Seven protesters killed in Iraq, where security forces are trying to stop protests
Seven protesters killed in Iraq, where security forces are trying to stop protests
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| A protester injured by Iraqi police in Baghdad on Saturday, 9 November. SABAH ARAR / AFP |
A protester injured by Iraqi police in Baghdad on Saturday, 9 November. SABAH ARAR / AFP
The Iraqi capital looked like a battlefield on Saturday, November 9th. At the edge of Tahrir Square in Baghdad, four protesters were killed, three by bullets and the fourth hit by a tear gas grenade in the face, according to medical and security sources.
Earlier in the day, three protesters were also killed in a live ammunition bombing in Basra, a southern city where law enforcement officials are now arresting anyone who tries to go out on the streets. Launched on October 1, the protest calls for the departure of the entire political class, unchanged for years and considered corrupt and incompetent.
Read the report: Students, mothers, activists ... in Iraq, women engage in demonstrations
The tougher intervention of the security forces comes as a result of an agreement by the main political forces to put an end to the protests, including by force, to maintain power. While a movement of civil disobedience blocks for several days schools, administrations and infrastructures, this agreement for a "return to the normal life" makes fear more violence. At the end of the afternoon in Tahrir Square, a doctor told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) to hear "live ammunition" while "security forces are getting closer". Even before daybreak, the security forces chased the protesters from three bridges near Tahrir Square, where they camped day and night. In Basra, security forces arrested all those who tried to escape into the streets of the oil city, according to witnesses.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, however, seemed to adopt a more conciliatory tone towards the protesters, who demand his resignation. Movement is a legitimate driver of political change, he conceded, while urging them not to disrupt the "normal course of life". "The forces and political parties are important institutions in any democratic system and they have made great sacrifices, but they have also made many mistakes," he said. In particular, he promised electoral reform.
A time in the hot seat, Adel Abdel Mahdi is now consensus among parties and politicians. Those who had time for his departure, in front of which the versatile Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, turned around, especially under the pressure of neighboring Iran and its allies in Baghdad. President Barham Saleh and the prime minister, who had stopped talking to each other according to officials, even showed up together on Saturday.
About 300 people, mostly demonstrators, were killed and more than 12,000 wounded, according to a report compiled by AFP. For the hundreds of protesters in Tahrir Square, the Internet shutdown since the beginning of the week fears the worst. The first week of October, in a country cut off from the world, 157 people died while snipers deployed on the roofs sowed terror. More than a month later - and nearly 140 more deaths - the state has recognized an "excessive" use of force by its men but ensures still not able to identify these shooters.
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