Dead and wounded in Nasiriyah and an escalation in Baghdad ... Ambassadors of 16 countries condemn the excessive use of force

Four demonstrators were killed and four others were injured in an attack carried out by unidentified people wearing military uniforms on "Al-Haboubi" Square, the sit-in center in Nasiriyah city in Dhi Qar Governorate, southern Iraq, according to medical sources.

The sources added that a state of caution and anticipation prevailed in the sit-in square after the attack, which resulted in burning the tents of the protesters.

The protests had renewed in Nasiriyah and in Baghdad, and clashes between demonstrators and the security forces on Monday had returned.

This comes after the security forces burned the tents of the protesters there, and they reinstalled tents again, and confirmed their survival and continued protest until the response to their demands.

In Baghdad, tear gas was used in Al-Wathba and Al-Khulani square to drive protesters towards Tahrir Square, the main protest center in the capital.

Protest demonstrations marched through the streets of Baghdad and a number of governorates today to denounce the storming of demonstrations by armed groups, the use of live bullets and the burning of 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 to denounce 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 demonstrators in Nasiriyah built new tents to replace the tents that were burned by militants at dawn today.

In other developments, the city of Najaf (the south of the country) 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.

Western condemnations
Meanwhile, ambassadors of 16 countries in Iraq condemned what they described as the excessive and lethal use of force by security forces and armed factions against the demonstrators.

Those, including the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, condemned in a joint statement what they considered to be intimidation and kidnapping of protesters and activists.

They appealed to the Iraqi government to ensure reliable investigations and accountability for the hundreds of deaths and injuries of thousands of protesters since October 1.

The ambassadors called on the government to respect freedom of assembly and protest, and they called on demonstrators to keep their movement peaceful.

Pompeo
In another political development, the office of the resigned Iraqi Prime Minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, said that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during a phone call with Adel Abdul-Mahdi, expressed his country's readiness to conduct serious discussions on the presence of foreign forces in Iraq and cooperation to achieve Iraqi sovereignty.

The statement added that Abdul-Mahdi, during the call, expressed his condemnation of the attacks that targeted the American embassy in Baghdad on Sunday evening, and promised to strengthen the procedures of the Iraqi forces responsible for protecting them.

The statement pointed out that Abdul-Mahdi stressed the importance of calm in the region, respect for all of Iraq's sovereignty and decisions, and non-interference in its internal affairs.