Calm, cautious in Iraq and the demonstrators flock heavily to Al-Khulani and Al-Sanak

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that a cautious calm prevails in Al-Khilani Square and Al-Senak area, in the middle of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, where demonstrators are spreading extensively in Al-Senak Garage Building and the surrounding area, after it was targeted last Friday by gunmen, which resulted in a number of dead and wounded.

The reporter indicated that access to the Tahrir and Al-Khulani arenas is now undergoing many checkpoints by the demonstrators who formed security committees.

He added that hundreds of school and university students have started arriving in Tahrir Square since the early morning hours to show solidarity with the demonstrators who are continuing their protests for the seventh week in a row.

Protests continue in Iraq in a number of southern governorates, some of which have declared an official holiday today to mourn the victims of al-Sinak, in light of the protesters' adherence to their demands for comprehensive reform and fighting corruption in the country.

The Commission on Human Rights in the Iraqi parliament has called for an emergency session to discuss the circumstances of the attack that targeted the demonstrators on Friday evening near the Al-Sinak Bridge in Baghdad, which killed about 20 demonstrators.

Masked gunmen stormed al-Khilani Square Friday evening with civilian four-wheel-drive vehicles, and fired indiscriminately with automatic weapons at the protesting protesters.

The gunmen continued to shoot for hours before the Ministry of Interior announced that its forces had cordoned off the area, pursued the shooters, and investigated the incident.

Sources of the island said that the gunmen took control of the Al-Sink parking facility, killing a number of demonstrators and dumping their bodies from the top of the building before they withdrew from it at dawn on Saturday.

Demonstrators accused the Iraqi security forces of colluding with the attackers by giving them permission to enter and roam freely in the area.

Close ways
In Karbala, in the south of the country, local sources in the governorate said that a group of protesters Sunday morning closed a number of main roads in the governorate.

A security source reported that a professor at Karbala University was wounded when an explosive device was planted near his car.

And the Security and Defense Committee in the Iraqi parliament is holding an extraordinary session today that is expected to summon a number of leaders of the security services to investigate the events of last Friday.

The President of the Iraqi Council of Representatives has described the parties that shot the demonstrators as criminal gangs outside the law.

For its part, Amnesty International said that the attack was clearly coordinated, and called on the Iraqi authorities to conduct an urgent investigation and bring the perpetrators to trial.

Since the beginning of last October, Iraq has been witnessing demonstrations calling for political reform, accountability for the corrupt and job creation, and violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators have resulted in the deaths of about 460 people and the injury of about 20,000 others, according to Iraqi human rights sources.