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Iraq
Anti-government protesters run for cover during skirmishes near Baghdad’s Tahrir Square Tuesday, April 21, 2020. Photo: Hadi Mizban/ AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – After weeks of relative quiet in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, men armed with knives and live ammunition clashed with the protestors that have remained despite the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday.
Anti-government protestors called for the halting of demonstrations last month amidst the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Iraq. The number of protesters in the square has since dwindled significantly, putting an end to clashes with security forces and armed groups aimed at dispersing demonstrators.
“Today, armed groups attacked protestors stationed at the entrance of Tahrir Square’s tunnel, coming from the direction of Khilani Square with AK-47s and knives,” a protestor still in the square told Rudaw English on Tuesday.
Marwan*, 21, a Computer Engineering student from Baghdad has been protesting in Tahrir Square since November 2019, and refused to return home despite the threat posed by coronavirus.
He alleges that the attackers were supporters of specific political parties and militias, but was resistant to specifying which due to security concerns.
“They are supporters of political parties who push to end the protests against the government and political parties in Iraq, specifically in Tahrir Square, as it is the heart of the protests,” Marwan added.
Marwan claimed that live ammunition and knives were used on protestors by the armed attackers.
Several unverified videos and photos circulating on social media show a gunman aiming an AK-47 at protesters, while other attackers hold knives and storm the Square coming from the direction of Khilani Square.
The Baghdad Operation Command claims that the clashes were the result of a dispute between protestors and shop owners near the Square, according to a statement on Tuesday through state media outlet, Iraqi news agency (INA)
“A shop owner in Tahrir Square was beaten by the protesters after a verbal dispute,” the statement reads.
“The shop owner’s relatives, armed with three AK-47 rifles, arrived and headed from Khilani Square near Tahrir Square tunnel, and opened fire at the protesters stationed in Tahrir Square,” added the statement.
Baghdad Operation Command also claimed that the security forces took “immediate action”, as a number of shop owners in Tahrir Square tunnel “filed a complaint” at the police station.
“Legal procedures are continuing against all troublemakers,” the statement added.
Prior to the country’s shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Iraq had been witnessing nationwide protests since October 2019. Protesters took to the streets of Baghdad and the mainly Shiite-majority provinces of the south to protest against rampant governmental corruption and the political system, as well as foreign interference in Iraqi affairs.
They have been met with deadly violence, including live ammunition and military grade tear gas canisters. More than 600 protesters have died and at least 18,000 injured, according to Amnesty International.
Iraq has not had a fully-functioning government since Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi resigned from the premiership in late November amid mounting pressures from the protesters and the Shiite highest authority in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Since then, Shiite political parties have wrangled over who should replace him and form the next Iraqi cabinet.
Appointments to the PM-designate role have twice been unsuccessful. Both candidates - former communications minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, then three-term Najaf governor and Nasr parliamentary bloc leader Adnan al-Zurfi – met with fierce opposition from some political blocs, and lukewarm reluctance by others. Both were rejected by Iraq’s young protesters as members of the same tired establishment they hope to overthrow.
However, for the first time since December 2019, the impossible seems to have happened – all of Iraq’s Shiite political parties have agreed on a candidate.
Iraqi President Barham Salih appointed former director of Iraq’s intelligence service, Mustafa al-Kahdimi on April 9, to become the third Iraqi PM-designated since January.
Fatih bloc leader, Hadi al-Ameri, a key opponent to the appointments of both Allawi and Zurfi, attended the ceremony - as did former PM Abadi, in a sign of acquiescence from the Nasr alliance’s original push for Zurfi to be granted time to prove himself.
However, protesters in Baghdad, and across Iraq’s southern provinces have strongly rejected Mustafa al-Kadhimi as a candidate to form the next Iraqi government.
Mustafa*, 29, a protestor from Baghdad, left the movement at Tahrir Square in late January after violent clashes on Muhammad al-Qasim highway.
He told Rudaw English on Tuesday that the protests in Iraq are no longer independent and grassroots-based, but have become enmeshed within the political establishment they originally sought to fight.
“I was in Tahrir Square for more than four months protesting against the political parties in Iraq, but all we faced was violence and killings,” Mustafa said. “Now the protests in Iraq are all political and no longer independent, as some political parties are benefiting from keeping the protesters in Tahrir Square for now.”
Mustafa further claimed, “90 percent of the protesters in Tahrir Square today are supporters and followers of specific political parties.”
Mustafa believes that Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is the one who is “benefiting” from the protests in recent days.
*Rudaw English has changed the names in this article to protect the protestors’ identities
Edited by Yasmine Mosimann
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