Iraqi clashes renew demands for change

IRAQI security forces and protesters clashed in Baghdad yesterday during demonstrations to mark the first anniversary of mass anti-government protests.

Thousands took to the streets in Baghdad, some waving portraits of fallen “martyrs” killed in protests last year, with peaceful demonstrations also taking place in several cities in the south including Basra, Najaf and Nasiriyah.

In the capital, protesters hurled rocks as police fired tear gas canisters and used water cannons to block demonstrators from bridges leading to the highly fortified Green Zone, a no-go area for ordinary Iraqis where government offices, parliament a nd t he Unite d States embassy are situated.

Some demonstrators managed to scale a towering security barricade erected on the Al-jumhuriyah bridge across the Tigris river, but they were then stopped by concrete walls and security forces, an AFP j ournalist reported. Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails, the reporter added. About 50 police and protesters were slightly injured, police and medical sources told AFP.

Yesterday’s demonstrations renewed the cross-sectarian, youth- l ed protest movement’s key demand for the removal of the entire ruling class accused of corruption, and of being beholden to neighbouring Iran.

“It’s been a year and we still want our country back,” said Batool Hussein, a woman demonstrator in central Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the heart of the protests.

“We still want to unseat the corrupt from power, and we still want to know who killed the protesters l ast year.”

About 600 demonstrators have been killed and 30,000 wounded in clashes with security forces nationwide since protests erupted in October 2019.

The burgeoning protests helped usher in Mustafa alKadhimi, the prime minister, in May, but he has yet to deliver on any major reforms.