At least three protesters hostile to the Iraqi regime were killed on Saturday January 25 in Baghdad, and in the south of the country, during the intervention of the security forces who came to drive out the protesters from their camps.

The powerful Shiite leader, Moqtada Sadr, had announced the day before that he no longer supported the demonstrators, raising fears that this would leave the field open to power to suppress their movement, launched on October 1 to demand deep reforms.

Security forces intervened on streets and in squares occupied by the demonstrators on Saturday, opening fire and launching tear gas, notably in Baghdad where several sit-ins were dispersed. One protester was killed by gunfire and more than 40 others injured in the capital, a medical source said. Two others died and around 20 were injured in Nassiriya, in southern Iraq.

Tahir square stands firm

In Baghdad, an AFP journalist saw members of the security forces, armed with batons, chasing young demonstrators. A doctor said he saw riot police set fire to tents housing makeshift clinics to treat injured protesters.

The military command in the capital has announced that it has regained control of the al-Ahrar bridge, which spans the Tigris and connects eastern Baghdad with the western districts, where the ultra-secure Green Zone is located, housing the headquarters of the institutions and the American Embassy. He also dispersed the protesters in Tayaran Square, in the center of the capital.

The security forces did not, however, enter the main sit-in at Tahrir Square, the heart of the dispute, where young men were deployed, wearing black metallic shields, on which they had written: "Protection Brigade of Tahrir ".

Demonstrators have dismantled their tents set up on Tahrir for months, said an AFP photographer. Many of them came from the Sadr City neighborhood, the Baghdad stronghold of Moqtada Sadr.

Anti-government protesters, overshadowed in recent weeks by mounting tensions between Washington and Tehran, fear that the withdrawal of support from powerful politician Moqtada Sadr will weaken their movement calling for early elections, an independent Prime Minister and the end corruption and patronage. A protester accused the Shiite leader of leaving the way open for repression.

This unprecedented, spontaneous movement, dominated by youth, was interspersed with violence that left at least 470 dead, the vast majority of them demonstrators since October 1, and was marked by a campaign of intimidation, assassinations and activist abduction.

With AFP

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