12 protesters shot and killed during street clashes in Baghdad

Protesters in Baghdad.
(Image credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

At least 12 protesters in Baghdad were shot and killed by government security forces on Monday after they breached concrete barriers around the Green Zone area, Iraqi officials told The New York Times.

The demonstrators were among the hundreds of supporters of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who took to the streets after he announced on Twitter his retirement from politics. The Green Zone is home to the Iraqi Parliament, government offices, the U.S. Embassy, and other diplomatic missions.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.