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07 December, 2019
By SJA Jafri
BAGHDAD/ MELBOURNE: Iraqi officials have raised Friday’s death toll to at least 20 after a bloody night of attacks by unidentified gunmen that targeted anti-government demonstrators near the main protest camp in Baghdad.
More than 130 others were also wounded by gunfire and stabbings near Tahrir Square, the main protest camp in the Iraqi capital, the Associated Press news agency reported, citing health and security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was the most violent flare-up in the capital for weeks and came a week after parliament accepted Adel Abdul Mahdi’s resignation following two months of huge protests demanding his departure and the overhaul of the country’s political system.
Gunmen on pick-up trucks late on Friday attacked a large building near the al-Sinak bridge where anti-government protesters had been camped out for weeks, witnesses told media.
“According to our sources, this violence began late last night around Khilani Square that’s just north of Tahrir Square,” sources claimed.
The attackers forced the protesters out of the building and live rounds could be heard after the altercation.
State television said the building had been torched “by unidentified men”.
Jabbari said the violence is an escalation “in terms of the division that’s being created within the demonstrations and the various groups that are trying to take control of the voice on the streets of Baghdad.”
The attacks come one day after a string of suspicious stabbing incidents left at least 13 wounded in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Iraq’s leaderless weeks-long protest movement.
More than 400 protesters have been killed and nearly 20,000 wounded since anti-government demonstrations erupted on October 1.
Street protests have roiled Iraq since early October, with demonstrators calling for the resignation of the government, the dissolution of Parliament and an overhaul of the country’s political system, which has been in place since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The demonstrations have turned violent amid accusations from rights groups that Iraqi security members used excessive force against protesters.
On Friday, Iraq’s top Shia leader Ali al-Sistani voiced support for the protests, calling them a “tool of pressure to affect genuine reforms” in the country.
“What matters most is that they [the protests] should not be dragged into acts of violence, chaos and sabotage,” according to a mosque sermon read on his behalf in the southern city of Karbala.
Al-Sistani said a new prime minister must be chosen without foreign interference.
His comments followed reports that a senior Iranian commander had been in Baghdad this week to rally support for a new government that would continue to serve Iran’s interests.
On Sunday, the parliament accepted Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s resignation, bowing to a key demand of protesters.
Abdul Mahdi and his government are now serving in a caretaker status until a new cabinet is formed.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly accused “outlaws” of taking advantage of peaceful protests to attack demonstrators and security forces, and of vandalizing public and private property.
