Protester shot dead in Iraqi capital — medics

BAGHDAD — A demonstrator was shot dead near the Iraqi capital's main protest camp by unidentified attackers using a gun silencer, medics said Saturday, as police reported a spate of activist abductions.

Around 550 people have been killed since the anti-government movement erupted in October and around 30,000 more have been wounded, a vast majority of them young demonstrators. 

As the movement has dwindled, some hardcore protesters have opted to remain in the streets but they have been subject to ongoing violence.

Late on Friday, unidentified gunmen entered a tent near Baghdad's Tahrir Square and shot a male demonstrator inside with a silenced pistol, a medical source told AFP.

It was unclear why he was targeted.

Another protester who was nearby said he saw a crowd gathering around the tent and yelling before pulling the body out and taking it to a nearby hospital.

The young man was already dead.

Activists have for months complained of a campaign of targeted kidnappings and even assassinations aimed at keeping them from protesting and for which no one has been held accountable.

Between Friday and Saturday, at least three activists were abducted from different neighbourhoods across Baghdad, a police source told AFP.

The Iraqi Human Rights Commission has documented more than 2,700 arrests since protests erupted, with more than 300 people still detained. 

More than 70 Iraqis are categorised as disappeared.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s premier-designate Mohammad Allawi announced on Saturday he would submit his Cabinet to a parliamentary vote within days, promising it would be stacked with “independents”, a key demand of influential cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Allawi, a two-time communications minister, has until March 2 to propose ministers to parliament, which must grant them a vote of confidence. 

Iraqi officials have quietly expressed scepticism he would be able to complete it in time but Allawi surprisingly announced he would submit the lineup early.

“We’re nearing a historic achievement: Completing an independent cabinet of competent and impartial people, without the intervention of any political party,” Allawi said on Twitter. 

He pledged to “submit the names of these ministers within the current week”, which begins on Sunday in Iraq. 

“We hope members of the parliament will respond and vote on them in order to start implementing the people’s demands.”

Parliament is due to be in recess until mid-March and the speaker, Mohammed Halbusi, has not scheduled an extraordinary session. 

Allawi was nominated on February 1 as a consensus candidate among Iraq’s fractured political parties but has only been publicly endorsed by Sadr, who has a cult-like following across the country.

The cleric first backed the rallies but split with the main protest movement after endorsing Allawi, whom demonstrators consider too close to the political elite that has governed Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.