Security forces open fire, kill 3 protesters

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces killed three protesters in Baghdad on Friday and forcibly dispersed protesters blocking the country’s main port near Basra.

Security forces opened fire and launched tear gas at protesters on a central Baghdad bridge, police sources said. Two people died from bullet wounds and one from a tear gas canister launched directly at the head. At least 27 more were injured.

In the south, security forces reopened the entrance to Iraq’s main port, Ummqasr, which protesters had blocked since Monday, port sources said, but normal operations had not yet resumed. At least 329 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Protesters are demanding the overthrow of a political class seen as corrupt and serving foreign powers while many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, health care or education.

Unsatisfied by government reform promises they see as meagre, many protesters have turned to civil disobedience tactics in recent weeks.

They had previously blocked Umm Qasr from October 29 to November 9, apart from a brief resumption of operations for three days. It receives imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food. The initial blockage cost Iraq more than $6 billion during just the first week of the closure.

Protesters in Baghdad are also disrupting traffic, and are still holding ground, controlling parts of three major bridges which lead to the capital’s fortified Green Zone, where government buildings are located. REUTERS