Renewed live fire in Baghdad as blackout, sit-ins persist across Iraq
Baghdad, Iraq - Iraqi security forces fired live ammunition at protesters in the capital on Wednesday as tensions rose elsewhere in the country between persistent anti-government demonstrators and paralysed politicians.
Mass rallies have continued in the capital and across Iraq’s Shiite-majority south, despite a renewed Internet blackout and violence that has left nearly 280 dead.
They broke out on October 1 in anger over corruption and unemployment but have morphed into demands that the entire ruling system be upended.
In Baghdad, protesters had been concentrated in the iconic Tahrir Square but have increasingly spilled over onto nearby bridges leading to the western bank of the Tigris.
For days, they have faced off against security forces on the AlJumhuriyah bridge, which links them to the Green Zone where government offices and embassies are based.
They then spread to Al-Sinek, which ends near the Iranian embassy, and Al-Ahrar, near other government buildings.
On Wednesday, a group of protesters tried to cross a fourth bridge, Al-Shuhada, but were met with live rounds from security forces, an AFP correspondent said.
Several protesters were clearly wounded in the fire.
“The riot police hit us with batons on our heads and we threw rocks at them,” said Mahmoud, a 20 year old protester being treated by medics after trying to cross Al-Shuhada bridge.
“But then they started firing live rounds on people.”
Security forces resumed their use of live rounds in the capital on Monday, after nearly two weeks of using volleys of tear gas - but no firearms - to push back protesters.
Even the tear gas usage has been deadly, however, with medics and Amnesty International saying security forces appeared to be firing the canisters directly at protesters.
Those confrontations have been escalating at the bridges, where police have been on high alert to prevent demonstrators from reaching the Green Zone.
Around 120 people have died since protests resumed on October 24, according to an AFP count, as officials have stopped giving precise tolls in recent days.
The initial six-day wave of rallies in early October left 157 dead, most of them protesters shot dead in Baghdad by ‘unidentified snipers’, a government probe found.