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Protesters storm the Basrah government building during a protest demanding public services and jobs in Basra, 550 km southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, September 7, 2018. Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the south of the country A security official and eyewitnesses said a fire broke out inside the city as part of ongoing protests the last days. (Nabil al-Jurani / Associated Press)
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Iraq on Monday visited the southern city of Basra, where 15 people were killed in protests that lasted a week.
The visit took place two days after the governor of Al-Abadi and Basra, Asaad al-Aidani, had participated in a match shouting in front of the Parliament's cameras to find out who was responsible for the failing services in Basra.
The Prime Minister, who took office in September 2014, is under pressure to resign, while Basra faces the most serious crisis in years.
The protesters returned to the street on Monday night, after a day of calm, demanding that Al-Abadi leave Basra.
"It's a cheap visit," said Waleed al-Ansari, one of the event organizers.
"They mock the blood of our martyrs," he said. "We want services."
Al-Abadi met with city leaders and clerics at a rally closed to the press.
The unrest comes as legislators in Baghdad are deadlocked over the selection of a new prime minister after the national elections in May.
But there are now calls to al-Abadi to abandon the search for a second term.
On Monday, the office of the country's highest Shia authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said it would not support any former prime minister to return to the top position.
Shiite populist religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr called al-Abadi to resign two days earlier. Al-Sadr's electoral roll came first in polls, winning 54 seats in the 329-seat legislature. Al-Abadi's list came in third with 42 seats.
Since July, oil-rich Basra and other cities in central Shiite Iraq have been protesting endemic corruption, rising unemployment and weak public services. Protesters and security forces were killed in clashes when protesters damaged and burned government offices and attacked security forces with stones and Molotov cocktails.
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