Iraqis flooded the streets of the capital and southern cities Sunday in a general strike that bolstered the weekslong movement demanding a government overhaul. Sit-ins have become the go-to tactic for the rallies that erupted in early October in rage over corruption, a lack of jobs and an out-of-touch political class.
They have resisted efforts by security forces to snuff them out and Sunday, thousands came out across the country after activists called for a general strike.
Also Sunday, a rocket hit Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, which houses embassies and government buildings, but caused no casualties or major damage, two police sources said.
Diplomatic sources said aerial bombardment sirens sounded after a blast.
In the southern hotspots of Kut, Najaf, Diwaniyah and Nasiriyah, schools and government offices were shut as crowds hit the streets.
Protesters cut roads in the oil-rich port city of Basra by burning tires and in Hillah, south of Baghdad, students and other activists massed in front of the provincial headquarters.
“We’ll keep up our protest and general strike with all Iraqis until we force the government to resign,” said Hassan al-Tufan, a lawyer and political activist.
In Baghdad hundreds of students skipped class to gather in Tahrir Square, the beating heart of the protest movement.
“No politics, no parties, this is a student awakening!” one banner carried by young Iraqis with rucksacks read.
They waved the Iraqi tricolor, marching north from Tahrir to the nearby Khallani Square.
Security forces had pulled back from their positions along that street early Saturday and demonstrators spilled out into those neighborhoods and onto the nearby Al-Sinek Bridge.
They immediately set up tents on a first segment of the bridge, facing off against riot police stationed behind two layers of thick concrete blast walls.
Just beyond those barriers was the embassy of neighboring Iran, which protesters have criticized for propping up the government they want to bring down.
“We students are here to help the other protesters, and we won’t retreat a single step,” a teenager wearing thick black-framed glasses said.
Speaking anonymously because he said he had been threatened for his involvement in the anti-government movement, he said hundreds of teenagers had skipped class.
The government has proposed a laundry list of reforms in recent weeks but demonstrators have brushed them off as too little, too late in a country ranked the 12th most corrupt in the world by Transparency International.
“These steps, these reforms are just an opiate for the masses. Nothing more, nothing less,” another protester said Sunday.
Pointing across the river to the area where Parliament, the premier’s office and other key buildings are, he insisted the protesters wanted “new faces.”
“There are so many capable young people in Iraq who are deprived - and unfortunately those are the guys that rule us?” he said.
Agencies
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