Iraqi officials declared a state of emergency for all of Baghdad on Saturday after protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to government buildings and foreign embassies, including the American one.
“Iraq security authorities have declared a state of emergency in Baghdad,” said Brig. Gen. Saad Mann, a spokesman for the Iraqi military. “All gates that lead to Baghdad are closed. No one is allowed to enter into Baghdad, only those who want to leave Baghdad can do so.”
Hundreds of demonstrators occupied the country’s parliament, according to a senior Iraqi security source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Supporters of Sadr, whose fighters once controlled swaths of Baghdad and helped defend the capital from ISIS, have been demonstrating for weeks at the gates of the Green Zone, responding to their leader’s call to pressure the government to reform. Saturday was the first time the protesters breached the compound’s walls.
Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and bullets in the air to prevent protesters from entering the Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy, police sources told Reuters.
A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the American Embassy in Baghdad was not being evacuated, contrary to local reports.
“There is no evacuation for the American staff inside the American embassy,” he said.
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