BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – Iraqi security forces have cleared concrete blocks from main protest sites in Baghdad and Basra, which a group of rioters had used to disrupt normal life.
Security forces descended on Tayaran Square, Mohammad Qasim highway and Ahrar Bridge in Baghdad on Saturday to open them to traffic.
As they began opening roads, a group of protesters reportedly attacked them, triggering clashes which left several casualties.
Medics said security forces were using tear gas and live rounds to clear protest camps across the capital.
The decision to open roads came a day after hundreds of thousands of Iraqis rallied in Baghdad to call for an end to U.S. military presence in the country following high-profile assassinations and airstrikes targeting anti-terror forces.
Huge crowds of men, women and children of all ages converged on the Jadriyah neighborhood near Baghdad University, with protesters carrying banners and chanting slogans calling for the expulsion of U.S. forces.
The massive rally came after influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage "a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations”.
Protesters chanted "get out, get out, occupier” as they massed in the Jadiriyah district of east Baghdad. Others chanted "Death to America”, while the Iraqi flag was widely flown.
The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has lauded the million-strong march against the presence of U.S. troops, stating that the demonstration well exhibited Iraqis’ total rejection of American occupation.
"The Iraqi people confirmed today their outright rejection of U.S. occupation of their country once again. These blessed and loyal masses displayed the unity of the Iraqi nation in the face of American occupation and hegemony,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
It added that the mass protest in Baghdad against U.S. troop presence in Iraq was a "true representation of the status quo in Arab and Muslim societies, where people are fed up with U.S. occupation and its dominion over their resources.”
Hezbollah expressed hope that the anti-U.S. demonstration in Iraq would spell the beginning of huge protest rallies across the Muslim world that would eventually result in the expulsion of U.S. troops and their proxies from the entire West Asia.
"The great Iraqi nation, including all political parties and diverse inclinations, will be faithful to this great march, its principles, goals as well as mottos,” the Lebanese resistance movement pointed out, hoping for a "free, unified and independent Iraq free from foreign occupation forces and their interference.”