BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – An
investigation has begun into the deaths and injuries of demonstrators and security forces after clashes in Baghdad on Friday while fresh protests against the election result erupted in the capital on Saturday, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported, citing Iraq’s Joint Operations Command.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered the formation of a committee to investigate following clashes between Iraqi security forces and supporters of parties that are disputing the results of a general election in October.
The statement added that “the negligent will be brought to legal accountability for their negligence and violation of the explicit orders of the commander in chief, which stressed that live bullets should not be fired under any circumstances,” INA reported.
Al-Kadhimi also ordered compensation for victims of the clashes and decided to personally supervise the progress of the investigation, INA said.
It was the first significant violent clash between government forces and supporters of the political parties, since those groups lost dozens of parliament seats after the Oct. 10 vote.
Police fired tear gas and live ammunition into the air as scores of the protesters threw stones and tried to advance toward Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign embassies, the security sources said.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Health and Environmental, 125 people, including 27 civilians and nearly one hundred security forces, were injured during the violence in central Baghdad.
Some reports said up to three people were killed in the confrontations.
Hundreds of Iraqis also staged a fresh demonstration Saturday in the Iraqi capital over election results.
The parties that made the biggest gains in Iraq’s October election include that of populist Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has called for all remaining Western troops to withdraw from the country.
Sadr, whose party won 73 seats to be the largest group in the country’s 329-strong parliament, issued a message to demonstrators.
“Peaceful demonstrations for the sake of electoral appeals should not turn into demonstrations of violence and belittle the state, just as the state should not resort to violence against peaceful demonstrators. A right guaranteed rationally, legally,” he said.
Referring to the anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) or Hashd al-Sha’abi, Sadr added that, “Then I address my words to the demonstrators, and I say: The Popular Mobilization is a mobilization of jihad … their martyrs against terrorism are blood of glory and honor, and we will not forget them. So, preserve your history, and it (the government of the national majority) will be defending you, away from the domestic and foreign policy projects that want to harm you for the sake of their partisan and sectarian gains.”
Additionally, the PMU released a statement to voice regret over “unfortunate events” in Baghdad and the “unjustified attacks on peaceful demonstrators.”