BAGHDAD, Iraq – Thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square again on Friday, Rudaw’s correspondent reported. Security forces are on high alert to protect governmental offices, according to Rudaw’s Bahman Hassan. Hassan added that security forces blocked Senak and Komari bridges as well as Saadon Street and the Eastern Gate. A special force is protecting the Presidential Complex and Iraqi Parliament. The Iraqi capital has seen waves of public protests in recent months and attacks on its parliament and government compound in the central Green Zone area. Protesters are demanding government reform and an end to corruption. A parliamentary report released yesterday estimated that the grand session hall of the parliament building will need $5 million in repairs after it was vandalized by protesters in late April. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi condemned the protests in a statement on Friday, calling demonstrators’ attacks on public institutions and political party offices “a criminal act,” especially when government troops are busy fighting terrorism and are making progress in Fallujah. Head of the Dawa Party and former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki also made a statement on Friday describing the attacks on political party offices in Najaf and other parts of the country including Baghdad as criminal “and the work of gangsters.”
