25 killed in Iraq protests
For two months now, since 8 July, there has been a wave of street demonstrations in southern Iraq, a rise of social agitation such as has not been seen since the almost-civil-war of 2006-7. The protests were triggered by the Iranian government cutting off electricity supplies to the major southern Iraqi port city, Basra, most of which come by grid from Iran rather than being generated locally. They then took up the issues of jobs - unemployment is very high in Iraq - and corruption. Over the last couple of weeks, the focus has shifted to contamination in the water supply in Basra, and protests...