Cairo: Iraqi Prime Minister Mostafa Al Kadhimi, seeking to calm tensions in the country, has ordered the removal of a police chief in a southern governorate after clashes left three people dead, local media said Saturday.
The three were killed in the governorate of Dhi Qar on Friday after loyalists of leading cleric Moqtada Al Sadr stormed a public square where anti-government protesters were camping in the provincial capital of Nasiriyah and clashed with them, the media added.
Seventy others were injured, including five security personnel.
Al Kadhimi ordered removing the chief of the police in the province from his post, declaring a curfew there and forming a committee to investigate the incidents, an army spokesman said.
Al Kadhimi became a premier last May amid national turbulence. He has since sought to re-establish security and end months of street protests against the government, pledging to respond to protesters’ demands. He has scheduled early parliamentary elections for next June and promised reforms.
