Baghdad — At least seven people were killed during protests in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone area that houses most of Iraq’s key institutions and main embassies.
Governor of Baghdad city confirmed at least five of those in the death toll were confirmed as civilians on Saturday while police sources say one security officer was confirmed killed. At least 320 people were injured in the riots.
Several mortar rockets were also fired from inside Baghdad, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported, two of which were identified as Katyusha rockets.
“Several Katyusha rockets fired from the Baladiyat and Palestine Street areas landed in the Green Zone,” the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
Those two neighborhoods are in northern Baghdad, on the other side of the Tigris River that runs through the city.
The demonstrators, who had gathered in their thousands in the heart of the capital, were mostly supporters of populist Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demanding electoral reform ahead of provincial elections due in September. — Agencies
