Operations gets halt at Iraq Umm Qasr commodities port in Basra due to blockade

All operations have halted at Iraq's Umm Qasr commodities port near Basra on Thursday after protesters blocked its entrance overnight, port employees said.

The spread to the port of demonstrations that have swept southern Iraq in recent months raises the stakes in the country's civil unrest. Umm Qasr receives grain, vegetable oil and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food.