<p>Protesters in Kut, a city southeast of Baghdad, chanted in the streets, calling for peaceful protests, on July 15.</p><p>Protests in Kut demanding better electric services have been ongoing since at least the end of May, local news outlets said</a>. Another local news report from July 11 said</a> the city regularly had less than four hours of electricity a day.</p><p>On July 11, the governor of the Wasit district demanded</a> that the Ministry of Electricity supply electricity to the area for 24 hours a day, and threatened to disconnect a local power plant from the national grid.</p><p>The protests are part of a larger series of demonstrations against high unemployment, government corruption, and poor public services that have spread from Basra northwards to Najaf, Maysan, Karbala, and Baghdad. Credit: Wasit Madinaty via Storyful</p><br />
