SAMYA KULLAB
Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister announced Friday that he would submit his resignation to parliament, a day after more than 40 people were killed by security forces in protests and following calls by Iraq's top Shiite cleric for lawmakers to withdraw support.
The move by Adel Abdul-Mahdi, which came 13 months after he took office, triggered celebrations by anti-government protesters who have been camped out for nearly two months in Baghdad's Tahrir Square. Young men and women broke out in song and dance as news of the imminent resignation reached the square, the epicenter of the leaderless protest movement.
But in the event of an actual resignation, the road to a new government was uncertain and the possibility of political crisis hung in the air, I
