Nasiriyah, Iraq
One protester was killed early on Monday in Iraq’s flashpoint city of Nasiriyah, a medic said as gunmen stormed the square where anti-government demonstrators had been camped out for months.
The men arrived in Habbubi Square just after midnight, torching the tents where protesters had been sleeping and leaving nothing but charred shreds of fabric and metal frames. The unidentified gunmen fired on protesters, killing one and wounding four others, a medical source said.
Hours later, determined protesters had rallied again and shut down two main bridges in the city, some 350 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad.
The main protest camp in the holy city of Najaf was also burned down overnight by unidentified gunmen. Mass protests erupted on October 1 in Baghdad and across Iraq’s Shia-majority south in outrage over lack of jobs, poor services and corruption. They spiralled into calls for a total government overhaul and are now specifically demanding snap polls, an independent prime minister and the prosecution of anyone implicated in corruption or recent bloodshed.
Protesters tried to ramp up pressure on the government starting a week ago by sealing streets with burning tyres and metal barricades, but riot police responded with force. —INP
