Protesters in Southern Iraq Go on Strike, Cut Bridges

Al-Arabiya news network reported that the protesters in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, announced a strike, closed bridges, and called for the dismissal of the police chief.

At the same time, the Dhi Qar police chief confirmed that "there is no intention for the security forces to use violence against the demonstrators" in order to open the Zaitoun Bridge or disperse the protesters.

This morning, the Tahrir Square in central Baghdad witnessed intense student participation amid the continuing sit-in rejecting the assignment of the former Minister of Communications Muhammad Allawi to form the government, and a refusal of the violence used against the demonstrators in Najaf and Karbala during the past days by the supporters of Shii leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, who are known as the owners of the "blue hats".

The cities of Najaf and Karbala have witnessed during the past two days, bloody clashes between supporters of Sadr and the protesters, led to the death of at least 8.

“Sky News” quoted sources that the Sadrists supporters opened fire heavily in the sit-in square, which led the demonstrators to withdraw. The shooting left more than 150 injured protesters, including the Najaf police chief. The building of the water directorate near the Sadrin Square in the center of Najaf was burned, along with the burning of a sit-in camp in the same square.

Following the attacks,  the head of the caretaker government in Iraq, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, ordered an investigation into the bloody confrontations.

On another hand, a number of demonstrators in the Iraqi capital also called on the United Nations to pressure the Iraqi government to abolish the quota system, freeze the constitution, and quickly establish a transitional government.

To that, the demonstrators called in a letter they addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to intervene to stop the violence that killed more than 800 people and wounded more than 25 thousand, according to the statistics of the demonstrators, while the Iraqi Human Rights Commission reported yesterday that more than 500 people were killed.

In Basra, tribal demonstrations in support of the protesters' position rejecting Allawi's mandate continued.