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| Pro-Iran crowd entered Tahrir Sq and led to stabbings (AFP) |
A crowd of pro-Iran Hashd and their supporters marched into Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and attacked the protesters there. This might have been in response to a call from the Iranian leadership to exact revenge upon the people that burned its consulate in southern Iraq recently. It also has a precedent as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki used a similar tactic to try to disrupt demonstrations that were going on in the country back in 2011.
On December 5 a
large pro-Tehran group entered Tahrir Square with the intent of disrupting the
demonstrations. They began by chanting against the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Saddam, and waved Iraqi and Hashd
flags. Some had pictures of fallen Hashd, while others had portraits of Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani. Eventually some of its members wielded knives and began
stabbing protesters. Up to 20 were stabbed during the day. An Interior Ministry
official blamed Asaib Ahl Al-Haq for the act, and said that it also wanted to
kidnap some of the activists, but failed. People have been kidnapped and
murdered around Tahrir Square for weeks now. This was the newest act of
intimidation unleashed by those that oppose the unrest, and might have come
upon the orders of Tehran.
After the Iranian
consulate in Najaf was burned by protesters for a third time, there was a call
for retaliation. On November 3, the Iranian consulate in Karbala was set afire by a crowd, and then
the same thing happened to its consulate in Najaf three times on November 27, December 1 and December 3. That happened because protesters have seen Tehran’s influence in Iraq
as a nefarious one. After the December 1 fire an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the protesters bastards
and demanded that the Hashd deal with them. The stabbings then might have been
in response to these statements. Iran was instrumental in organizing the shootings and bloody crackdown upon the protests in
October when they started, and tried to keep Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi in
power. Ordering its Iraqi allies to attack Tahrir Square would not be out of
the ordinary, and Tehran has used counter protests to challenge its
demonstrations at home as well.
Finally, this type
of intimidation has been used before. Back in 2011 when the country was facing
its first real demonstration movement Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered
his followers to assault protesters who once again were based out of Tahrir
Square. In February, a group of men beat and stabbed demonstrators while the Iraqi Security
Forces stood by and watched. The governments of PM Maliki, PM Abadi and PM
Abdul Mahdi all used force against the protests they faced. This new attack
could have very well been ordered by Baghdad. Since it’s being supported by
Iran this could have all been connected together.
SOURCES
Agence France Presse, “Pro-paramilitary demonstrators flood Iraqi protest
camp,” 12/5/19
Al Arabiya, “Iraqi protesters torch Iranian consulate in Najaf for third
time in a week,” 12/3/19
Arraf, Jane, “Iraqi officials bend to protesters’ demands,” Christian
Science Monitor, 2/22/11
Bas News, “20 protesters were stabbed in Tahrir Square, central Baghdad,”
12/5/19
Human Rights Watch, “Iraq Widening Crackdown on Protests,” 4/21/11
Al Hurra, “Activists stabbed Tahrir Square .. An Iraqi official reveals
details and the identity of the perpetrators,” 12/5/19
Knights, Michael, “Exposing and Sanctioning Human Rights Violations by
Iraqi Militias,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 10/22/19
Shafaaq News, “Protesters blockade the Iranian consulate in Karbala and
set fire to its wall,” 11/3/19
Sotaliraq, “Khamenei adviser: Burning consulate in Najaf by “hired
bastards,”” 12/1/19
Al Sumaria, “Renewed fire broke out at the Iranian consulate in Najaf,”
12/1/19
- “Video .. Iraqi protests burn the Iranian consulate in Najaf,” 11/27/19
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