Iraqi Protestors Target Tehran-Backed Militias: ‘Iran Out, Out! Baghdad Will be Free!’
Iraqi Protestors Target Tehran-Backed Militias: ‘Iran Out, Out! Baghdad Will be Free!’
Iraq’s military declared a curfew overnight in Baghdad, scrambling to deal with demonstrations in several cities that have turned violent and cost dozens of lives, as protestors demand both economic reforms and an end to Iran’s influence in Iraq.
“Iran out, out! Baghdad will be free!” is one of the slogans being chanted by protestors.
At least five protestors were killed in clashes with security forces in the capital on Monday, and around 100 more were injured. According to Iraq’s Shafaq News, police also fired teargas at students who took part in protests despite warnings not to do so by Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
The military command in Baghdad said it would enforce a curfew from midnight to 6 AM on Tuesday morning, “to protect the demonstrators and prevent those who want to target them.”
A wave of protest action – the second since early October – began on Friday. Since then at least 74 people have been killed and hundreds injured, according to Iraq’s Human Rights Commission.
It says most of the deaths and injuries occurred during clashes between protestors and personnel guarding headquarters of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.
Iran’s influence in Iraq soared as a result of Tehran’s backing for Iraqi Shi’ite militias which came together to fight against ISIS after the Sunni terrorist group seized last areas of Iraqi territory in 2014.
The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group formed in 2015 with the backing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Qods Force, was dominated by pre-existing militias such as the Badr organization, Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) and Kata’ib Hezbollah.
On Friday, at least 12 protestors died during an attack on the Badr organization’s headquarters in Diwaniyah, a city near Najaf in southern Iraq, while several more died as protestors stormed the offices of AAH in two other southern cities, Nasiriya and Amarah.
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Read more at: CNS News
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