Iraq’s Prime Minister appealed on Thursday to Iraqis to postpone the weekly protests due the following day so that security forces can focus on a key military operation aimed at retaking the city of Fallujah from the ISIS group.
For months, anti-government protesters, mainly followers of influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have been holding protests every Friday outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone and in other provinces, demanding reform to a political system widely seen as corrupt and ineffectual.
To protect the demonstrators from militant attacks, extra security forces are usually deployed around the Green Zone and other key areas, blocking major roads and paralyzing parts of the capital.