Haider al-Abadi’s comments come as thousands of demonstrators remain in the green zone demanding political reform

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, has ordered authorities to arrest and prosecute the protesters who attacked security forces and legislators and damaged state property after breaking into Baghdad’s heavily fortified green zone to protest delays in reform plans.

Abadi’s statement came a day after hundreds of angry followers of the influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr tore down blast walls and poured into the parliament building, exacerbating a long-simmering political crisis.

Videos on social media showed a group of young men surrounding and slapping two Iraqi legislators as they attempted to flee the crowd, while other protesters mobbed motorcades. Protesters were also seen jumping and dancing on the parliament’s meeting hall tables and chairs and waving Iraqi flags.

The protesters eventually left the parliament on Saturday night and rallied in a nearby square.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Moqtada al-Sadr speaks to the media in Najaf, Iraq, on Saturday. Photograph: Anmar Khalil/AP

Sadr and his supporters want the political system, put in place following the US-led invasion in 2003, to be reformed. As it stands, entrenched political blocs representing the country’s Shias, Sunnis and Kurds rely on patronage, resulting in widespread corruption and poor public services. The major blocs have until now blocked Abadi’s reform efforts.

On Sunday, protesters vowed to continue their sit-in inside the green zone until their demands are met.

“We are fed up, we are living a humiliated life,” Rasool Hassan, 37, said from the square inside the green zone where thousands of protesters had gathered. “We’ll leave here only when the corrupt government is replaced with another of independent technocrats that serves the people not the political parties.”

“We need new faces, not the old ones,” said Shatha Jumaa, 58, a surgeon. Jumaa, who identified herself as secular, said she wanted the government dissolved and replaced by a small interim administration whose job would be to amend the constitution and to prepare for an early election.

Iraq has been mired in political crisis for months, hindering the government’s ability to combat Islamic State, which still controls much of the country’s north and west, or address a financial crisis largely prompted by the plunge in global oil prices.

Iraqi security forces initially responded to Saturday’s events by tightening security across the capital, sealing off checkpoints leading to the green zone and stopping traffic on main roads into the city.

The UN mission to Iraq said it was gravely concerned. It issued a statement condemning violence against elected officials and urging “calm, restraint and respect for Iraq’s constitutional institutions at this crucial juncture”.