A number of Iraqi demonstrators were injured after confrontations with the security forces that used tear gas in Al-Wathba and Al-Khulani in Baghdad to drive them towards the Liberation Square, the main protest center in the Iraqi capital, while protesters in Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar Governorate, south of the country, rebuilt new tents instead of those burned by unknown gunmen Dawn today.
A number of streets and in the vicinity of the demonstration squares today witnessed a major deployment of the security forces after the widening of the unrest in the governorates, which witnessed protest demonstrations for the fourth consecutive month.
Protest demonstrations marched through the streets of Baghdad and a number of governorates today to denounce the armed groups storming the demonstration yards, using live bullets and burning the sit-in tents. Today, large groups of employees and university students joined their colleagues in the demonstration arenas to express support for the demands of the demonstrators and denounced the attacks on the demonstration arenas.
Today, the Baghdad and Basra squares witnessed the re-installation of new sit-in tents, instead of those that were consumed by fire, while protesters in Nasiriyah built new tents rooms as a substitute for tents that were burned by militants at dawn today.
Nasiriyah does not break |
Two dead in Nasiriyah
Gunmen in civilian cars attacked the Al-Haboubi Square, which is the central square for protests in Nasiriyah, and its surroundings, and fired on the protestors, killing two and wounding 18 others, according to medical and local sources, before setting fire to the tents of the protesters, commercial stores, and public and private properties in the vicinity Arena.
A few hours later, protesters responded by closing two major bridges in the city, 350 km south of Baghdad.
Video clips showed the extent of the damage caused by the armed attack on the sit-in square in Nasiriyah.
| Demonstrators burn tires to cut a road in Najaf (Reuters) |
Similar developments
In other developments, the city of Najaf witnessed a similar attack, during which unidentified gunmen burned the tents of protesters in the protest square in the city center.
In Samawa, the center of Muthanna Governorate, in the south of the country, protesters closed a major oil refinery in the city, and prevented entry and exit of oil derivative trucks to protest the failure to meet the demands of the demonstrators and deal violently against the sit-in squares in the central and southern cities of the country.
A security source at the Muthanna Police Command said, "The closure of the oil refinery caused the accumulation of dozens of trucks."
The Samawah oil refinery is thirty thousand barrels, representing about 3.75% of the total daily refined oil in Iraq, which amounts to eight hundred thousand barrels.
The security forces have stepped up their actions against the protesters in Baghdad, Basra, Dhi Qar and Diwaniyah, since the dawn of Saturday, after the supporters of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, withdrew from the demonstration arenas after his announcement Friday evening, withdrawing his support for the popular movement, in response to slogans against him.
The popular movement forced the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi to resign last December 1, and the demonstrators insist that the political class accused of corruption and the wasting of state money be held accountable.