{"id":41440,"date":"2019-11-03T20:22:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T20:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41440"},"modified":"2019-11-03T20:22:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T20:22:42","slug":"turkey-backed-fighters-kill-foreign-medic-in-syrias-northeast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41440","title":{"rendered":"Turkey-backed fighters kill foreign medic in Syria&#8217;s northeast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"52\">\n<p>\nBAGHDAD: Protests threatening the oil industry and blocking access to Iraq\u2019s ports have cost the country \u201cbillions,\u201d Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Sunday.<br \/>The embattled leader issued a long statement in response to weeks of demonstrations against the government that have been met with a brutal response from the security forces, killing more than 250 people.<br \/>Abdul-Mahdi said the protests have delayed the arrival of goods and this has contributed to an increase in prices paid by citizens, the poor in particular.<br \/>He also said demonstrations have affected the growth of the economy and delayed the submission of the budget for 2020.<br \/>Last week, President Barham Salih said Abdul-Mahdi is willing to resign amid the crisis once political leaders agree on a replacement.<br \/>But the prime minister made no mention of standing down, instead focussing on the economic damage of the protests.<br \/>He said the Baghdad International Fair was delayed because of the demonstrations, and that sick people\u2019s lives have been put at risk because medical clinics have been forced to close and ambulances obstructed.<br \/>He called on anti-government protesters to reopen roads saying \u201cit\u2019s time for life to return to normal.\u201d<br \/>The prime minister differentiated between peaceful protesters, who he said had turned the demonstrations into \u201cpopular festivals\u201d that bring the nation together, and \u201csaboteurs\u201d who had used the demonstrators as \u201chuman shields\u201d while attacking security forces.<br \/>He also called for markets, factories, schools and universities to reopen after days of protests in the capital and across the mostly Shiite south.<br \/>Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in Baghdad\u2019s central Tahrir Square and across southern Iraq in recent days, calling for the overhaul of the political system established after the 2003 US-led invasion.<br \/>Protesters have also taken over a large tower in the square that was abandoned after it was damaged in the war.<br \/>Thousands of students have skipped classes to take part in the street rallies, blaming the political elite for widespread corruption, high unemployment and poor public services.<br \/>Earlier Sunday, protesters blocked roads around their main protest site with burning tires and barbed wire, unfurling a banner at one roadblock reading: \u201cRoads closed by order of the people.\u201d<br \/>They appeared to be borrowing a tactic from Lebanon, where similar anti-government demonstrations have been underway since Oct. 17, and have repeatedly blocked major roads in order to ramp up pressure on authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\n(With AP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BAGHDAD: Protests threatening the oil industry and blocking access to Iraq\u2019s ports have cost the country \u201cbillions,\u201d Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said on Sunday.The embattled leader issued a long statement in response to weeks of demonstrations against the government that have been met with a brutal response from the security forces, killing more than 250&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}