Violence rises in Iraq’s south amid crackdowns on protests and press

Iraqi security officers opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 35, as the government sought to quell violence that started with an attack on the Iranian Consulate in the city of Najaf, but then spread to other areas in the country’s south.

During the day, the violence centred on the southern city of Nasiriyah, where Wednesday the government had sent additional security forces to try to halt what had become daily violence there.

But Thursday, instead of using tear gas or sound bombs, the hard-line reinforcements from the Interior Ministry’s Quick Reaction Forces opened fire on mostly unarmed protesters in the early morning hours as they held a sit-in, killing at least 25 and wounding 160, according to a report from the Dhi Qar governor’s office and the Iraqi security forces’ Joint Operational Command.

Later in the day, violence resulting in at least 10 more deaths resumed in Najaf and Karbala, where the country’s two most venerated Shiite Muslim shrines are. Najaf, the seat of the most senior Shiite clergy, was where protesters the day before had set upon the Iranian Consulate, throwing gasoline bombs and chanting anti-Iranian slogans.

On Thursday, the protesters attacked one of the city’s most significant shrines, and the riot forces and popular mobilisation forces defending the site drove the demonstrators back using live fire, according to eyewitnesses.

In Karbala, there were clashes in the evening, and demonstrators hurled at least two grenades at the Iraqi security forces, injuring 19, according to a statement from the police in Karbala.

The attacks and unrest are part of a series of anti-government protests and riots that have broken out in recent weeks in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

In all three countries, the protesters have targeted government institutions or military figures viewed as connected to Iran. These are all countries where Shiite Iran has sought to extend its influence in the years since the United States-led invasion of Iraq severely diminished the power of Sunni governments and factions.

The onslaught in Nasiriyah against unarmed protesters infuriated many people, inciting them to join the protests and causing an outcry among both local political figures and, more significantly, tribal leaders.

Some armed tribal leaders joined the protesters Thursday. The tribes represent a formidable force but so far have mostly refrained from entering the fray. But if they did rally in force to the side of the protesters, the government could have trouble maintaining control.

The governor of Dhi Qar province, of which Nasiriyah is the capital, asked Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi to withdraw the Interior Ministry forces and their commander, Lt Gen Jamil al-Shammari. He was the one who ordered the troops to remove protesters from the bridges over the Euphrates River that they had blocked, and he had overseen the shooting.

“The ongoing campaign, with its bloody incidents since dawn, has obstructed efforts to calm down the situation, especially after our joint decision with the police command to withdraw the anti-riot forces outside the limits of Nasiriyah city and not to clash with the demonstrators,” the governor, Adil al-Dikhili, wrote to Mehdi.

The governor was referring to his strategy during the past two weeks to try to accommodate the protesters who had set up tents blocking two of the bridges over the Euphrates River and to avoid clashes by having the Quick Reaction Forces withdraw rather than stay in the centre city.

On Thursday at 3am the reinforcements for the Quick Reaction Forces from Baghdad, and their new commander, came with bulldozers to knock down the tents and force out the protesters. When the protesters resisted, the forces opened fire, killing at least 25 people and leaving many bleeding and injured on the ground.

The Quick Reaction Forces have previously drawn criticism for firing live ammunition and shooting tear gas canisters directly at Baghdad protesters, often giving them lethal head injuries.

By late Thursday, the military commander in charge of the forces in Nasiriyah, who had been sent there just a few days earlier to rein in the protesters, had been recalled to Baghdad. The Dhi Qar provincial governor, al-Dikhili, had resigned.

“It is a dishonour to be part of this system that kills the people of my own country,” he said in announcing his resignation.

In a separate action, the Iraqi government shut down Dijlah television in Baghdad almost immediately after the channel broadcast a report about allegedly corrupt practices by the director of the Communication and Media Commission, Ali al-Khuwayldi, accusing him of accepting an apartment in London in exchange for blocking competition in communications licensing.

Dijlah has been particularly assiduous about reporting on the protests, traveling to provincial capitals and interviewing scores of demonstrators. This week one of its cameramen filming the protests was beaten by a member of the Iraqi security forces in Al Muthanna province and was filmed by a colleague as he bled on the sidewalk after the assault.

The Communication and Media Commission, which has power over all broadcasters in Iraq, had been threatening to shut down nine channels, all headquartered outside the country, and many of which had been reporting critically on the government. The agency is controlled by the Dawa Party, a Shiite political party that has had ties to Iran.

“The CMC is supposed to be independent but it is not, and all of the CMC members are from the ruling parties,” said Ziad al-Ajili, the head of the Journalistic Freedom Observatory.

Noting that the CMC had accused Dijlah and other channels of instigating violence, Ajili asked, “Is it instigation of violence when a journalist shows killing or reports about the numbers of those killed? Is that a violation of the codes of broadcasting?”

Ajili added: “When journalists criticise violence against protesters, is that a violation of our humanitarian responsibility? Of course not, the violation of the law is killing unarmed youths.”

The US Embassy condemned the commission’s actions, saying that they “threatened freedom of speech.”

The Communications Commission responded, “We do not take orders from a foreign embassy.”

It defended its decision to close the channels based on the “observation of the rhetoric of these channels and the determination that there were catastrophic violations in the media rules” relating to speech that incites violence and disturbs public order.

© 2019 New York Times News Service