Friday’s attack on protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, and the massacre of those protesters, has many protesters believing they were the work of pro-government forces. The attackers wore no identifying marks.
And it was perhaps unsurprising that Iraq’s militia umbrella group, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) website took credit for the attack and claimed it was orchestrated by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
That was a questionable claim, since Sadr’s house was also hit with a missile. The statement was quickly retracted by the PMF as well, as they insisted that their website was hacked, and the hackers made up the statement.
At least 24 protesters were killed in the attack. The Iraqi government shut off electricity to the square at the time of the attack which protesters see as evidence the government was involved in this latest attack.
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