Tensions flare in Iraq rallies

[Better Believe It]

Tensions flare in Iraq rallies
Thousands gather in Baghdad and northern Iraq demanding improved services and an end to corruption and food scarcity.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
February 25, 2011

Hundreds of Iraqis have converged on Baghdad's Liberation Square as part of an anti-government rally named the Day of Rage, organised mainly through the social networking website Facebook.

About 2,000 protesters are said to have already gathered on Friday, which comes after weeks of scattered protests around the country calling for an end to corruption, shortages of jobs, food, power and water.

The protests also stretched from the northern city of Mosul to the southern city of Basra, reflecting the widespread anger many Iraqis feel at the government's seeming inability to improve their lives.

A crowd of protesters in the northern city of Hawija, 240km north of Baghdad, tried to break into the city's municipal
building, according to Ali Hussein Salih, the head of the local city council.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011224192028229471.html#

[snappyturtle]

1. Wow! Although the article pointed out the demonsstrations are aimed

at ending the corruption, if I were al-Maliki I'd be worried and I assume by the last sentence of the article he's 'noticed'!

"On the eve of the event, Nouri al-Maliki urged people to skip the rally, which he alleged was organised by groups loyal to former ruler Saddam Hussein, and al-Qaeda."