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At Least Seven Killed in Raid on Iraqi Protest Camp
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At least seven people died after supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed a sit-in (AFP) of anti-government protesters in the Iraqi city of Najaf, medics said. Sadr originally supported Iraq’s protest movement against the political establishment, but now backs newly named Prime Minister Mohammad Allawi.
Sadr’s supporters threw Molotov cocktails (Reuters) at the protesters’ tents, gunfire was heard, and Iraqi security forces intervened. More than one hundred people were later reported injured (Anadolu). Rallies in solidarity with the wounded occurred across Iraq late yesterday. More than six hundred people have died since the protest movement began in October, a human rights commission in the country said.
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“Iraq’s political elites have rallied, closing ranks in the face of an anti-establishment protest movement that initially took them by surprise,” Louisa Loveluck writes for the Washington Post.
“Where [Iraq’s] elite could once revert to anti-Americanism at times of crisis to maintain its standing, that narrative no longer has the same currency. Consequently, Iraqi leaders will turn to violence and coercion to defend their power,” Renad Mansour writes for Foreign Affairs.
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