Iraq: Police Fire Tear Gas, Live Shots as Protesters Hit Baghdad Streets
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi police fired live shots into the air and tear gas on Friday to disperse thousands of protesters on the streets of Baghdad, where planned anti-government demonstrations resumed. Protests over corruption, unemployment and lack of basic services triggered the demonstrations earlier this month. The rallies turned deadly as security forces cracked down, using live ammunition, the Associated Press reported. The protests spread to several southern provinces and authorities imposed a curfew and shut down the internet for days in an effort to quell the unrest. After a week of violence in the capital and the country's southern provinces, a government-appointed inquiry into the protests determined that security forces had used excessive force, killing 149 people and wounding over 3,000. Eight members of the security forces were also killed. However, security forces and government officials vowed to avoid further deadly violence and deployed heavily on the streets of Baghdad in anticipation of Friday's protests. Activists called for the resumption on Friday, which marks a year since Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi came to power. One in five people lives in poverty in Iraq and youth unemployment sits around 25 percent, according to the World Bank. "We're not hungry -- we want dignity!" a protester shouted in Baghdad, while a third lashed out at "the so-called representatives of the people who have monopolized all the resources". According to AFP, overnight, a few dozen protesters headed towards the Green Zone, but were pushed back by security forces using water cannons. Other rallies started in the southern cities of Diwaniyah and Nasiriyah, where demonstrators said they would remain in the streets "until the regime falls".
from Asharq AL-awsat https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1960996/iraq-police-fire-tear-gas-live-shots-protesters-hit-baghdad-streets
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