Protesters storm Baghdad’s Green Zone

Associated Press

BAGHDAD

Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and gunshots in the air as hundreds of anti-government protesters stormed Baghdad’s heavily secured Green Zone on Friday. Several demonstrators, mostly supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, were wounded as the crowd rushed the prime minister’s office and the parliament building.

The violence prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to impose a curfew in the country’s capital, but it was lifted just a few hours later. By evening, the protesters were cleared from the Green Zone compound.

Earlier in the day, crowds of mostly young men gathered outside the Green Zone walls, with their numbers swelling into the thousands. This led security forces to push through the crowd on foot, firing volleys of tear gas in an effort to push the people back from the gates.

The violence quickly escalated. The protesters who made it into the Green Zone rushed toward the prime minister’s office and the parliament building. Some posted jubilant photographs from inside the premier’s office on social media sites.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw several protesters badly wounded, and one was shot in the head.