Iraqi security forces hurled gas canisters and used sound bombs to disperse the thousands of Iraqi demonstrators, the followers of an influential cleric, in the heavily fortified government zone of the capital on Saturday.
One by one, demonstrators used ropes to pull down cement barricades leading to the gate of Iraq's Green Zone, which houses official buildings and foreign embassies. They had come to protest the formation of the next government by Iran-backed parties.
