But despite a rare period of calm since Daesh was defeat, many people in the region’s second-largest oil-producing country suffer poverty, unemployment and poor healthcare. They accuse lawmakers and senior officials of pocketing public money and doling out jobs and wealth to their own kin or parties.

 

Demonstrators also decry what they see as foreign interference in the running of the country, including from the United States but especially from Iran whose allies have dominated Iraqi state institutions since 2003.

 

Iraq closed a southern border crossing with Iran to travellers on Saturday over unrest in both countries, a security official said.