(25 May 2021) Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday to protest what they say is impunity by those behind a rising number of targeted killings of prominent activists and journalists.
Demonstrators gathered in the capital's Tahrir Square amid heavy security, among them protesters from southern provinces including Dhi Qar and Karbala.
Tensions there have mounted in recent weeks over the increasingly frequent targeted killings.
Many waved Iraqi flags and raised portraits of Ehab Wazni, a prominent activist assassinated in Karbala, among three targeted killings this month alone.
Protesters had given the government two weeks to hold his killers to account.
The semi-official Independent High Commission for Human Rights reported nearly 35 activists have been killed in Iraq since an anti-government protest movement swept Iraq in October 2019. There have been nearly 82 attempted killings since them.
In the last year alone, 15 Iraqis were killed and there were 30 attempted killings recorded by the commission, said spokesman Ali al-Bayati.
Protesters expressed outrage that despite launching several investigations into the killings, Iraqi authorities have not named any perpetrators.
They widely believe the killers to be linked to Iran-backed militia groups and that the government is powerless and unwilling to identify them.
Heavy security deployments were seen in central Baghdad ahead of the protest.
Tens of thousands of protesters, most of them Iraqi youth, took to the streets on October 2019 to decry corruption, poor services and unemployment in late 2019 when demonstrators camped out in Tahrir Square for months.
Demonstrators camped out in Tahrir Square for months.
But the movement petered out by February last year owing to the government’s heavy handed response and the coronavirus pandemic. Over 500 people died because security forces used live ammunition and tear canisters to disperse crowds.
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