Iraqis struggle to maintain sit-ins after deadly crackdown!

Baghdad: Iraqi protesters clashed with security forces in Baghdad on Sunday, following a deadly crackdown that Amnesty International warned could turn into a “bloodbath”. Demonstrators across the south fought to maintain anti-government sit-ins, as security forces fired tear gas to try to keep them at bay. Mass rallies calling for an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked Iraq’s capital and south since early October, but political forces closed ranks this week to defend the government as the death toll topped 300.The consensus seems to have paved the way for a crackdown, and 12 protesters were killed on Saturday when security forces cleared out protest sites, medical sources said.
Nine were killed in Baghdad, most struck in the head by tear gas canisters, and three died in Basra.
“This is turning into nothing short of a bloodbath,” said rights group Amnesty International, calling on authorities to “immediately rein in security forces”.
“All government promises of reforms or investigations ring hollow while security forces continue to shoot and kill protesters,” said its regional director Heba Morayef.
The parliament’s human rights committee said it had documented sniper shots and the use of hunting rifles and “sound bombs” — large stun grenades that are planted, not thrown — near protest sites.
Despite the violence, demonstrators tried to regroup in the capital’s main protest camp of Tahrir (Liberation) Square on Sunday, but crowds were smaller than previously.
“Since last night, security forces have been trying to advance into Tahrir to empty it,” said one protester, an Iraqi flag draped around his shoulders.
A volunteer medic, Azhar Qassem, said doctors would stay to treat any wounded. “We won’t pull out,” he insisted. Security forces erected concrete barriers to seal off Tahrir from the nearby Khallani Square, where the air was thick with tear gas.
In Basra, around 30 people marched towards their usual protest site outside the port city’s provincial headquarters but police kept them hundreds of metres away.
Security forces fired tear gas in Nasiriyah to keep back a crowd trying to shut down the education directorate, and blocked school children in Diwaniyah from leaving class to join striking university students.
Protesters in Hillah and Kut continued demonstrating, with government offices and schools still shuttered. The mass rallies, which first erupted on October 1, are the largest and deadliest grassroots protests in Iraq in decades.
More than 300 people have been killed, according to a toll compiled by AFP in the absence of updated or precise numbers from officials. — AFP