Iraq: Demonstrators broke into the "Green Zone", looted the parliament building

Several thousand protesters invaded today the well-fortified "Green Zone" in Baghdad, where the most important government institutions and foreign embassies are located, and several of them looted the parliament building after the deputies did not vote for a new cabinet of ministers, reports AFP.

A journalist from the French agency says that thousands of "furious" protesters entered the restricted zone, some of whom began looting the parliament building.

According to two Reuters witnesses, several hundred supporters of the Shia Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the "Green Zone", and some entered the parliament building.

Demonstrators, who gathered in front of a well-fortified zone, crossed the bridge over the Tigris river shouting "Run cowards" referring to, according to one of the witnesses, the deputies who were leaving the parliament building.

A guard at the checkpoint said the protesters were not searched before entering, and television footage showed them waving Iraqi flags and chanting "Peace, peace" as some stood on the concrete walls enclosing the Green Zone.