Hundreds of thousands protest across Arab world
Hundreds of thousands poured out of mosques and staged protests in countries across the Arab world Friday, some trying to shake off autocratic rulers and others pressuring embattled leaders to carry out sweeping reforms.
Pro-government forces opened fire to break up protests in Libya and Iraq, killing at least 15 people. Scuffles were reported in Yemen, while pro-reform marches in Egypt, Bahrain and Jordan were largely peaceful.
The large crowds signaled that the push for change in North Africa and the Middle East continues to build momentum. The first anti-government protests erupted several weeks ago, toppling rulers in Tunisia and Egypt and quickly spreading to other countries.
The situation remained most volatile in Libya, where longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi has cracked down hard on an 11-day old rebellion after losing control over large chunks of the country.
In Libya’s capital, Tripoli, where Gadhafi remains in charge, protesters staged the first rallies in several days. Streaming out of mosques near the downtown Green Square and elsewhere in the city, they chanted for Gadhafi’s ouster. Troops and militiamen confronted the protesters, some opening fire, including from rooftops near the square. Armed Gadhafi supporters sped through the streets in cars.
Witnesses reported that they saw four people killed. “There are all kind of bullets,” said one protester near the Souq al-Jomaa area in Tripoli, screaming in a telephone call to The Associated Press, with the rattle of shots audible in the background.
Across cities that have come under control of the rebels, tens of thousands held rallies to support their comrades in Tripoli.
Iraq saw its biggest and most violent anti-government protests since the wave of regional unrest began. Thousands marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in several cities, an outpouring of anger that left 11 people dead.
The protests were fueled by frustration over corruption, chronic unemployment and shoddy public services.
“We want a good life like human beings, not like animals,” said Khalil Ibrahim, 44, one of about 3,000 protesters in the capital, Baghdad. Demonstrators knocked down blast walls, threw rocks and scuffled with club-wielding troops who chased them down the street.
Many Iraqis rail against a government that locks itself in the highly fortified Green Zone, home to the parliament and the U.S. Embassy, and is viewed by most of its citizens as more interested in personal gain than public service.
Iraq’s deadliest clashes Friday were reported in the northern city of Mosul, where hundreds rallying outside a provincial council building came under fire from guards. Officials said five people were killed. The other deaths were reported in three other cities.
Huge crowds also turned out in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, but with very different goals.
In Egypt, where an 18-day uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, tens of thousands jammed Cairo’s Tahrir Square to keep up the pressure on the country’s military rulers to carry out reforms.
Demonstrators said they are worried the army is not moving quickly enough on reforms, including repealing emergency laws, releasing political prisoners and removing members of Mubarak’s regime from power.
Thousands chanted that they won’t leave until they see Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, one of the Mubarak-era holdovers, removed from office. Some waved flags of Libya to show support for the uprising next door.
“We made Mubarak step down and we must make Shafiq also step down,” said Safwat Hegazy, a protester from the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best-organized opposition group.
Since Mubarak’s fall, the military rulers have disbanded both houses of parliament and promised constitutional reforms that will allow wider participation in elections, to be held within six months. They have also promised to repeal emergency laws that give security forces largely unchecked powers, though only when conditions permit — a caveat that worries protesters.
In Bahrain, the first Gulf state to be thrown into turmoil by the Arab world’s wave of change, tens of thousands rallying in the central square demanded sweeping political concessions from the ruling monarch.
Security forces made no attempt to halt the marchers, an apparent sign that Bahrain’s rulers do not want more bloodshed denunciations from their Western allies. In the early stage of the two-week-old rallies, troops had used lethal force.
The unrest is highly significant for Washington. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is the Pentagon’s main counterweight against Iran’s widening military ambitions. Bahrain’s Sunni monarchy, meanwhile, is under pressure from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf rulers not to yield to the Shiite-led protesters, fearing it could open footholds for Shiite powerhouse Iran.