KEY POINTS
  • Cities across Iraq are being roiled by popular protests triggered by widespread anger over abysmal public services provision by the government.
  • The unrest threatens to delay formation of a new government and has already led to break-ins to oil facilities and political offices.
  • Particularly acute is the demonstrators’ resentment toward the international oil companies — despite living in the heart of the oil industry, residents of Basra and Iraq’s south are some of the country’s poorest.
An Iraqi protester gestures near a burning tyre during a demonstration in Basra on July 15, 2018. 

Protests that began last week in Iraq are continuing amid widespread anger over abysmal public services provision by the government.

The unrest threatens to delay formation of a new government, mandated after Iraq’s elections in May, and has already led to break-ins to oil facilities and political offices.