SULAIMANIYAH: Five people were killed and dozens wounded in Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday as security forces opened fire during clashes with protesters amid growing anger over a failed push for independence.

Demonstrators in the autonomous Kurdish area in the north of the country torched the offices of a mayor and political parties as protests broke out for a second day over the disastrous fallout from a September referendum.

The vote delivered a resounding “yes” for independence, but drew sweeping reprisals from Baghdad which dealt a heavy blow to Kurdistan’s already flagging economy.

Demonstrators set fire to the offices of two political parties in Raparin in Sulaimaniyah province, said a spokesman for the local health department, Taha Mohammad.

“Clashes erupted with the security forces who opened fire, leaving five dead and at least 70 wounded,” he said.

Earlier, medical sources said some 100 people were injured as protests hit second city Sulaimaniyah and a string of other towns.

In Sulaimaniyah, security forces fired in the air to disperse demonstrators and mounted roadblocks on major roads and around the offices of the main political parties.

The city is a bastion of opposition to former regional president Massud Barzani who organised the independence vote, but all five of the region’s main political parties saw their offices attacked on Monday.

Protests were also held in the Sulaimaniyah province towns of Rania and Kifri, and in Halabja and Koysinjaq in neighbouring Arbil province.

In Koysinjaq, demonstrators set fire to the mayor’s office, while in Kifri hundreds stormed the offices of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party after pelting the building with stones, witnesses said.

The disputed areas are a large swathe of historically Kurdish-majority territory outside the autonomous region that Kurdish leaders have long wanted to incorporate in it.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2017