Baghdad in State of Emergency as Protesters Storm Parliament Near US Embassy
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday ordered the arrest of hundreds of supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who stormed Iraq's parliament Saturday evening and camped out, demanding reforms in the political quota system that was introduced after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
A United Nations spokesman and western diplomats said their compounds inside the Green Zone were locked down, according to Reuters, which also said some of the demonstrators set up tents at a nearby parade ground.
The Green Zone houses the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and many embassies, including the U.S. Embassy.
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"I was thrilled to be in that room. It was like being in a place you only see on television," a 26-year-old protester, Abdullah al-Zaidi, told The Washington Post of the storming of parliament. "When I entered I was looking at chairs, and I wanted to break them because the politicians are killing us and stealing from us from these chairs."
Al-Abadi, who is also Shiite and has asked the interior ministry to arrest demonstrators inside the Green Zone, has warned that protests, which have been going on for months and have now culminated into the storming of parliament, could hamper the war against the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which controls many areas in northern and western Iraq.
"Today the people announced their revolution," said al-Sadr, who has been against U.S. troops and has threatened to topple the government, in a statement. "History will record the birth of a new Iraq, from the ashes of corruption and the corrupt."
The protesters, many of whom were shouting "The cowards ran away!" as lawmakers sought to flee, tried to assault them. Five Kurdish lawmakers were rescued by Kurdish peshmerga forces after locking themselves in a room in the building for safety.
"They [Sadrs' supporters] constitute 8 to 9 percent of the parliament and they want to impose their idea on the rest of the parliament, which is impossible," Khasro Goran, a leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Rudaw. "They have scared people many times saying that they will attack the parliament."
The Iraqi prime minister was scheduled to seek approval for more changes in the cabinet during the parliament session Saturday. The country's quota system provides for political positions based on sect and ethnicity, and al-Abadi has been trying to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats.
The unrest started after al-Sadr held a press conference in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, condemning the political deadlock in the deeply divided parliament.
Also on Saturday, at least 21 people were killed and dozens wounded in Baghdad in a car bombing. A man driving a car exploded a bomb, targeting Shiite pilgrims, in the southeastern section of the city, according to The Associated Press.
