Iraqis Angry Afer Pence Visits Erbil Instead of Baghdad

Senior Leader: U.S., Zionists Stirring Iraq Unrest

Date: 24 November 2019 - 21:40

News ID: ۷۳۰۹۹

BASRA, Iraq (Dispatches) – At least seven people were killed and dozens others injured in fresh riots in Baghdad and southern Iraq, police and medical sources announced on Sunday, as a senior leader said the U.S. and the occupying regime of Israel are behind the violent unrest.
In Nassiriya, rioters who had gathered overnight on three bridges were dispersed by police. Police and health officials said three people were killed, and hospital sources said another person died later from bullet wounds to his head.
Baghdad is bisected by the Tigris river which is crossed by many bridges. In recent weeks, rioters have repeatedly occupied bridges to cripple transportation.
Two people were killed and over 70 wounded near the country’s main Persian Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, police and medical sources said.
The protesters had gathered to demand security forces open roads around the port town. Authorities have blocked the roads to try to prevent protesters from reaching the port’s entrance.
Umm Qasr is Iraq’s largest commodities port, taking in grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food.
Earlier this month, security forces reopened the entrance to the key port which had been blocked by protesters, preventing employees and tankers from entering and bringing operations down by 50%.
In Baghdad, one protester was killed during overnight demonstrations in al-Rasheed street in the city centre, police and medical sources said.
Protests flared anew on Sunday on the street as rioters sought to reach the road leading to the central bank. At least 15 protesters were wounded, police and medical sources said.
At least 330 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
In Basra, rioters burned tires and blocked some roads, preventing government employees from reaching offices, police said. They set fire to a police vehicle in the city center.
At least 24 people were wounded in the holy city of Karbala overnight as rioters were prevented by police from raiding the local government headquarters, medical and security sources said.
The leader of Iraq's Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, which is part of the popular Hashd al-Sha’abi force, said Washington and Tel Aviv are members of "a third party", that has been behind many deaths during the recent unrest.
Qais al-Khazali told Dijlah TV, an Amman-based Iraqi satellite television channel, on Saturday that the committee set up to investigate the violence is merely an administrative body, and thus cannot identify the "third party” responsible for the killing of demonstrators.
He stressed that "Israel and U.S. have a great role in the third party."
Khazali further said the probe into the deaths in Iraq should not be restricted to the question of who killed the protesters, but also examine who "eased” the way for the killers and who gave them order.
Earlier this month, Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari told France 24's Arabic-language channel that a "third party” is behind shooting at the Iraqi demonstrators.
"The Iraqi national security forces are not the ones who are killing the protesters,” Shammari said. "There is a third party killing the protesters to push protesters to clash with security forces to spread instability in Iraq.”
On Saturday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence made an unannounced visit to Iraq where his trip to the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region drew angry reaction from Iraqi politicians.
He met with Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the  Iraqi Kurdistan region, in Erbil and also received a classified briefing at the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq's Western Anbar Province.
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi criticized Pence for holding talks with Kurdish officials in Erbil instead of federal government officials in Baghdad.
"Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, not Erbil,” read a post on Abadi's Facebook page on Saturday.
Last December, U.S. President Donald Trump paid a similar unannounced visit to al-Asad air base but did not travel to Baghdad, triggering fierce criticisms from Iraqi officials.
Trump acknowledged security concerns about visiting Iraq, saying it was "pretty sad” that he needed such secrecy to see American troops.