Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the Basra-Baghdad highway on Saturday in an attempt to pressure the Iraqi government into offering them full job opportunities in oil companies. Most of the demonstrators work on daily wages and were promised full-time jobs by the government, but they say their services ended abruptly without fulfilling promises of full-time work. Protests at Sidra checkpoint outside Basra prevented trucks, officials and employees of oil companies from entering the city. Demonstrators blocked the highway with burning tires and riot police deployed in the area. Basra is the second largest province in Iraq and contains about 70 percent of OPEC's huge oil reserves.
