Youth-Led Protests Topple Iraqi PM as Demonstrations Calling for Overhaul of Government Continue

Anti-government protests are continuing in Iraq one day after the Iraqi parliament voted to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. On Saturday, protesters set off fireworks in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square when Abdul Mahdi announced he would submit his resignation, though he will remain in a caretaker capacity until a new government is formed. The resignation came two days after Iraqi security forces killed at least 44 people in the southern cities of Nasiriya and Najaf after the Iranian consulate was burned down on Wednesday night. Following the bloody crackdown, Iraq’s Shi’ite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged the Iraqi Parliament to withdraw its support of the prime minister and warned that the escalating violence could lead to a civil war in Iraq. More than 400 Iraqi protesters have been killed and 15,000 injured since the widespread anti-government demonstrations began in October. We speak with Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, correspondent for the Guardian newspaper, and Sinan Antoon, poet, novelist, translator and scholar born and raised in Baghdad.

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