Seven die in riot at Baghdad Green Zone

Up to six rockets from inside the Iraqi capital hit Zone, which Sadr supporters had earlier been blocked from entering

BAGHDAD // Rockets fired from inside Baghdad last night struck the Green Zone, after seven people died in clashes between security forces and protesters seeking electoral reforms.

“Several Katyusha rockets fired from the Baladiyat and Palestine Street areas landed in the Green Zone,” the Joint Operations Command said. Those two neighbourhoods are in northern Baghdad, on the other side of the Tigris River.

A politician who lives in the Green Zone said at least six rockets hit the area, and a diplomat said he heard four.

In the earlier clashes, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd when some protesters, most of them supporters of cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, tried to break through a cordon to reach the Green Zone, which contains ministries and parliament.

“There were seven dead as a result of the violence,” a police colonel said. “Two of them are from the security forces and the other five are protesters.” He said more than 200 were hurt in the chaos. Most were protesters suffering from tear gas inhalation, but at least 11 had more serious injuries caused by bullets and tear-gas canisters.

The protest was the deadliest since a wave of demonstrations over poor public services and political corruption and nepotism began in 2015.

Protesters gathered peacefully on Tahrir Square to demand a change in the electoral law and the replacement of the electoral commission before provincial polls due in September.

“The demonstrators tried to cross Jumhuriya bridge,” a police source said. “The security forces fired tear gas to stop them but they persisted.”

Sadr supporters broke into the Green Zone twice last year, storming the prime minister’s office and parliament. The protest movement was halted after the launch in October of Iraq’s largest military operation in years to retake the city of Mosul from ISIL.

But after last month’s announcement that elections would take place in September Mr Al Sadr’s movement has vowed to lift the pressure again.

The cleric yesterday gave protesters his approval to march on the government district.

“If you want to approach the gates of the Green Zone to affirm your demands and make them heard to those on the other side, you can,” he said.

He encouraged the protesters to stay there until sunset but warned them against trying to break into the fortified area.

But Mr Al Sadr urged prime minister Haider Al Abadi not to turn a deaf ear.

“I urge him to listen to the voice of the people and remove the corrupt,” he said.

Mr Al Sadr later appealed for restraint and the demonstrators dispersed.

Mr Al Abadi said the violence would be investigated and those responsible prosecuted.

A smaller group of protesters demonstrated near the Green Zone on Wednesday, while hundreds also gathered in several southern cities on Friday. Their two main demands are for the members of the electoral commission to be replaced on the grounds that they are all affiliated to political parties, and that the body supervising nationwide ballots was therefore anything but independent.

They also want the electoral law to be amended to give wider representation to smaller parties.