BASRA, Iraq (Dispatches) -- Iraqi police fired in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to storm a government building in Basra and demonstrated near an oil field, police said, wounding 48 people in unrest over poor services that has swept southern cities.
"Some protesters tried to break into the building, but we prevented them. We ask protesters to avoid facing off with security forces,” said Major General Thamir al-Hussaini, commander of the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response Forces.
He said a total of 28 members of the security forces were wounded in clashes with demonstrators.
Similar protests have occurred in the past in Basra, but the latest unrest comes at a politically sensitive time.
The week of protests has put Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in a difficult position. He hopes to serve a second term when politicians form a new government following a May 12 parliamentary election tainted by allegations of fraud.
Eight protesters were wounded at the provincial government building in the oil hub city of Basra in the south, police said.
Security forces also faced demonstrations about four kilometers from Eni’s Zubair oil field near Basra. Forty protesters were wounded, three by live fire, according to police sources.
In a town near the southern city of Amara, police opened fire into the air to disperse protesters after demonstrators set fire to the municipality building. Thirteen protesters and seven policemen were wounded in the clashes.
Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has expressed solidarity with protesters, saying they faced an "extreme lack of public services”.
On Friday, protesters stormed the international airport in the holy city of Najaf, temporarily suspending air traffic.
Flights from Iran to the Iraqi city of Najaf will be diverted to Baghdad, Iran’s state television reported on Sunday.
Abadi has announced that his caretaker government would release funds to Basra for water, electricity and health services.
A political bloc led by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr won a majority in the poll on an anti-corruption platform which had appeal across Iraq’s electorate.
Substantial relief is unlikely to come anytime soon for Basra, once dubbed the "Venice of the Middle East” for its network of canals resembling the Italian city.
Michael Springmann, a former U.S. diplomat, has told Press TV that the ongoing popular outrage is a fallout of United States-led wars against Iraq.
"This is the direct result of American wars by George H. W. and George W. Bush in 1991 and 2003,” he said, referring to the U.S. invasions of Iraq.
"They destroyed the Iraqi economy,” he said. "We are seeing the results of this now. There is...20-percent unemployment, electricity less than five hours a day, shortage of water.”
Iraq needs to generate billions of dollars to rebuild after its three-year war with Daesh terrorists.
Demonstrators, who are demanding jobs and better government services, have cut off access to the southern Umm Qasr commodities port.
Security forces have battled protesters in Basra and several other cities in the south.
Saddam Hussein oppressed the country’s majority Shia Muslims, neglecting their southern heartland.
Abadi, who also serves as commander-in-chief of Iraq’s armed forces, had earlier issued a nationwide order placing security forces on high alert in the southern provinces.    
His directive aims to stem the burgeoning protests, which spread from Basra to the cities of Amara, Nasiriya and the holy city of Najaf.
Abadi visited Basra on Friday in a bid to help restore calm to the oil-rich province, pledging to take "necessary measures against infiltrators and pursue them in accordance with the law."
A statement from Abadi’s office cited "small and organized groups who try to exploit the peaceful demonstrations of citizens to sabotage and attack state institutions and private property.”
Abdel Mehdi al-Karbalai, the representative of Ayatollah Sistani, urged the demonstrators to refrain from violence, warning them against being influenced by "unruly individuals or those acting in self-interest".