At least 44 dead and hundreds injured after four days of anti-government demonstrations

Protesters have defied nationwide curfews in parts of Iraq, taking to the streets in increasing numbers and facing off with security forces in ever more deadly confrontations that had killed at least 44 people by Friday night.

As the country was paralysed by a fourth day of anti-government demonstrations, the country’s top Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, issued a stark warning to both sides to end the violence “before it’s too late”.

A handful of concessions announced on Friday were promptly rejected by many of those out on the teeming streets of the capital, Baghdad.

In a televised address, the prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, acknowledged what he described as “legitimate demands” from the protesters, who have called for widespread reforms, and in some cases the fall of the central government.

The sustained challenge to Abdul-Mahdi’s authority is the most serious test he has faced since he was installed last year by Shia parties that have dominated Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. There are fears that that Iraq’s security forces may be unable to check the protests’ momentum. They are showing no sign of abating despite the frequent use of live rounds and teargas.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters in Baghdad. Photograph: Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters

And Iraq’s leadership seems unwilling to respond to the troubling core elements of protesters’ demands: a widespread crackdown on the corruption that has whittled away at state revenues, and action on unfulfilled pledges to improve services.

One of the region’s wealthiest countries on paper, Iraq is also one of its most corrupt, with industrial-scale graft rife across all levels of government. An entrenched patronage network has meant that ministries are often run as fiefdoms, with revenues diverted from services and dispensed among patrons, who include senior officials and militias.

The demonstrations are being spearheaded by mostly young men who claim they have been denied prospects by state-sponsored corruption that denies jobs to those without connections.

Abdul-Mahdi described the security measures, which have wounded at least 400 people in the centre and south of the country, as “bitter medicine” that needed to be taken. “We have to return life to normal in the regions and respect the law,” he said, adding: “We will not make empty promises that can’t be delivered.”

Sistani, an elderly and influential cleric, released a statement that acknowledged the rights of the demonstrators, and said that if the demands were not addressed “the people will come back even stronger”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Protesters set fires and close a street in Baghdad. Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP

“The government and the political sides have not fulfilled the demands of the people to fight corruption,” Sistani said in his message delivered by a spokesman.

Separately, a senior Iraqi source said the government had received a message from Sistani’s office in the Shia shrine city of Kerbala, suggesting he would not support a breakdown of state authority.

Protests have been concentrated in Iraq’s south and Baghdad, with the country’s Kurdish north experiencing no unrest so far. The organic, scattered nature of the uprisings has led international observers to believe that they were not organised by vested interests inside or outside Iraq.

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The rallies have taken place before a Shia pilgrimage to Kerbala, for the Arbayeen ceremony in which Imam Hussein, revered by Shias, is commemorated. Up to 15 million people have made the pilgrimage in past years, including up to 2 million Iranians. However, Iraq’s two main border crossings with Iran remain closed, and Tehran has urged its citizens not to travel this year.

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) both said they were concerned by the increasingly violent clashes.

“The use of force by security forces must be proportionate to the situation and is an exceptional measure,” said the ICRC’s head of delegation in Iraq, Katharina Ritz. “In particular, firearms and live ammunition must only be used as a last resort, and to protect against an imminent threat to life.”