A total of five people have been killed in Iraqi Kurdistan over three days of violent protests that is threatening to destabilise the region at a time when it is at war with the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Several offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have been tourched in the violence.

In a statement responding to the events, the KDP blamed the leader of the Gorran party for the violence.

The autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan is currently in the midst of an economic and political crisis.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is struggling to pay civil service wages and has large debts to foreign oil companies.

At the same time the country is seeing a prolonged power struggle after the mandate of Iraqi Kurdistan’s president, Massoud Barzani, expired on 20 August.

The country’s main political parties have failed to agree on a solution to the power vacuum.