ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Reflecting the improved security situation in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone will be open 24 hours a day from Tuesday after years of strict entry controls, Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi said Sunday. “With the beginning of Eid, we will open the Green [Zone for] 24 hours every day. Extra gates will be opened, including the Eastern Gate of the Ministry of Defense,” Abdul-Mahdi told reporters in his weekly press conference. “Neither the Americans nor the previous governments were able to do this,” he added. The high-security zone in central Baghdad is home to the Iraqi parliament and the US embassy compound. It has been open to the public during daylight hours for several months, with entry restricted at night. Although the capital has enjoyed a period of vastly improved security since the Islamic State group (ISIS) was declared defeated in Iraq in December 2017, the PM’s decision comes just weeks after a Katyusha rocket was fired at the Green Zone. No one was hurt in the on May 19 attack, which US officials have blamed on pro-Iran militias. The Green Zone was established by the US in 2003 to secure its embassy and Iraqi government institutions. Its blast walls and checkpoints, however, caused traffic chaos and left Iraqis feeling physically separated from their politicians. Iraqis broke into the Green Zone during mass protests in 2016, led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Abdul-Mahdi made it a priority of his tenure to remove the blast walls around the Green Zone and to open the area to the public. Last October he the PM said he wants the entire country to become a “Green Zone”.
