BAGHDAD, Dec 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Crowds backing a paramilitary force close to Iran flooded the Iraqi capital’s main protest camp on Thursday, rattling anti-government demonstrators who have denounced Tehran’s role in their country.
Their flash-protest hinted at a new effort to delegitimize or intimidate the regime change movement and came after the apparent torture and death of a 19-year-old girl taking part in the rallies.
Since October, the youth-dominated protest movement in Iraq’s capital and Shiite-majority south has slammed the entrenched political class as corrupt, inept and beholden to neighbouring Iran.
Iran holds vast sway among Iraq’s ruling figures and military actors, chiefly the Shiite-majority Hashed al-Shaabi armed network.
On Thursday, several thousand people waving sticks, Iraqi flags and the Hashed’s logo marched to Tahrir Square, the epicentre of anti-government protests in the capital.
They chanted against the United States, Saudi Arabia and ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in the US-led invasion of 2003, and even briefly against Iran.
Some carried portraits of Hashed fighters killed while battling jihadists and of the country’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
The crowds carried signs opposing “vandals”, referring to those attacking public or private property in the rallies.
There were no confrontations on Thursday.
Mass rallies have rocked Iraq’s capital and south since early October, first denouncing government graft and a lack of jobs before moving to broader demands for deep-rooted regime change.
Nearly 430 people have been killed and 20,000 wounded since demonstrations erupted.
The victims’ families have been demanding justice for their loved ones and many of them hit the streets of Iraq’s southern Diwaniyah on Thursday.
A verdict for security force members accused of violence against protesters in Diwaniyah was scheduled for Thursday, but the session was indefinitely postponed.
On Sunday, an Iraqi court sentenced a police officer to death after convicting him of killing demonstrators, the first such sentence in the two months of deadly unrest.
In the southern hotspot of Nasiriyah, hundreds gathered at the main protest camp in the city centre, joined by delegations from the province’s powerful tribes.
Tribal dignitaries intervened last week to tamp down tensions between protesters and security forces after more than two dozen people were killed in a bloody crackdown.
A spree of violence left several dozen dead in the south last week, ultimately paving the way for the embattled prime minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi, to resign at the weekend.
President Barham Saleh has been formally tasked with naming a successor.
