Activists protest 'extremely bad' conditions in Iraq outside Warren city hall

WARREN, Mich. (FOX 2) - People are dying by the hundreds in Iraq and activists here in America won't sit quietly until something is done to help.

"People are starving people are eating out of garbage cans. They have no water, they have no electricity, and that's why people are protesting," said Thomas Simaan.

Simaan is the head of a local Iraqi American group called the American Iraqi National Association. They demonstrated outside city hall in Warren on Friday to make sure their message is heard loud and clear. 

"People are fed up with the situation over the last 17 years, ever since we invaded Iraq and we gave it on a gold platter to Iran," said Asad Kalasho.

Demonstrations in Iraq appeared to be spontaneous and began in Bagdhad on Tuesday, led by young people looking for jobs, better services, electricity, water, and an end to what's considered deeply embedded and widespread government corruption.

"The people that are in government today are corrupted themselves. They are puppets of Iran. They're not for Iraq. They're not for the cause of Iraq as a nation," Kalasho said.

"If they interfere today, it's too late. They should have done it yesterday," Simaan said.

Protestors want President Donald Trump to do something but they also take this very personally. Many of them have family members that are actually on the ground in Bagdhad and they fear for their safety, especially considering reports that are coming out of the nation.

 "One of my cousins, his baby is feeling extremely sick. They could not travel, so they had to move somewhere close to the hospital. So the conditions of Iraq, they're extremely bad," said Meshal Aljawari.

A humanitarian crisis is what they fear most. As people in Iraq fight for fairness with protests spreading to other regions of the mid-east nation, the battle state-side for aid doesn't end.