Iraqi security forces spray tear gas after anti-government protesters stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone, at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq May 20, 2016.
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“I was suffocating and my eyes were hurting”, said Ali al-Jazaeri, a 23-year-old government employee who was at the protest.
Dozens of people were injured from tear gas and live fire, the witnesses said.
Friday’s events “cannot be accepted and tolerated” al-Abadi said referring to the protests and Green Zone breach in a speech broadcast on state run TV late Friday night.
The violence prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to impose a curfew in the country’s capital but it was lifted just a few hours later.
Rows of Humvees could be seen on bridges around the capital, while Baghdad Operations Command said forces from the country’s elite Golden Division had been deployed to protect the Green Zone.
Demonstrators were enraged by security measures to keep them out of the Green Zone, which were much tougher than they faced when they broke into the restricted area three weeks earlier.
Iraq’s political crisis goes back to plans announced by Prime Minister Abadi in February to replace politically affiliated ministers with independent technocrats.
“Our kababayans in the Red Zone are requested to avoid public areas where large numbers of people congregate”, he added as he urged them to contact the embassy “if you are in need of assistance”. The military said an unspecified number of security force members had been stabbed.
The UN envoy to Iraq on Saturday expressed deep concern about Friday’s demonstrations when hundreds of followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr broke into the heavily fortified Green Zone, calling for calm and unity to achieve reforms and confront the Islamic State (IS) group which seizes parts of Iraq’s northern and western regions since 2014.
Last month, demonstrators assaulted the Iraqi parliamentary building demanding large-scale reforms and protesting against corruption.
In a statement, Sadr said the government had used tear gas and live fire on “unarmed protesters”.
Meanwhile, a string of deadly bombings has killed more than 200 over the past couple of weeks in and around Baghdad.
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Shia Muslim clerics pray over the coffins of anti-government protesters. Daesh, which has lost its control over territories in west and north of Iraq, has claimed the attacks.
