Iraqi forces kill 35 after Iran mission torched

BAGHDAD/NAJAF • Iraqi

security forces shot dead at least 35 protesters on Thursday after demonstrators stormed and torched an Iranian consulate overnight, in what could mark a turning point in the uprising against the Tehran-backed authorities.

At least 29 people died in the southern city of Nassiriya when troops opened fire on demonstrators who blocked a bridge before dawn on Thursday and later gathered outside a police station. Police and medical sources also said dozens of others were wounded.

Four others were killed in Baghdad, where security forces opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets against protesters near a bridge over the Tigris River, the sources said, and two died in clashes in Najaf.

In Nassiriya, thousands of mourners took to the streets, defying a curfew to bury their dead after the mass shooting.

Video of protesters cheering in the night as flames billowed from the consulate were a stunning image after years in which Tehran’s influence among Shi’ite Muslims in Arab states has been a defining factor in Middle East politics.

The bloodshed that followed was one of the most violent days since the uprising began at the start of October, with anti-corruption demonstrations that swelled into a revolt against authorities seen by young demonstrators as stooges of Tehran.

In Najaf, a city of ancient pilgrimage shrines

that serves as seat of Iraq’s

powerful Shi’ite clergy, the Iranian consulate was reduced to a charred ruin after it was stormed overnight.

The protesters, overwhelmingly Shi’ite, accused

the Iraqi authorities of turning against their own people to defend Iran.

“All the riot police in Najaf and the security forces started shooting at us as if

we were burning Iraq as a

whole,” a protester who witnessed the burning of the consulate told Reuters, asking not to be identified.

Another protester, Ali, described the attack on the consulate as “a brave act and a re

action from the Iraqi people.

We don’t want the Iranians.”

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the attack and

demanded “the Iraqi government’s firm response to the aggressors.”

So far, the authorities have been unyielding in response to the unrest, shooting dead hundreds of demonstrators with live ammunition and tear gas, while floating proposals for political reform that the protesters dismiss as trivial and cosmetic.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has so far rejected calls to resign, after meetings with senior politicians that were attended by the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.