BAGHDAD: Seven protesters were killed on Saturday in Iraq as security forces cleared protest sites in Baghdad and Basra after political leaders agreed to stand by the embattled government by any means.

The leaders, sources said, also agreed to put an end to rallies rocking Iraq’s capital and its south since October 1 and demanding an overhaul of the political system.

The crackdown began in the morning when security forces wrested back control from demonstrators of three bridges spanning the River Tigris in the heart of Baghdad.

Iraqi forces then moved towards Tahrir (Liberation) Square, ground zero for the month-long movement demanding regime change, firing live rounds and tear gas.

Three demonstrators died from bullet wounds and a fourth when a tear gas canister pierced his skull, medics and police sources said.

“The security forces are getting closer to us, but the protesters are trying to hold them off by burning tires,” a doctor in Tahrir said.

“We can hear live fire now and there are so many wounded.” Three protesters were killed and dozens wounded in the southern city of Basra, medical sources said, as security forces cleared a protest camp outside the provincial government headquarters. Security forces also rounded up demonstrators in Basra.

And in Kerbala, the tents of protesters were reduced to ashes when security forces fired searing hot tear gas canisters at them.

The bloodshed came after political leaders agreed to rally around Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, whose embattled government was threatened by the largest and deadliest grassroots protests in Iraq in decades.

Abdel Mahdi, 77, came to power last year through a shaky alliance between populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Hadi al-Ameri, a leader of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network.

When the protests first erupted in October, Sadr threw his weight behind them while the Hashed backed the government. But they closed rank around the premier this week after a series of meetings led by Major General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s foreign operations arm.

Soleimani, who often plays a mediating role during times of crisis in Iraq, met Sadr and persuaded him to return to the fold, said a source present at the meetings.

“Those meetings resulted in an agreement that Abdel Mahdi would remain in office,” the source said. Sadr has since gone silent amid reports he is in Iran.

The source also said Soleimani met Mohammed Ridha Sistani, the son of Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. But on Saturday Sistani’s office issued a statement denying that cleric “was part of a deal for the current government to stay and the protests to end”.

Another source said political factions agreed this week to move forward on reforms and constitutional amendments if the premier and government stayed in place.

“They agreed to end the protests with any means possible and to reopen the bridges and shuttered streets,” said a senior member of a party represented at the gathering.

Abdel Mahdi met President Barham Saleh on Saturday for the first time in days.

Government sources had said ties between them had been cut after Saleh proposed the premier be replaced.

And on Saturday parliament convened to discuss reform proposals, including hiring drives and increased welfare payouts.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2019