Iraq’s military yesterday admitted for the first time it had used “excessive force” in nearly a week of deadly protests, as paramilitary units said they were ready to back the government.
More than 100 people have been killed and several thousand wounded in demonstrations increasingly spiraling into violence, with witnesses reporting security forces using water cannons, tear gas and live rounds.
A mass protest on Sunday evening in Sadr City in east Baghdad led to clashes that medics and security forces said left 13 people dead.
Photo: AP
In videos distributed on social media, protesters could be seen ducking into streets littered with burning tires as a volley of gunfire and suspected heavy weapons were heard.
“Excessive force outside the rules of engagement was used and we have begun to hold accountable those commanding officers who carried out these wrong acts,” the military said.
It said Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi had ordered those forces to be replaced with federal police units and the intelligence services to open an investigation into the incident.
It was the first time since protests broke out that security forces acknowledged using disproportionate measures, after the prime minister insisted they had been acting “within international standards” in dealing with demonstrations.
Across Baghdad yesterday as in several southern cities, streets were reopening and no protests could be seen, although demonstrators typically gather in the late evening.
Sadr City, a densely populated, impoverished part of the capital, is a bastion of famed firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has thrown his weight behind the protests by calling on Abdel Mahdi’s government to resign.
However, the prime minister instead announced a series of reforms to create jobs, boost social welfare and oust corrupt officials.
Abdel Mahdi has accused “saboteurs” of infiltrating the protests, a claim echoed by the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful network of mostly-Shiite, pro-Iran paramilitary units.
“We know who stands behind these protests. The plan to bring down the regime has failed,” its leader Faleh al-Fayyadh told journalists in Baghdad.
He said his forces would support actions against corrupt institutions, but not “the fall of the regime,” a chant which has featured more prominently in the protests in recent days.
“Those who wanted to defame Iraq will be punished,” Fayyadh said, adding that his forces were “ready for any government order.”
His words echoed a statement earlier yesterday by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who accused “enemies” of trying to drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad.
“Enemies seek to sow discord but they’ve failed & their conspiracy won’t be effective,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on his office’s Twitter account.
However, Iran has urged its citizens planning to take part in a major Shiite pilgrimage in Iraq to delay their travel into the country over the violence.
Abdel Mahdi also said yesterday that he discussed the recent events and reform plans in a telephone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, without providing further details.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing