The Iraqi Prime Minister, Mostafa al Kazemi, has ordered the opening of the suspension bridge in the center of the capital, Baghdad, after the ‘sadrist’ movement has completed its withdrawal from the Green Zone, where the government and diplomatic headquarters are located.
The Joint Operations Command, after lifting the curfew in Baghdad and the other Iraqi provinces, has ordered an end to the state of maximum alert following the serious clashes in the capital, which have left nearly 30 dead, most of them the deceased related to the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr.
Likewise, the Iranian authorities have announced, after the situation returns to relative normality, the opening of its border with Iraq, although for the moment it remains closed pending the guarantee of security in the country, according to what has been collected the IRNA news agency.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Education has announced that official working hours will resume tomorrow in educational institutions -universities, colleges and institutes- of all governorates, according to the NINA news agency.
The Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, after officially retiring from politics, gave protesters an ultimatum on Tuesday to withdraw in less than an hour from the capital’s Green Zone, after which the crowd began to leave the place.
Before warning his supporters to withdraw in less than an hour, the Shiite cleric had started a hunger strike to demand an end to the violence in the country, which had decreed a nationwide curfew that has subsequently been gotten up.
Members of the Saraya al Salam militia, which supports Al Sadr, have been involved in clashes in recent hours with Iranian-backed militias and have thrown grenades around the capital’s Green Zone.
Security forces have used tear gas as well as live ammunition to contain protesters, before political leaders appealed for restraint from all sides. Among the institutions raided was the building that houses the prime minister’s office.
Al Sadr, who had spent weeks mobilizing his hundreds of thousands of supporters in Baghdad to the point of having taken over Parliament twice, demanded the calling of new elections after ten months of failure to form a government.
Source: Europa Press
