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Looks like a big shake up, and the end of a political era. Luckily no one's dead....yet. US embassy is not being evacuated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...62fd3a-0ec1-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...62fd3a-0ec1-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html
The political unrest has brought a new level of instability to a country that is facing multiple crises, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the struggling economy.
“This is a new era in the history of Iraq,” screamed one demonstrator in the main lobby of the parliament, in footage on Iraqi television. Another said, “They have been robbing us for the past 13 years.”
At the heart of the protesters demands is an end to the political quota system, which was put in place after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and sees positions shared out between sects. Sadr has demanded a new technocratic government.
“This is an end to the political system put in place after 2003,” said Shwan al-Dawoodi, a Kurdish lawmaker. “A big part of the blame for this is on America, which left Iraq without solving this crisis it created.”
Earlier in the day, not enough lawmakers had turned up in parliament to officially convene a session in which Abadi was due to present names for a cabinet reshuffle.
The session had been postponed until the afternoon, but before it was held, Sadr, a leader in the resistance to the American troop presence in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, held a news conference from the southern city of Najaf.
“They are against reform, they hope to behead the will of the Iraqi people,” he said of the country’s politicians. “I’m with the people, no matter what they decide. I’m standing and waiting for a major uprising of the Iraqi people.”
Shortly afterward, protesters, many of whom are Sadr loyalists, pushed through the multiple security cordons around parliament.
Rumors swirled that lawmakers — many of them living inside the Green Zone — were trying to flee the city. Ammar Toma, a politician with the Shiite Fadhila Party who had criticized lawmakers who had earlier staged a sit-in inside parliament, was accosted as he tried to leave the parliament building, video footage showed. “Hit him, hit him,” one protester shouted.
One video posted online showed protesters riding around on a military vehicle.
Dawoodi said protesters had tried to attack him and his car as he escaped parliament, and that there was a state of panic in the legislature as they heard that protesters had broken through. Five Kurdish parliamentarians were still stuck inside on Saturday afternoon, along with members of other political blocs, he said.
“They have locked themselves inside rooms and are scared for their lives,” he said. He blamed the prime minister for putting their lives at risk after local television reports cited Abadi as saying he had ordered protesters be allowed into the Green Zone. Abadi’s office issued a statement denying that he had.
U.S. officials are concerned that the political crisis will have a negative effect on the country’s fight against the Islamic State, leading to a flurry of high level visits in recent weeks. “Now is not the time for government gridlock or bickering,” President Obama said of the crisis in Iraq during a visit to Saudi Arabia last week. He said that he was “concerned” by the situation.
Protest organizers said that the demonstrators would remain in parliament in a peaceful sit-in, and directed them not to attack lawmakers or property.
“What happened today was an explosion of the people,” said Hussain al-Sharifi, a parliamentarian with Sadr’s block. “Today was an uprising, a revolution.”
The street protests began last summer, as thousands demonstrated over a lack of services and government waste and corruption. Abadi, also pressured to cut spending because of plunging oil prices, embarked on an ambitious reform program but has struggled to enact any meaningful change powerful political players standing to lose out.
