Protests for jobs, services close Iraq’s Umm Qasr port

About 100 protesters demanding jobs and better services from Iraq’s leaders closed access to Umm Qasr commodities port near the southern city of Basra Friday, port employees said. After nearly a week of demonstrations, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, expressed solidarity with residents, saying they faced an extreme lack of public services such as electricity in the suffocating summer heat.

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