Demonstrators in Kut Chant for Peaceful Protests, Better Services

Protesters in Kut, a city southeast of Baghdad, chanted in the streets, calling for peaceful protests, on July 15.

Protests in Kut demanding better electric services have been ongoing since at least the end of May, local news outlets said. Another local news report from July 11 said the city regularly had less than four hours of electricity a day.

On July 11, the governor of the Wasit district demanded that the Ministry of Electricity supply electricity to the area for 24 hours a day, and threatened to disconnect a local power plant from the national grid.

The protests are part of a larger series of demonstrations against high unemployment, government corruption, and poor public services that have spread from Basra northwards to Najaf, Maysan, Karbala, and Baghdad. Credit: Wasit Madinaty via Storyful