An "electricity revolution" is adding further turmoil to Iraq's already troubled political scene, writes Salah Hemeid Thousands of angry Iraqis descended into the streets this week in the blistering summer heat in order to protest against electricity cuts and shortages of potable water, in a sign of increasing frustration with the government's negligence, corruption and apparent inability to provide basic services. At least one protester was killed and three others were wounded on Saturday when police fired into a crowd lobbing bricks and stones and trying to rush the air-conditioned Basra government's office building. Two days later riot police dispersed an angry crowd in Nasiryah, some 100 kilometres north of Basra, which was also protesting against power outages as soaring temperatures pushed tensions in Iraqi cities to boiling point. In Basra, which sits on some 90 per cent of Iraq's oil reserves and on the Shat Al-Arab waterway, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, protesters demanded that Basra's huge oil revenues be used to improve living conditions in the impoverished province. The protests prompted Iraqi Electricity Minister Karim Wahid to resign on Monday in a sign that the government is admitting that it has failed to deliver on years of promises to improve public services, including electricity supplies. However, the unrest also raises concerns that growing anger over the lack of basic services could further jeopardise the country's stability, as talks to form a new Iraqi government rumble on after the inconclusive elections on 7 March. There has been increasing violence in Iraq since the elections, which pitched the putative winner of the contest, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, against incumbent Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki. Allawi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya Bloc's chances of forming the new government further eroded this month after Al-Maliki's bloc and Allawi's other Shia opponents united to form a larger coalition that has a good chance of forming the new government. The persistent violence in the country has also raised concerns about Iraqis' readiness to take over responsibility for security, as the US prepares to withdraw its forces by the end of August. On Monday, eight people were killed, including six policemen, and 10 people injured, in a suicide bombing at a market in the northern Iraqi town of Shirqat. Police said the bomber had blown himself up in a crowd that had gathered to inspect the site of a roadside bomb that had gone off minutes earlier. In Baiji to the south and Mosul to the north, several civilians were wounded on Monday in explosives or gun attacks by insurgents. On Sunday, 26 people were killed and more than 50 others injured when two cars exploded simultaneously outside the Trade Bank of Iraq's headquarters in the Yarmouk district. Twelve people were killed on Friday in a car bombing targeting an ethnic Turkomen provincial council member in the northern city of Tuz Khormato. Seven Iraqi soldiers were also killed by unidentified assailants in an ambush in Al-Qaim near the Syrian border. Four family members were killed on Thursday by an anti-Al-Qaeda fighter as they slept in their garden to escape the heat in a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. This was the second attack on Sunni figures who have turned against the network in as many days. The soaring violence highlights fears of greater unrest as the country remains deadlocked nearly four months after March's indecisive parliamentary elections, which failed to produce a new government. Political wrangling mounted this week as both Allawi and Al-Maliki blamed each other for the escalation in the violence. Allawi accused the government of stopping him from using a special airport in central Baghdad, while Al-Maliki accused Allawi of seeking VIP privileges and said he should use Baghdad's international airport like other politicians. On Saturday, Allawi took his quarrel with Al-Maliki one step further by claiming that "international intelligence" services had told him he was the target of an assassination plot. Although Allawi acknowledged that there had been no actual attempt on his life, he said he was taking the warnings seriously. In an interview with the London Times newspaper, Allawi suggested that Al-Maliki's outgoing government might be aiding the plot of those targeting him. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has dispatched US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, to the country for the second time this month, in order to inspect negotiations to form the new government. Feltman acknowledged that difficulties persisted and said that they would need to be overcome by the rival factions. He also warned of possible setbacks. "I think that right now a worst-case scenario is that the government formation process be deadlocked to the point where institutions stop functioning. I don't see that happening, but one has to keep that in mind that that could happen," he said in an interview. However, Feltman made it clear that Washington sees no linkage between the schedule for the US troop withdrawals and the formation of a new Iraqi government. On Monday, a contingent of US soldiers began pulling out of the country, becoming the first wave of 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers who will be returning to their US bases. Troops with the 10th Mountain Division have also started returning to their northern New York army post after being deployed to Iraq. Nevertheless, this week's protests against the lack of basic services in Iraq could help shape sentiments and raise the stakes in Iraq's troubled political landscape. Popular frustration over electricity shortages, widely dubbed as the "electricity revolution", could escalate significantly as summer temperatures climb and further months pass without a new government. The protests, although apparently spontaneous, were reportedly organised by anti-Al-Maliki Shia groups. While some reports have suggested that followers of Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr were behind the demonstrations, others have pointed to the Iraqi Supreme Islamic Council, which is headed by rival Shia leader Ammar Al-Hakim. Both groups are apparently exploiting increasing frustration with Al-Maliki's leadership in order to instigate protests against his government and undermine Al-Maliki's chances of a further term as prime minister. Both Basra and Nasiriya are run by local councils stuffed with members of Al-Maliki's Daawa Party. However, despite the political manoeuvring behind the scenes, anger over the government's failure to provide public services more than seven years after the ousting of the Saddam regime has been high. Iraqi politicians may now be realising that they can no longer hide behind sectarian politics and that they risk losing the support of their own constituencies should they continue bickering, leaving those who elected them to suffer from a lack both of security and of essential humanitarian services. In the end, Iraqis need electricity, clean drinking water, and functioning sewage systems as much as they need political stability. Tackling these problems will require Iraqi politicians to fill these gaps and not continue with their power struggle and efforts to incite sectarian bigotry.
