New anti-corruption protest erupts in Baghdad
They raised placards, on which “Iran does not rule Iraq” hashtags were written in Arabic.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A few hundred protestors poured into Baghdad’s streets on Friday afternoon to demand an end to endemic corruption and foreign interference in the country days after the bloody unrest Iraq witnessed.
Having been surrounded by riot police at Nisour Square, the protestors claimed Friday’s demonstrations are the extension of Tishreen's (October) movement, which is still “alive”, Kurdistan 24 correspondent in Baghdad reported.
Thousands of protestors in October 2019 took to the streets of Baghdad and later other Iraqi southern provinces against endemic corruption and increasing foreign influence on the country. At least 600 protestors were killed by security forces, including pro-Iran militias while a hundred others were injured.
In addition to renewed calls for a change in the political system, dissolving the current Iraqi parliament was another demand of Friday’s protestors.
“After three years of our initial demonstration, we still have the same demands; one of which is a constitution that reflects the people's desire,” one protestor told Kurdistan 24 on Friday.
They raised placards, on which “Iran does not rule Iraq” hashtags were written in Arabic.
The fresh protests came after Baghdad witnessed bloody unrest on Monday when the powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr announced that he would quit politics in protest of the months-long political gridlock.
Soon the religious leader’s supporters stormed a government palace inside the capital’s Green Zone, where at least 30 of whom were killed during clashes with their Iran-backed rivals.
Following the mass resignation of 73 Sadrist members of parliament, the leader called for dissolving the parliament and holding a new election, which has been resisted by his pro-Iran rivals from the Shiite Coordination Framework.
