Baghdad (dpa) – Schools closed in several areas of Iraq on Sunday as part of mounting pressure on the country's government to step down amid mass street protests.

The closures occurred in response to a call for a five-day strike by the country's independent Teachers' Union despite a warning from the Education Ministry.

Most schools nationwide shuttered their gates in response to the call and their students flocked to protest squares, locals said.

Street protests have roiled Iraq in two waves since early October. Demonstrators have decried corruption, lack of jobs and poor access to electricity and clean water in the oil-rich country.

The demonstrators have also demanded the resignation of the government, the dissolution of parliament and an overhaul of the country's political system that has been in place since the 2003-led invasion of Iraq.

On Sunday, protesters in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq blocked main roads, causing heavy traffic jams, security sources said.

Hours later, security forces reopened most such routes without clashes with the protesters, they added.

At least 260 people, mostly demonstrators, were killed and 11,000 others injured in Iraq’s turmoil last month, according to the independent Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights.

The protests are the country's largest since December 2017, when Iraq declared the liberation of all territory previously under Islamic State militants' control.