KRG civil servants protest deducted salaries

ERBIL/SULAYMANIYAH (AA) – Civil servants working for the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) on Sunday demonstrated against the release of their delayed salaries with deductions.

Protesters, mostly teachers and health staff, gathered outside the Sulaymaniyah courthouse amid anti-government chants.

“Enough is enough”, and “Down with the empery” were among slogans chanted by the demonstrators, who set up tents in a show of determination to continue their rallies.

Similar rallies were staged in the towns of Kelar and Ranya and Halabja city.

In Erbil, where anti-government protests are rarely seen, police forces used teargas to disperse hundreds of civil servants who gathered near Sanedar Park to walk towards the government headquarters.

The protesters were joined by some members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

The KRG has been struggling to pay its employees since 2014, after Baghdad stopped payment to it over a dispute about oil-sharing revenues.

The central government in Baghdad has said it would pay the 1.4 million civil servants this week, but the KRG said the salaries would be paid with deductions.