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Iraqis back on the streets to protest government policies

Published February 16th, 2013 - 05:00 GMT
An Iraqi boy, whose face is made up with the national flag, flashes the sign of victory during a rally following the Friday's prayers to call for the government's fall. (AFP PHOTO/MARWAN IBRAHIM)
An Iraqi boy, whose face is made up with the national flag, flashes the sign of victory during a rally following the Friday's prayers to call for the government's fall. (AFP PHOTO/MARWAN IBRAHIM)

Sunni Muslims across Iraq took to the streets again on Friday to protest what they see as the Shia-led government's marginalization of them.

Ten of thousands rallied in Fallujah, Ramadi and the Sunni areas of Baghdad following Friday prayers in the afternoon. 

The protests mark a continued trend by the minority community who claim that the government is using new anti-terror laws, instigated in December last year, to unfairly target them.

Iraq has faced increasing sectarian divides in recent months both across the Sunni/Shia lines and between the central Baghdad government and the Northern Kurdish regional authority. 

In Ramadi, a city 110km West of the capital, protestors gathered outside the mosque, where cleric Saad al-Fayadh shouted: "Where is the partnership you are talking about? Sunnis are only seeing genocide and marginalization." 

 

 

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