Iraq declared a curfew in Baghdad on Monday from midnight (2100 GMT) until 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) as renewed anti-government protests in which over 200 people have been killed entered a fourth day with students joining in.
State TV cited the Baghdad Operations Commander as giving the order, which it said was effective “until further notice”.
Security forces on Monday fired tear gas at school and university students who defied a warning from Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and joined the protests.
A spokesman for Abdul Mahdi, whose position is increasingly precarious as he faces the largest challenge since he came to power a year ago, said on Sunday that anyone disrupting work or school days would be punished.
Mass street protests in Baghdad and other cities in the southern Shi’ite heartland against economic hardship began at the start of the month and resumed on Friday after a pause of about two weeks.
Thousands of Iraqi protesters gathered in Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square on Sunday, defying a bloody crackdown that had killed scores over the previous two days, and an overnight raid by security forces seeking to disperse them.
Students and schoolchildren hit the streets of Baghdad and southern Iraq on Monday to join escalating calls for the government to quit.
“No school, no classes, until the regime collapses!” protestors shouted in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres (120 miles) south of the capital.
On Monday, Diwaniyah’s union of universities and schools announced a ten-day strike “until the regime falls,” with thousands of students and even professors flooding the streets.
Several local syndicates, including lawyers and engineers, also joined the movement, with picket lines preventing government workers from reaching their offices.
In Baghdad, demonstrators gathered on campuses and in Tahrir Square.
“Qusay al-Suhayl said not to come down into the streets. But we say: no nation, no class!” one student protester said in Tahrir.
“All we want is for the government to immediately submit its resignation. Either it resigns, or it gets ousted,” he added.
A group of three students drove up close to the square, unloading kits and cans of Pepsi to treat those affected by tear gas.
“It’s my first day at the protests. I told my mom I’m going to class, but I came here instead!” a girl with curly hair told AFP.
