Iraq PM Urges Protesters to Stay Home during Fallujah Operation
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged protesters not to demonstrate in Baghdad Friday because security forces are mobilized in the battle to retake Fallujah.
Protesters, mostly followers of powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have held demonstrations almost every Friday for weeks to demand a government reshuffle.
Last week they breached the fortified Green Zone, which houses most of the country's top institutions, for the second time in three weeks.
"I call upon our youth to postpone their protest tomorrow, because our security forces are busy fighting in Fallujah," Abadi said, speaking from the command center for the operation he announced on May 22-23, AFP reported.
Tens of thousands of security forces are deployed in the Fallujah area for an assault aimed at retaking the city from the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group.
Fallujah, which lies only 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad, has been out of government control since January 2014 and is one of only two remaining major Iraqi cities still in Daesh hands, the other being Mosul.
On May 20, protesters broke into the Green Zone and briefly stormed Abadi's own office, further deepening a political crisis that has been crippling the country for months.
The security forces responded more forcefully than three weeks earlier when Sadr supporters breached the restricted area for the first time and stormed parliament.
