In an Iraq in full political stalemate, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Saturday October 1 in Baghdad to mark the third anniversary of a vast anti-power uprising launched against elite corruption and the mismanagement of public services.
The unprecedented protest, triggered in October 2019, had spread throughout the country, particularly in the poor, predominantly Shiite south.
For several months, in this oil-rich Iraq, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators had pounded the pavement, denouncing pell-mell youth unemployment, decaying infrastructure and lack of democracy.
The movement had run out of steam under the blow of a repression which had left nearly 600 dead and 30,000 injured.
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Waving portraits of martyrs and Iraqi flags, hundreds of demonstrators, mostly very young, gathered in Baghdad's iconic Tahrir Square for angry commemorations, an AFP correspondent said.
They massed at the entrance to the Republic Bridge, blocked by several successive rows of concrete walls to block all access to the Green Zone, a district housing Western embassies and state institutions.
'Will of the people' ignored
Protesters threw iron barriers blocking the bridge into the river, an Interior Ministry official said, reporting 18 minor injuries among riot police after rocks and glass bottles were thrown.
The forces responded by firing several rounds of smoke bombs to drive the crowd away, according to the AFP correspondent.
At least 28 cases of suffocation were recorded among protesters, according to the interior official.
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“
Today it is essential to confront power
,” asserts activist Ali al-Habib.
"
All the bridges and roads are blocked because the authorities are afraid of demonstrators
," he said, castigating "
the infighting within the political class, which totally ignores the will of the people
".
The commemorations take place in a tense context, the two major poles of political Shiism clashing over the appointment of a new Prime Minister and possible early legislative elections.
Growing tensions
The influential Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr calls for an immediate dissolution of parliament.
Opposite, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of pro-Iranian Shiite factions, wants the establishment of a government before any election.
On Wednesday, rocket fire targeted the Green Zone during a session of Parliament.
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On August 29, tensions peaked when supporters of Sadr clashed with the army and men from Hashd al-Chaabi, former pro-Iran paramilitaries integrated into the regular troops, and who are politically opposed to the Sadrists.
More than 30 Sadrist supporters died in these clashes.