The death toll from a week of violent protests in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region continues to mount, with at least nine dead in the clashes over delayed public salaries. 

Ali Al Bayati, a member of the Iraqi Human Rights Commission, told Al-Monitor the death count had risen to eight protesters and at least one member of the security forces. A further 56 people have been injured in the unrest, he said. 

The protests over unpaid salaries and high unemployment erupted last week in the city of Sulaimaniyah and have since spread to other towns in the northern provinces of Sulaimaniyah and Halabja. Hundreds of angry federal workers have taken to the streets to demand their full salaries and for the region’s leaders to put an end to government corruption.

Public sector workers have seen their salaries slashed and gone entire months without pay in 2020. The Kurdistan Regional Government, which employees more than 1.25 million people, hasn’t paid full salaries since October, in part due to ongoing budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad.