BAGHDAD: Implementing reforms to curb graft and streamline the government “will not be easy,” and corrupt people will fight to hold back change, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said Wednesday.

This was Abadi’s first effort to manage expectations for the reform program he rolled out Sunday in response to widespread public anger over corruption and poor services.

Daesh ambushed a military convoy in the country’s western Anbar province on Wednesday, killing at least 14 soldiers.

“The process will not be easy; it will be painful. The corrupt will not sit by without lifting a finger,” Abadi said in televised remarks a day after parliament signed off on his proposed measures.

Those who have “interests and privileges will defend their privileges and interests, and some of them will even fight for them,” he said.