Protester Killed and Rockets Hit US Embassy in Iraq

Dubai – Masaader News

Iraqi protester was killed by security forces in Baghdad. Anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad on Oct. 1 and quickly turned violent. Security forces and unidentified gunmen have shot protesters dead. Nearly 500 people have been killed in the unrest, according to Reuters.

Protests have flared in the last two days after populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, many of whose supporters had participated, said he would no longer be involved in anti-government demonstrations.

Sadr opposes all foreign interference in Iraq but has aligned himself more closely in recent months with Iran and the Tehran-backed parties that dominate state institutions in Baghdad.

And at least one of five Katyusha rockets fired at Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone hit the US embassy, wounding three people, in a rare direct targeting of the compound, security sources said.

The increase in unrest comes after Washington killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of Iran’s control over Iraq, and an Iraqi paramilitary chief in a drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3.