The Iraqi police opened fire on the day before yesterday on thousands of protesters in Baghdad who returned to the streets after a three-week truce. The protests initially broke out to denounce corruption and unemployment and turned into bloody confrontations with the police.
After Baghdad, the protests spread to the southern parts of the country where the authorities declared a curfew and closed the internet. After a week of repression, the inquiry committee, formed by the government, deduced that the police committed acts of extreme violence which led to the death of 149 people and the injury of 3000 others.
Following this, the authorities pledged to avoid violence while police were deployed throughout Baghdad to deal with protests on Friday. However, thousands of protesters crossed the Republic Bridge, which leads to the Green Zone, where the US embassy and Iraqi government headquarters are located, and was shot by police and fired by tear gas.
The majority of protesters are mostly unemployed young people who claim to be hired and who denounce the decline in the quality of services in Iraq.
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