Update: Iraqi PM says to act against any attack on protester in Kurdish region

BAGHDAD, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Tuesday called on the authorities of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to respect peaceful protests, warning that the central government will take action if any protester is attacked in the demonstrations.

"We call on the authorities of Kurdistan region in northern Iraq to respect peaceful demonstrations. We would not stand idly by if any citizen in the region was attacked," Abadi said in a televised press conference after his weekly cabinet meeting.

Also on Tuesday, the Kurdish regional parliament said in a statement that demonstration is a legitimate right for the citizens and they have the right to protest and demand in a peaceful way.

"While we affirm our support for the legitimate rights of citizens, we call upon the demonstrators to express their legitimate demands in peaceful and civilized means," the statement said.

The demonstrators should "avoid violence and burning the buildings of the official and service institutions, because they are public property, and citizens are the biggest losers by such practices," the statement added.

Abadi's comments and the Kurdish parliament statement came in the second day of massive demonstrations in several cities and town in Sulaimaniyah province in northeastern Iraq over unpaid salaries and corruption.

Earlier in the day, heavy casualties in the town of Rania in Sulaimaniyah province when the security forces opened fire and used tear gas after protesters torched offices of the Kurdish parties, leaving five people killed and some 80 others wounded, according to Taha Mohammed, spokesman of the town's health office.

Clashes also erupted in the city of Sulaimaniyah when the security forces fired rubber bullets and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, with people admitted to hospital for suffocation and rubber-bullet wounds.

In the morning, hundreds of angry protesters reportedly took to the streets in at least six cities in the province of Sulaimaniyah in northeastern Iraq.

The protesters torched the local government building in the town of Kwaisanjaq on the provincial border with neighboring Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region.

They also attacked and set fire to the offices of the Kurdish parties, including the major parties of Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in several cities in Sulaimaniyah.

Protesters threw stones on many government buildings and parties' offices, prompting the security forces to use tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

Hundreds of Kurdish security forces were deployed in the provincial cities, while attempting to avoid clashes with protesters.

The protests were sparked by frustration over unpaid salaries to teachers and other civil servants, in addition to the deterioration of basic services and widespread corruption.

The provinces of the Kurdistan region have been suffering from financial and economic hardships as a result of disagreement with the federal government in Baghdad over distribution of crude oil revenues extracted from the northern oil fields.

The financial hardship has increased after the Iraqi forces retook control of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and some other oil wells in the disputed areas on Oct. 16.

Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas on Sept. 25.

The independence of Kurdistan has been fiercely opposed by the Iraqi central government. Enditem