Iraqi security forces cleared anti-government protesters from streets and squares in Baghdad and the south on Saturday, stoking fears among demonstrators that their long-running reform campaign may be suppressed.

It came a day after populist cleric Moqtada Sadr announced he would no longer back the youth-dominated movement, after he held his own mass rally that saw thousands pack the capital's streets to demand US troops leave Iraq.

By Saturday morning, security forces were using tear gas and live rounds to clear protest camps across the capital, leaving at least 19 protesters wounded, medics said.

An AFP reporter saw baton-charging security personnel chase away a group of young protesters.

A medic nearby told AFP she saw riot police set fire to large tents used as field clinics to treat wounded demonstrators.

The city's military command announced it had retaken control of Ahrar Bridge, a flashpoint for clashes between security forces and demonstrators for months.

It also pushed protesters out of Tayaran Square and Mohammad Qasim highway, where new sit-ins this week were intended to pressure authorities into enacting long-awaited reforms.

By early Saturday afternoon, there were hit-and-run clashes in central Baghdad but security forces had not yet entered the main protests camp in Tahrir Square.

Young men had deployed around the square carrying black shields made out of metal drums, on which they had painted the words "Tahrir Shield Squad."

- Sadr supporters pull out -

An AFP photographer saw protesters in the camp dismantling wooden stalls and colourful tents they had set up months ago.

Many of them hailed from Sadr's eponymous stronghold of Sadr City in east Baghdad and had earned a reputation as the most well-organised protesters.

One protester accused Sadr of paving the way for a wider crackdown by withdrawing political cover.

"When your people started leaving, the riot police came at 3:00 am and took the whole (Ahrar) Bridge. Why?" he asked angrily.

Sadr, a militiaman-turned-politician, is notorious for switching political positions with dizzying speed.

He backed the protests when they erupted in October and called on the government to resign -- even though he controls parliament's largest bloc and other top posts.

But last week, he called for a separate rally to demand 5,200 US troops leave Iraq, after a US strike on Baghdad killed top Iraqi and Iranian commanders earlier this month.

Thousands streamed into Baghdad for Friday's rally and while Sadr did not attend, he hailed the turnout and said he would no longer be involved in the anti-government campaign.

The about-face prompted reports of protest camps being dismantled across the country.

In Hilla, Diwaniyah, Kut, Amarah and the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, tents were stripped down to their metal frames on Saturday.

Overnight, security forces stormed a protest camp in the southern port city of Basra and forcibly dispersed activists, an AFP correspondent reported.

Their tents were burned down and municipal staff were seen clearing the charred remains on Saturday to reopen the square.

- US reveals wounded troops -

The protesters have been calling for snap polls under a new electoral law, an independent prime minister and accountability for corrupt officials and those who ordered violence against demonstrators.

More than 470 people have been killed in protest-related violence since October, according to an AFP tally.

The protest movement took a serious hit in recent weeks as US-Iran tensions skyrocketed, threatening to overwhelm Iraq and eclipse their campaign for sweeping reform.

A US strike outside the Baghdad airport on January 3 killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and a top Iraqi commander, infuriating Iraqi officials.

Parliament slammed the strike as a a violation of Iraq's sovereignty and passed a non-binding resolution demanding that all foreign forces, including 5,200 US troops helping fight the Islamic State group, should leave.

Iran retaliated by launching a wave of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq.

No Iraqi or US forces were killed but on Friday, the Pentagon revealed 34 American soldiers had suffered traumatic head injuries or concussion.

It was an unprecedented attack on US troops in Iraq, who had faced a wave of smaller, proxy attack in recent months that killed one US contractor and one Iraqi soldier.

Four employees of French Christian charity in Iraq missing
Paris (AFP) Jan 24, 2020 - Three French nationals and one Iraqi working with a French Christian charity in Iraq have been missing since Monday, the group announced Friday.

The four men with SOS Chretiens d'Orient (Christians of the Middle East) went missing near the French embassy in Baghdad, the organisation's director Benjamin Blanchard told a news conference in Paris.

No ransom demand has been received as yet and no group has claimed responsibility for their disappearance, he added.

SOS Chretiens d'Orient has been working with persecuted Christians in Iraq since 2014 when Islamic State jihadists overran the province of Mosul, displacing tens of thousands of minority Christians and Yazidis.

It is principally active in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil, where many Christians sought refuge.

The missing workers were in Baghdad "to renew their visas and register the association with Iraqi authorities," Blanchard said.

They were also due to inspect the group's activities in the city, including the opening of a new school.

They left their hotel by car for a meeting "which posed no problem," Blanchard said, adding that French and Iraqi authorities were working together to try locate them.

However they did not return and the charity sought in vain to contact them on Tuesday before contacting the French authorities early Wednesday.

- Help Christians stay -

The charity's director described the men as "experienced staff members who have been working with us for years" and who had "perfect knowledge of conflict zones".

He declined to give the men's identities.

The French foreign ministry and the French embassy in Iraq refused to comment on their disappearance.

"The French and Iraqi authorities are coordinating today on the enquiry and to retrace their steps," said Blanchard, stressing that he was in "close contact" with the worried families.

Baghdad has been gripped by demonstrations for several months.

The protests initially targeted a government widely seen as corrupt and meddling by neighbouring Iran.

But in recent weeks America's military presence in Iraq has become a hot-button issue since a US drone strike killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and a top Iraqi commander in Baghdad on January 3.

SOS Chretiens d'Orient, which is also active in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, is one of several Western charities working with Christians in the Middle East.

The aim of the group is to "help Christian communities remain (in the region) and rebuild" their lives, Blanchard said.

- Persecution after Saddam fell -

The organisation, which is fiercely critical of Islam, portraying it as a threat to Christianity in the Middle East, drew criticism in the past for sending young French volunteers to Syria and Iraq for months at a time.

Photos regularly published by the non-government organisaiton on Twitter show volunteers visiting Christian families in Arbil and conducting French language classes.

Before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the number of Christians in Iraq, home to one of the world's oldest Christian populations, ran to an estimated 1.5 million.

After the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein they suffered widespread persecution, culminating with the purges carried out by IS in 2014.

By the summer of 2019, their number had fallen to around 250,000, Arbil Archbishop Bashar Warda said during a speech in Britain last year, warning the community was "close to extinction".

Several Western countries including France had nationals kidnapped by armed groups in Syria in 2013 and 2014 but in recent years the situation has eased.

Radio France Internationale said Friday that two of its freelancers were kidnapped briefly last month before being released.

Currently, the only French person confirmed being held hostage anywhere in the world is Sophie Petronin, an elderly charity worker abducted by gunmen in northern Mali in December 2016.

No group claimed responsibility for kidnapping until July 2017, when Al-Qaeda's Mali branch released a video showing her.

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Iraqis mass to urge US troop ouster, rival rallies turn deadly
Baghdad (AFP) Jan 24, 2020
Two anti-government protesters were killed in clashes with security forces in the Iraqi capital on Friday, hours after thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied separately to demand the ouster of US troops. Four NGO workers, three of them French nationals, were also reported missing in Baghdad, rocked since October by a youth-dominated protest movement demanding a government overhaul, early elections and more accountability. More than 470 people have died in protest-related v ... read more