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IRAQ WARS
Prominent activist gunned down in Iraq shrine city Karbala
by Staff Writers
Karbala, Iraq (AFP) Dec 8, 2019

Iraq protesters turn out in defiance after Baghdad attack
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 7, 2019 - Iraqi protesters defiantly turned out on Saturday across the country's south and in the capital, where a dozen people were killed in an overnight attack by unidentified gunmen.

The assailants briefly ousted demonstrators from a building they had occupied for weeks in Baghdad, despite the presence of security forces nearby who did not intervene.

The panicked protesters rushed out into the street, sending out calls through social media for people to come to their main gathering place in Tahrir Square.

Before dawn on Saturday, hundreds had arrived.

"I came after the incident and there were tons of people in Tahrir and by Al-Sinek," a nearby bridge, one demonstrator told AFP, adding he was shocked by the lax security measures.

"The police were there but didn't even search me," he said.

Many of the new arrivals were suspected to be members of Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades), the paramilitary group headed by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Sadr has backed the protests, but many demonstrators who were proud of their movement's relative political independence have been wary of his support.

A source within Saraya told AFP one of its own members had died in the overnight clash, and that more unarmed members had been sent to Tahrir "to protect protesters."

The demonstrator said he saw men in Tahrir carrying sticks and wearing cargo vests with makeshift fire bombs packed inside them.

Further south in Nasiriyah, the usual rallies swelled with crowds upset over the previous night's developments in Baghdad, an AFP correspondent said.

"We are coming in solidarity with Baghdad," one said.

Security forces were also deployed in Nasiriyah, where protests have continued despite an attempted crackdown last week that left more than two dozen dead.

In Diwaniyah, another protest hotspot, thousands turned out early on Saturday but security forces, too, spread across the streets in larger numbers.

The overnight bloodshed rattled protesters, who had feared a spiral into chaos after supporters of the Hashed al-Shaabi security force flooded Tahrir on Thursday.

They worried such a show of force could set up a confrontation between the Hashed and others in the square.

Around 440 people have died and 20,000 have been wounded since anti-government rallies erupted on October 1 in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south.

A prominent civil society activist was shot dead late Sunday in Iraq's shrine city of Karbala while returning home from anti-government protests, a neighbour told AFP.

Fahem al-Tai, 53, had been taking part in weeks of rallies denouncing Iraq's entrenched political elite as corrupt, inept and beholden to neighbouring Iran.

On Sunday night, he was dropped off by two friends on a motorcycle near his home, according to a neighbour.

"The area is close to the shrines, the police station, the provincial headquarters -- it's a very secure area," the neighbour said.

"He was with two of his friends when he was killed."

In footage from a street security camera seen by AFP, Tai could be seen disembarking from a motorcycle when another motorcycle with two men pulled up behind him.

The passenger could be seen shooting Tai at least twice with a pistol that appeared to have a silencer on it, before the driver also begins shooting.

The footage shows the activist collapsing and the assailants driving off.

The gunmen and a white vehicle then chased down the two activists who had dropped Tai off, according to a relative.

One of them was shot in the back but they both survived.

More than 450 people have died and another 20,000 have been wounded since anti-regime rallies erupted in Iraq's capital and Shiite-majority south in October.

They include several activists gunned down in mysterious circumstances or abducted and later found dead.

In one particularly gruesome case last week, the bruised body of 19-year-old Zahra Ali was left outside her family home in Baghdad, hours after she had gone missing.

On Friday, relatives of Zeid al-Khafaji, a 22-year-old photographer, said he had been abducted whilst returning from Tahrir Square in the capital.

Protesters have for weeks complained of being monitored, threatened and harassed in an intimidation campaign meant to keep them from pursuing their movement.

There has been minimal accountability for the casualties or the kidnappings.

Tai, married with children, had been publicly critical of other intimidation attempts against protesters.

"We will be victorious and our country will return, despite you. Despite the pain inside us, we will smile. Despite you, despite your rotten parties," he wrote on Facebook less than a day before he died.

Iraqis protest to defy 'slaughter' in Baghdad as drone hits cleric's home
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 7, 2019 - Thousands attended angry protests in Baghdad and southern Iraq Saturday, grieving but defiant after 20 of them were killed in an attack the previous day that demonstrators described as "slaughter".

The protest movement faced another worrying turn on Saturday after an armed drone targeted the home of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr, an attack his office said could lead to "civil war."

The dramatic developments have threatened to derail the anti-government rallies rocking Iraq since October, the largest and deadliest grassroots movement in decades.

Late Friday, at least 20 protesters were killed or sustained wounds that later proved fatal, while dozens more were injured, when unidentified gunmen attacked a large building where protesters had camped out for weeks, medics said.

Four police officers also died, the medics said, with witnesses saying gunshots were fired in the dark from atop the building towards Al-Sinek, where security forces are stationed.

The toll rose throughout the day on Saturday as wounded demonstrators and police officers died in hospital.

The violence pushed the protest toll past 450 dead and to nearly 20,000 wounded, according to an AFP tally compiled from medics, police and a national rights commission.

Under stormy skies, young men in central Baghdad prayed over an Iraqi flag to mourn those who died the previous night, sobbing heavily.

Small clusters of protesters stood near the charred parking complex that was attacked, as larger crowds flocked to nearby Tahrir Square.

"They fired intensely, mercilessly on the protesters," one witness told AFP.

"They wouldn't let us evacuate the wounded. It was slaughter."

- 'Civil war' -

As night fell on Saturday, protesters feared the same scene would play out again.

"The same type of men who came in last night are back and police are not stopping them," one worried demonstrator told AFP.

Protesters had suspected their movement's legitimacy would be smeared or pushed towards chaos and were particularly wary of any partisan support.

After Friday's attack, large crowds headed to Tahrir in solidarity -- many of them apparently members of Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades), headed by Sadr.

The notoriously versatile cleric was one of the main sponsors of the current government but then backed the protests.

He sent his followers into the streets after Friday's attack "to protect protesters," a Saraya source told AFP.

But just a few hours later, Sadr's home in the shrine city of Najaf was hit by an apparent mortar round dropped by a drone, sources from his party told AFP.

"Only the external wall was damaged," one of them said, adding that Sadr was currently in Iran.

Dozens of his supporters flocked to his home on Saturday to show support, waving Iraqi flags and the cleric's picture while chanting, "We are all your soldiers!"

"This is a clear attack that could kindle a war -- maybe a civil war -- in Iraq. Self-restraint is essential," Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Obeidi told AFP.

Lawmakers from Sadr's Saeroon, which make up the largest bloc in parliament, called for an emergency session over Friday's violence.

The tensions continued into Saturday, when truckloads of armed men briefly blocked a main road near Tahrir, firing their weapons and shouting, witnesses said.

Army units then deployed on the street.

Further south in Nasiriyah, the usual rallies swelled with crowds also upset over the previous night's developments, an AFP correspondent said.

"We are coming in solidarity with Baghdad," one said.

- 'An atrocity' -

In Diwaniyah, another protest hotspot, thousands turned out early on Saturday but security forces, too, deployed in larger numbers.

In the first comment on the Friday incident from a senior official, President Barham Saleh called on authorities to "identify the criminals and bring them to justice".

The Kurdistan region's president later described the deaths as "unjustified crimes" and said they were "unacceptable."

The United Nations said "acts of violence that are gang-driven, arising from external loyalties, politically motivated or intended to settle scores, risk placing Iraq on a dangerous trajectory,"

Amnesty International said the attack "raises serious questions as to how heavily-armed gunmen in a fleet of vehicles were seemingly able to pass through Baghdad's checkpoints and inflict such a bloody onslaught."

The country has a complex security apparatus including the military, various police forces and the Hashed al-Shaabi, a mostly Shiite network including factions backed by Iran.

Tehran's pointman on Iraq, Major General Qasem Soleimani, has been in Baghdad for talks on a new prime minister after Adel Abdel Mahdi's recent resignation.

The US on Friday slammed Soleimani's presence as "a huge violation of Iraqi sovereignty."

It also slapped sanctions on three Iraqi Hashed leaders it accused of involvement in the deadly crackdown.


Related Links
Iraq: The first technology war of the 21st century


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IRAQ WARS
Pro-paramilitary demonstrators stream into Iraqi protest camp
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 5, 2019
Crowds backing a paramilitary force close to Iran streamed into the Iraqi capital's main protest camp on Thursday, rattling anti-government demonstrators who have denounced Tehran's role in their country. The flash protest hinted at a new effort to delegitimise or intimidate anti-government protesters, and came after the apparent torture and death of a 19-year-old girl taking part in the rallies. Youth-dominated mass rallies have rocked Iraq's capital and Shiite-majority south since October, sl ... read more

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