http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html

February 25, 2011

Demonstrations Turn Violent in Iraq

By JACK HEALY and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's "day of rage" on Friday ended with nearly 20 protesters killed in clashes with security forces. Dozens more were wounded, and several local government offices lay smoldering and ransacked.

But in the floodlit calm of Baghdad's Tahrir Square, where baton-wielding soldiers had chased down protesters just hours earlier, two high-ranking Iraqi officials took their seats at leather chairs and, with cameras rolling, discussed the day's events with a reporter for state-run television.

Their alfresco round table was among the Iraqi government's attempts to demonstrate that it was in control after a string of violent demonstrations convulsed the country, challenging the tenuous security situation. The rallies in more than 10 cities were modeled after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, and they brought together a chorus of anger at local and national governments. The protests were the largest public outpourings in Iraq since last summer, when thousands raged against the country's decaying electricity grid and regular blackouts.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who had personally tried to curtail the demonstrations, praised the security forces. A day earlier, Mr. Maliki made a nationally televised speech urging demonstrators to stay home, warning that insurgents would exploit the rallies.

But on Friday, he celebrated the fact that there had been no suicide bombings. Their absence was perhaps a fluke, but it suggested that heavy security restrictions, like banning cars from Baghdad's streets, might have been effective. Iraqi officials also took a step toward restoring normality, promising to lift a city-wide ban on cars and motorbikes by Saturday morning. Other cities kept curfews in place.

Unlike protests elsewhere in the region, the crowds in this young, war-torn democracy did not call for an entirely new form of government, but for better jobs and improved services.

"We want a change," said Ali Ahmed, a demonstrator in Baghdad. "The ballot box has failed, and we are the ones who are losing. But we will change that."

The anger at Iraq's political class has festered in the months since Mr. Maliki assembled a coalition government that tied together Iraq's main ethnic and religious groups. On Friday, protesters called for the resignations of local officials and demanded that Iraq's leaders provide better jobs, regular electricity and a more transparent judicial system.

In Baghdad, more than 1,000 people walked through the sprawling capital's empty streets to Tahrir Square, which has been a gathering point for demonstrations over the last few weeks.

The protests began with tumultuous calls for government reform, as about 1,000 people shouted, waved flags and called out, "No, no to terrorists; no, no to Baathists; no, no to Maliki!"

But like many other demonstrations throughout Iraq, they quickly spiraled out of control as protesters pulled down two concrete blast walls that blocked access to a bridge leading to the Green Zone. Rock-throwing demonstrators clashed with security forces who, in turn, beat many of the protesters, fired water cannons at them and kept them from crossing the bridge.

In the volatile northern city of Mosul, security forces fired on a group of protesters who had set the governor's office on fire, killing five people and wounding at least 15. Fatal clashes also erupted in Anbar Province, near Kirkuk, in Basra and in heavily Sunni Muslim towns north of Baghdad, pitting demonstrators against local or national security forces, according to security and hospital officials across the country.

Col. Barry A. Johnson, a spokesman for the United States military, said Iraq's security forces appeared to respond well to the volatile, sometimes violent, crowds. "The Iraqi forces' response appeared professional and restrained," he said in an e-mail.

Protesters did tally some successes, with the provincial governor of Basra announcing that he would step down, and the mayor and town council of a small city in far western Iraq submitting resignations after crowds burned city offices.

Early Friday, as demonstrators made their way through Baghdad, they spoke with a determination that seemed to increase with every additional mile they had to walk to reach Tahrir Square.

"No one can stop me," said Ali Muhsin, 28, an unemployed lawyer. "If you want your freedom, you have to get it, even if it's at the end of the world."

Zaid Thaker and Duraid Adnan contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Falluja, Ramadi and Samarra.