Protesters spill back onto bridge in Baghdad
Protesters spill back onto bridge in Baghdad
BAGHDAD: Anti-government demonstrators spread to a second bridge in the Iraqi capital Saturday after security forces retreated from a key area where they had clashed with protesters, AFP correspondents said.
Sit-ins have become the go-to tactic for the regime change movement that erupted in early October, with a general strike announced by activists for Sunday. Protesters have occupied Baghdad´s Tahrir (Liberation) Square since October 24, spilling over onto four bridges crossing the river Tigris. The bridges link east Baghdad to the city´s west, including the Green Zone where the prime minister´s office, parliament and foreign embassies are based.
Security forces retook three of those bridges and nearby districts more than two weeks ago, pinning the protesters back in Tahrir and on Al-Jumhuriyah bridge with volleys of tear gas, live ammunition and even machine-gun fire.
On Saturday morning, Iraqi units pulled back from some of those areas and crowds of protesters chased them down, resuming their sit-in at the mouth of Al-Sinek bridge.
"The security forces withdrew to another concrete barrier on Al-Sinek," one protester told AFP. An elderly woman, who had travelled from the southern port city of Basra to join the rallies, cheered in support. "You didn´t just lose us, you lost all of Iraq!" she said, addressing Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.
"Get out, get out, there´s no place for you here. Tonight, we´ll be in the Green Zone," she said. Dozens climbed up into a large parking complex near the bridge, unfurling a sign in support of demonstrators in nearby Tahrir.
Others set up checkpoints around Tahrir, the morning after a bomb blast that shook the protesters. On Friday night, at least one person was killed and more than a dozen wounded in Tahrir when explosives beneath a parked car detonated, Iraq´s state security forces said. Small clusters of men deployed around the square to search all those entering it throughout the day on Saturday.