One killed dozens injured as Iraq police clash with pro-Iran protesters

SMA NEWS – BAGHDAD

An Iraqi protester was killed and more than 100 people injured Friday as police clashed with demonstrators venting their fury over last month’s election result, medical and security sources said.
The political arm of the pro-Iran Hashed Al-Shaabi paramilitary network saw its share of parliamentary seats decline substantially in the election, which the group’s supporters have denounced as “fraud.”
On Friday, hundreds of Hashed supporters rallied in Baghdad near the Green Zone, a high-security district that houses the US embassy, government buildings and the election commission.
Demonstrators from groups loyal to the Hashed threw projectiles and “blocked… access to the Green Zone” on three sides, before they were pushed back by police who fired in the air, a security source said, requesting anonymity.
“There were 125 people injured, 27 of them civilians and the rest from the security forces,” the health ministry said.
Later a security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a protester had been fatally wounded and died in hospital.
Earlier some pro-Iran channels on messaging app Telegram said police fired live rounds at protesters.
“Two demonstrators were killed,” a leader of the Hezbollah Brigades, one of Hashed’s most powerful factions, told AFP, requesting anonymity.
But the health ministry said no live rounds were fired, insisting that most of those wounded suffered minor injuries.