In addition, Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) reports, "Iraqi police fired live shots into the air as well as rubber bullets and dozens of tear gas canisters on Friday to disperse thousands of protesters on the streets of Baghdad, sending young demonstrators running for cover and enveloping a main bridge in the capital with thick white smoke. One protester was killed and dozens were injured in the first hours of the protest, security officials said."
The cost of freedom is always high, but Iraqis have always paid it. I’m sorry for the horrible video but this is the democracy USA brought to Iraq a protester been shot in head with tear gas canisters #baghdad #iraq #USA_democracy
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The first one killed is said to have been hit with a tear canister. The video above is supposed to be of that protester after he was hit.
Of the man above, novelist Sinan Antoon (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:
I did know Safa al-Sarray, a 26-year-old
aspiring poet and amateur artist, very well. He wrote to me nine years
ago on social media about one of my novels. We kept corresponding. I
loved his wit and sense of humor, and his insightful posts about life
and politics in Iraq.
Safa was a
precocious, passionate young man and a voracious reader, particularly of
poetry. He grew up in a large working-class family in Baghdad. His
father had died when he was quite young. He worked hard — three days a
week as a construction worker and porter while studying at the
University of Technology in Baghdad — to make ends meet and to support
his family.
If that's not enough to wake the world up to the struggle for freedom in Iraq, what is?