Followers of Iraq's Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr storm Baghdad's Green Zone after lawmakers failed to convene for a vote on overhauling the government. (Reuters Photo)
A state of emergency was declared in the Iraqi capital on Saturday as protesters stormed Iraq's parliament, after bursting into the Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, where other key buildings including the U.S. Embassy are located, in a dramatic escalation of the country's political crisis.
Live footage on Iraqi television showed swarms of protesters, who have been demanding government reform, inside the parliament building, waving flags, chanting and breaking chairs. Some lawmakers were berated and beaten with flags as they fled the building while other demonstrators smashed the car windows. Others remained trapped inside rooms in parliament and feared for their lives, lawmakers said.
Baghdad Operations Command said all roads into the capital had been closed. A U.S. Embassy official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that staff were not being evacuated from their compound, which is about a mile away from the parliament building. Organizers of the demonstration urged protesters not to attack embassies.
The surge of protesters into the secure area, which is off limits to most Iraqis, was the culmination of months of street protests. Under huge political pressure, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has attempted to reshuffle his cabinet and meet the demands of the demonstrators, who have been spurred on by the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. But he has been hampered by a deeply divided parliament, where sessions have descended into chaos as lawmakers have thrown water bottles and punches at one another.
The political unrest has brought a new level of instability to a country that is facing multiple crises, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the struggling economy.
"This is a new era in the history of Iraq," screamed one demonstrator in the main lobby of the parliament, in footage on Iraqi television. Another said, "They have been robbing us for the past 13 years."
At the heart of the protesters demands is an end to the political quota system, which was put in place after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and sees positions shared out between sects. Sadr has demanded a new technocratic government.
"This is an end to the political system put in place after 2003," said Shwan al-Dawoodi, a Kurdish lawmaker. "A big part of the blame for this is on America, which left Iraq without solving this crisis it created."
Earlier in the day, not enough lawmakers had turned up in parliament to officially convene a session in which Abadi was due to present names for a cabinet reshuffle.
The session had been postponed until the afternoon, but before it was held, Sadr, a leader in the resistance to the American troop presence in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, held a news conference from the southern city of Najaf.
"They are against reform, they hope to behead the will of the Iraqi people," he said of the country's politicians. "I'm with the people, no matter what they decide. I'm standing and waiting for a major uprising of the Iraqi people."
Shortly afterward, protesters, many of whom are Sadr loyalists, pushed through the multiple security cordons around parliament.
Rumors swirled that lawmakers - many of them living inside the Green Zone - were trying to flee the city. Ammar Toma, a politician with the Shiite Fadhila Party who had criticized lawmakers who had earlier staged a sit-in inside parliament, was accosted as he tried to leave the parliament building, video footage showed. "Hit him, hit him," one protester shouted.
One video posted online showed protesters riding around on a military vehicle.
Dawoodi said protesters had tried to attack him and his car as he escaped parliament, and that there was a state of panic in the legislature as they heard that protesters had broken through. Five Kurdish parliamentarians were still stuck inside on Saturday afternoon, along with members of other political blocs, he said.
"They have locked themselves inside rooms and are scared for their lives," he said. He blamed the prime minister for putting their lives at risk after local television reports cited Abadi as saying he had ordered protesters be allowed into the Green Zone. Abadi's office issued a statement denying that he had.
U.S. officials are concerned that the political crisis will have a negative effect on the country's fight against the Islamic State, leading to a flurry of high level visits in recent weeks. "Now is not the time for government gridlock or bickering," President Barack Obama said of the crisis in Iraq during a visit to Saudi Arabia last week. He said that he was "concerned" by the situation.
Protest organizers said that the demonstrators would remain in parliament in a peaceful sit-in, and directed them not to attack lawmakers or property.
"What happened today was an explosion of the people," said Hussain al-Sharifi, a parliamentarian with Sadr's block. "Today was an uprising, a revolution."
The street protests began last summer, as thousands demonstrated over a lack of services and government waste and corruption. Abadi, also pressured to cut spending because of plunging oil prices, embarked on an ambitious reform program but has struggled to enact any meaningful change powerful political players standing to lose out.
Positioning himself as a crusader for reform, Sadr called his followers to the streets in a show of force earlier this year.
© 2016 The Washington Post
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