BAGHDAD, Oct 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Iraqi authorities sealed off the central Green Zone just four months after its celebrated opening, a government source said in response to widespread protests in the capital.
Security forces and military vehicles have been deployed around the area, which hosts government offices and embassies, “until further notice”, the source said.
The Green Zone had been inaccessible for most Iraqis since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq but had reopened to the public in June.
Two demonstrators were killed and more than 200 people injured Tuesday, health officials said, in clashes with security forces during protests in Baghdad and the provinces that mounted the first challenge to Iraq’s fragile one-year-old government.
More than 1,000 protesters had descended on the capital before security forces dispersed the crowds with a volley of gunfire and tear gas.
Protests in Baghdad left one dead and 200 wounded, including 160 civilians, the health ministry said without providing further details.
According to medical and police sources, most of them needed treatment for tear gas inhalation and some were injured by rubber bullets.
A health official in Dhi Qar later said that one protester was killed and two others were wounded in the southern province.
With Iraqi flags draped over their shoulders or wrapped around their foreheads, the demonstrators had gathered in the iconic Tahrir Square, with a wide range of grievances but apparently without a unified leadership.
Some were on the streets to protest at the lack of public services, including rampant power cuts, water shortages and unemployment, particularly among youth.
Demonstrators were cleared from Tahrir Square a first time but then regrouped, facing a steady volley of live shots, water cannons and tear gas from security forces.
More shots were fire even after the crowds had dispersed into adjacent neighbourhoods.
Some protesters made their way towards Al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, which leads into the high-security Green Zone that houses government offices and foreign embassies.
Police had set up metal barricades and stationed trucks at the mouth of the bridge to prevent protesters from crossing, and a security source inside the zone said that reinforcements were requested.
The gathering was the biggest demonstration against Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi since he came to power in late October 2018, just months after demonstrations that engulfed the southern city of Basra last summer.
