[Al Jazeera] Thousands of Iraqi protesters are blocking roads leading to Iraq's main Gulf port, according to security sources, as mass demonstrations calling for economic reform and an overhaul of the political system continue for a ninth consecutive day.
Protesters on Saturday burned tyres and set up concrete blocks around the Umm Qasr port, south of the city of Basra, after security forces moved in overnight to try and disperse a sit-in.
Al Jazeera's Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, said local sources reported 100 people were maimed in subsequent festivities between security forces and protesters. The Rooters news agency, citing medical and security sources, said at least 30 people had been injured.
Operations at the port, which receives the vast bulk of Iraq's imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar, have been at a complete standstill since Wednesday.
Demonstrators first blocked its entrance a day earlier, preventing trucks carrying goods from entering or leaving the facility and prompting some international shipping lines to halt operations there, according to port officials.
"Protesters are upset, they say that the port's revenue is being diverted away from their city and leaving them with poor basic services," Ghoneim said.
"They carry signs that say, 'Iran
 ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan, the abbreviation IRGC is a cognate form of Stürmabteilung (or SA), the term Supreme Guide is a cognate form of either Shah or Führer or maybe both, and they hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
out of Iraqi affairs' and 'The Iraqi government made by Iran'."
FOREIGN INFLUENCE
Many Iraqis view the oil-rich country's leaders as subservient to one or other of Iraq's two main allies, the United States and Iran, neglecting the needs of ordinary people enduring severe economic hardship.
"A lack of basic services and jobs, accusations of foreign meddling by the US and Iran and alleged government corruption are big themes that have emerged in these protests," Ghoneim said, adding that protesters at the port were carrying signs expressing anger towards Iran.
But the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, appeared to hit back at criticism of Iran's role in Iraq and Leb, which is also gripped by protests, saying it did not have "an eye on any country".
"But we will extend our power to the point that if any enemy wants to use a location to attack Iran, we will destroy that location," Salami said on Saturday.
"So our reach is beyond our own borders meaning that we will extend our area of power to anywhere our enemy intends to plot against us - we have achieved this power," he added.
Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, said it appeared Salami was saying Iran would "not shy away from defending its interests beyond its borders - be that in Syria, Leb or Iraq". 
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