Iraqi security forces used water cannons and tear gas on Friday to disperse protesters who were trying to access the high-security Green Zone in central Baghdad where government offices and foreign embassies are located, media reported, citing a law enforcement source
DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2019) Iraqi security forces used water cannons and tear gas on Friday to disperse protesters who were trying to access the high-security Green Zone in central Baghdad where government offices and foreign embassies are located, media reported, citing a law enforcement source.
Anti-government protests resumed on Friday in Iraq's capital, following a three-week hiatus in observance of a religious pilgrimage to the holy places in southern Iraq. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said on Thursday its forces had been put on high alert across the country ahead of the expected resumption of protests.
"Protesters in Tahrir Square were able to access the Green Zone ... [Iraqi] security forces used water cannons to disperse them," the source said, as cited by the al-Sumaria news outlet.
The anti-government protests began in Baghdad in early October and subsequently spilled into several provinces in the south of the country. They have been overshadowed by violence between the demonstrators and law enforcement officers.
On Tuesday, the human rights office of the UN Iraq mission released a report ahead of the renewed protests in which it said that during the protests in Iraq from October 1-9, at least 157 people had been killed and 5,494 people were injured.
The report found serious indications of serious human rights violations and abuses during the protests and urged Iraqi authorities to take concrete steps to prevent future violations during the renewed protests.
