Security forces must keep peace, says Iraq’s top cleric

Iraq’s top cleric urged security forces on Friday to avoid using excessive force to quell weeks of anti-government protests as authorities grapple with the country’s biggest crisis in years.

Protests over a lack of jobs and services broke out in Baghdad on Oct.1 and quickly spread to southern provinces. Security forces began using live gunfire to disperse demonstrations almost immediately, and have killed more than 260 people, according to police and medics.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who only speaks on politics in times of crisis and wields enormous influence over public opinion in Iraq, held security forces accountable for any violent escalation and urged the government to respond as quickly as possible to demonstrators’ demands.

“The biggest responsibility is on the security forces,” a representative of Sistani said in a sermon after Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala. “They must avoid using excessive force with peaceful protesters.”

The protesters, mostly unemployed youths, now demand an overhaul of the political system and a corrupt ruling class which has dominated state institutions since the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The violent response from authorities has fuelled public anger. Snipers from Iran-backed militias that have participated in the crackdown were deployed last month, Reuters reported.

Live fire is still being used and even tear gas canisters, fired directly at protesters’ bodies instead of being lobbed into crowds, have killed at least 16 people, New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

Doctors at hospitals have shown reporters scans of tear gas canisters embedded in the skulls of dead protesters.

Sistani also warned against the exploitation of the unrest by “internal and external” forces which he said sought to destabilise Iraq for their own goals. He did not elaborate.

He said those in power must come up with a meaningful response to the demonstrations.

Handouts for the poor, promises to try corrupt officials and creation of more job opportunities for graduates have failed to placate protesters, whose demands include a new electoral system and the removal of all current political leaders.

The protesters have also rejected foreign interference in Iraq, which has long been caught between its two main allies and bitter rivals the United States and Iran.

Public anger has been directed particularly towards Iran, which supports the parties and paramilitary groups that dominate the Baghdad government and state institutions.

Meanwhile, masked men attacked anti-government protesters in Iraq’s southern city of Basra overnight, killing five and wounding scores, Iraqi state TV and medical officials said on Friday.

The shooting in Basra occurred around midnight on Thursday and wounded around 120 people, according to medical officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

In Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi state television said that explosive experts detonated a bomb under a bridge that has been a daily flashpoint between security forces and protesters trying to force their way into the heavily fortified Green Zone, which hosts the government’s headquarters.

The report gave no further details about the controlled detonation under Sinak bridge over the Tigris River that cuts through the capital city.

Also on Friday, protester Amir Shami said security forces tore down tents at an protest sit-in in the holy city of Karbala.

About 90,000 barrels of crude oil meant for export were trapped at a northern Iraq field on Thursday because transport routes were cut by protests, an industry source told reporters.

The Qayyarah field in northern Iraq produces 30,000 barrels per day of crude oil that is trucked to the southern port of Basra to be exported, but sit-ins have sealed off some of those roads.

A senior source at the North Oil Company, which manages the Qayyarah field, told reporters that trucks were unable to carry out that journey for a third consecutive day.

“These trucks usually transport the oil daily, but have been unable to do so since Tuesday because of what’s happening in Basra,” the source said.

Agencies