ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan — Protests beginning Dec. 2 in Sulaimaniyah over unpaid public sector salaries have escalated, with political party headquarters and government buildings burned, several killed and scores injured in the southeastern part of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Anger surged despite Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) appeals for calm ahead of meetings in Baghdad. Civil servants in Iraqi Kurdistan have for years suffered from irregular income due to budget disputes with the central government as well as the fight against the Islamic State (IS), falling oil prices, and — more recently — the coronavirus pandemic.

Photos circulating online showed plumes of black smoke rising from buildings set alight and of women in black weeping after their male relatives were killed, some of whom had allegedly not even taken part in the protests.

The protests almost immediately spread to both the Halabja governorate southeast of Sulaimaniyah near the Kurdistan Region’s border with Iran and the Garmiyan administration further south of it. Halabja had been a district of Sulaimaniyah until 2014.