for the resignation of the provincial governor, demonstrators brought mattresses, blankets, water and other supplies to spend the night. A donkey with "the governor" spray-painted on its side appeared in the square.
Many protests have decried the lack of reliable electricity...
In Basra, a hub for foreign oil companies working to increase production from Iraq's rich oil fields, about 250 residents held a peaceful rally demanding jobs.
In Kirkuk, about 100 vendors protested a government decision to remove them from a bridge where they sold their wares.
In the southern town of Nassir, a small group of protesters set fires in a government building, a witness said...
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