Protests roll on in Arab world

12 die in clashes in Iraqi cities

Iraqi police arrest a protester Friday in Baghdad, where Iraqis frustrated over government corruption, unemployment and shoddy public services took to the streets.
Iraqi police arrest a protester Friday in Baghdad, where Iraqis frustrated over government corruption, unemployment and shoddy public services took to the streets.

— Hundreds of thousands of people poured out of mosques and staged protests across the Arab world Friday, some trying to shake off autocratic rulers and others pressuring leaders to carry out sweeping changes.

In Iraq, troops opened fire in several cities to push back crowds marching on government offices, killing at least 12. Scuffles were reported in Yemen, while marches in Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan were largely peaceful.

The large crowds signaled that the push for change in North Africa and the Middle East continues to build momentum. The first anti-government protests broke out several weeks ago, toppling rulers in Tunisia and Egypt and quickly spreading to other countries.

Iraq saw its biggest and most violent anti-government protests since the wave of regional unrest began. Thousands marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in several cities, leaving 12 people dead.

The protests were fueled by frustration over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy public services.

“We want a good life like human beings, not like animals,” said Khalil Ibrahim, 44, one of about 3,000 protesters in the capital, Baghdad. Demonstrators knocked down blast walls, threw rocks and scuffled with club-wielding troops who chased them down the street.

Many Iraqis rail against a government that locks itself in the highly fortified Green Zone, home to the parliament and the U.S. Embassy, and is viewed by most of its citizens as more interested in personal gain than public service.

http://www.arkansas…">Unrest in Tunisia

Iraq’s deadliest clashes Friday were reported in the northern city of Mosul, where hundreds rallying outside a provincial council building came under fire from guards. Officials said five people were killed. The other deaths were reported in four other cities.

Huge crowds also turned out in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, but with different goals.

In Egypt, where an 18-day uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, tens of thousands jammed Cairo’s Tahrir Square to keep up the pressure on the country’s military rulers to carry out changes.

Demonstrators said they are worried the army is not moving quickly enough on policy changes, including repealing emergency laws, releasing political prisoners and removing members of Mubarak’s regime from power.

Thousands chanted that they won’t leave until they see Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, one of the Mubarak-era holdovers, removed from office. Some waved flags of Libya to show support for the uprising next door.

“We made Mubarak step down, and we must make Shafiq also step down,” said Safwat Hegazy, a protester from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best-organized opposition group.

Since Mubarak’s fall, the military rulers have disbanded both houses of the parliament and promised constitutional changes that will allow wider participation in elections to be held within six months.

In Bahrain, the first Persian Gulf state to be thrown into turmoil by the Arab world’s wave of change, tens of thousands rallying in the central square demanded sweeping political concessions from the ruling monarch.

Security forces made no attempt to halt the marchers, an apparent sign that Bahrain’s rulers do not want more bloodshed denunciations from their Western allies. In the early stage of the 2-week-old rallies, troops used lethal force.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is the Pentagon’s main counterweight against what’s perceived as Iran’s widening military ambitions. Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, meanwhile, is under pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf rulers not to yield to the Shiite-led protesters, fearing it could open footholds for Shiite powerhouse Iran.

In the Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen, tens of thousands marching in the capital, Sana, demanded that their U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, step down. It was one of the largest crowds since protests began earlier this month.

A Muslim preacher who led Friday’s prayer told protesters it was their religious duty to topple Saleh, describing him as a “devil who has driven us to the stone ages.” Shouts from the crowd of “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” accompanied his words.

“We are coming to take you from the presidential palace,” activist Tawakul Kermal said at the gathering, addressing Saleh.

Yemen has a weak central government and an active branch of al-Qaida. Saleh has promised to step down after elections in 2013, but the demonstrators want him out now.Activists have been digging in, setting up encampments in some public areas.

A record crowd turned out Friday in Jordan, where Jordan’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has warned that citizens’ patience is wearing thin with the government’s “slow” moves toward change.

Hamza Mansour, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, called for quicker steps to give Jordanians a bigger say in politics and to have them elect their prime minister - now selected by King Abdullah II. Mansour spoke to 4,000 Jordanian protesters, the largest crowd yet to take to the streets of downtown Amman for the cause.

Information for this article was contributed from Benghazi, Libya, by Paul Schemm, from Sana, Yemen, by Ahmed al-Haj, from Amman, Jordan, by Jamal Halaby and from Manama, Bahrain, by Adam Schreck of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/26/2011

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