Supporters of pro-Iran groups protest near Baghdad’s Green Zone

BAGHDAD

Supporters of Iraqi groups close to Iran staged demonstrations in the capital Baghdad on Monday amid attempts to storm the fortified Green Zone.

Supporters of the Coordination Framework bypassed three military checkpoints and rallied at the gate of the Green Zone, according to an Anadolu Agency reporter at the scene.

Security forces intervened to break up the crowd, using water cannons to prevent protesters from storming the zone, he said.

Demonstrators chanted slogans against Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and in support of former Premier Nouri al-Maliki.

For his part, Qais Khazali, the leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a powerful Shia faction, called on protesters to withdraw from the area, a call heeded by demonstrators.

Tension escalated across Iraq in recent days following the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as a new prime minister by the Coordination Framework amid protests by supporters of influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Iraq has been in a political deadlock for nine months following the country’s general elections last October, which failed since then to agree on a new government between the rival parties.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat in Ankara