Anti-government protesters block key Iraqi port after clashes
Protesters have staged a sit-in outside the Um Qasr Port in Iraq's oil-rich southern province of Basra since Thursday as part of mass protests that have gripped the country in recent weeks.
Earlier Saturday, security forces used tear gas and fired gunshots in the air as they clashed with protesters outside the port, injuring at least 120 people, the independent Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) said.
Witnesses said security forces attacked around 1,000 protesters who were gathering at the gates of the port and fired tear gas to disperse them.
The sit-in and protests elsewhere in Basra have forced all operations at the port to stop, Iraq's state news agency INA reported. Security forces are in full control of the facility, according to the agency.
Street demonstrations have roiled Iraq in two waves since early October. Demonstrators have decried corruption, lack of jobs and poor access to electricity and clean water in the country.
The demonstrators have also demanded the resignation of the government, the dissolution of parliament and an overhaul of the country's political system that has been in place since the 2003-led invasion of Iraq.
At least 260 people, mostly demonstrators, were killed and 11,000 others injured in the turmoil last month, IHCHR sources said.
Several countries and foreign rights groups have criticized the deadly crackdown on protesters in Iraq.
On Saturday, Iraq called for non-interference in its internal affairs.
"The Iraqi government calls on all sides to adhere to the principle of respecting sovereignty and non-interference in the Iraqi internal affairs," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to the official news agency.
The protests are the country's largest since December 2017, when Iraq declared the liberation of all territory previously under Islamic State militants' control.
