BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of protesters climbed over the blast walls surrounding Baghdad’s highly-fortified Green Zone for the first time on Saturday and stormed into parliament, carrying Iraqi flags and chanting against the government.
The breach marked a major escalation in the country’s political crisis following months of anti-government protests, sit-ins and demonstrations by supporters of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Green Zone is home to most ministries and foreign embassies and has long been the focus of al-Sadr’s criticism of the government.
Earlier Saturday, al-Sadr accused Iraqi politicians of blocking political reforms aimed at combating corruption and waste. While al-Sadr didn’t call for an escalation to the protests, shortly after his remarks his supporters began scaling the compound’s walls. A group of young men then pulled down a section of concrete blast walls to cheers from the crowd of thousands gathered in the streets outside.
Cellphone video uploaded to social media showed dozens of young men running through the halls of parliament, chanting slogans in support of al-Sadr and calling for the government to disband.
“We are all with you (al-Sadr),” one group of men yelled as the entered the building’s main chamber.
Increasingly tense protests and a series of failed reform measures have paralyzed Iraq’s government as the country struggles to fight the Islamic State group and respond to an economic crisis sparked in part by a plunge in global oil prices.
A broad-based protest movement last summer mobilized millions and pressured Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to submit a proposal to reduce the size of the Cabinet and replace political appointees with independent technocrats.
But that proposal has been stalled in the face of Iraq’s entrenched political blocs, and in recent months al-Sadr’s movement has come to monopolize the protests.
Earlier on Saturday, a bombing in a market filled with Shiite civilians in Baghdad killed at least 21 people and wounded at least 42 others, according to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
IS claimed the attack, saying it used a three-ton truck bomb. The extremist group regularly carries out attacks targeting the security forces and the country’s Shiite majority.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Heck, where are dubya and cheney when we need them anyhow? They need to get their asses back there now and make things right and good, again, dontcha know. Or even Obama and Kerry who love Iraq, and have plenty of their military there to take over when this happens? Oh, they are already there and in charge? Whoda thunk it! I could rant forever, as the rest of us I’m sure. This is basically Obama’s and Kerry’s foreign policy in shambles, worldwide really. I hope the Iraq people burn down this “Green Zone” monument to America’s genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, monuments to dubya’s monumental cruelty and cowardice. I hope they burn up all American property and put all those genocidal American maniacs in the Green Zone in prison for life, at minimum, which is what they all deserve. Oh, and dubya and dick too, if possible.
“I could rant forever, as the rest of us I’m sure.”
“as the rest of us I’m sure”. No no no, not here at TPM.
No, you can definitely rant in a way no one can.
Only you’da thunk it. We have less than 5,000 troops in Iraq, mainly for advising and training Iraqi troops. The US troops have helped to drive ISIS out of some areas, but they’re hardly in a position to control what happens in the entire country. You might not have gotten the memo, but most Americans grew tired of the US occupation in Iraq; this led to the US handing over official control of Iraq to their own gov’t years ago.
I do not share your desire to see Americans in Iraq harmed, although I would indeed like to see W and Cheney taken to Baghdad and tied to a pole so that Iraqis could do whatever they felt like.
Who would have thought that invading a sovereign country – on false pretenses, and with no real plan for the aftermath – would turn out to have such horrific and lasting consequences?
Just anyone with a lick of sense.
This is what our troops have given up life and limb for?
Obama was handed this shit bomb with the fuse still running. I place blame squarely on the originators of this f’ing quagmire.