October Revolution is a demonstrations that happened on 1st of October, 2019, in Baghdad and the rest of the southern cities of Iraq against the regression of the economic conditions of the country, the administrative corruption, unemployment, corruption and against the role of political Islamic militias.

The demands of the demonstrators were to bring down the regime, the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the formation of a temporary government and the holding of early elections.

The bloodiest days of this demonstrations were in “Dhi Qar ” city, in which the “Nasiriyah” massacre, represented by Al-Zaytoun Bridge massacre, took place.

Al- Zaytoun incident happened at 3 Am, when a special military force led by Lieutenant-General ”Jamil Al-Shammari “ moved to re-open the Al-Zaytoun Bridge, which was closed by the protesters, then the forces began shooting at them while they were sleeping in the sit-in tents, dozens were killed and wounded, also the sides of the bridge were filled with blood and clothes of the demonstrators .

A day after the incident, thousands of demonstrators gathered and burned the military headquarters of the emergency regiments and a number of the police cars, amid massive anger and frustrating.

The crowd then decided to burn the headquarters of the provincial police command, but some of the city’s respected figures were able to persuade the protesters to undo that in order to avoid a civil war.

According to that, Al-Zaytoun Bridge was completely closed by the demonstrators, who demanded that the perpetrators must be punished and brought to justice. Despite the government’s opposing on the incident, no results of the investigation appeared.

The families of the victims to make sure that the perpetrators will be punished , they held several gatherings and demonstrations in front of the “Nasiriyah Court” in the governorate, demanding that the murders of their sons must be held accountable. They continued to gather for months, while the demonstrators in “Al-Haboubi Square” (the center of Nasiriyah city, the square was named after Sheikh “Muhammad Saeed Al-Haboubi”, who was one of the leaders of the revolutionaries against the British occupation in the “Twentieth Revolution”.) more than once demanded to arrest the perpetrators, and organized several protests, the families of the victims succeeded in forcing the government to ban the travel of Lieutenant-General Jamil Al-Shammari, the commander of the military force responsible for what happened.

Since the beginning of the protests in “Nasiriyah” in 2019, Al-Zaytoun Bridge has been a major core , as it is closed at every protest, a strategy adopted by the demonstrators to paralyze traffic and control the street during the protest.

The closing of the bridge considered a challenge to the authorities, which in turn sent a military force to open the closed bridges by force, but that force quickly angered the demonstrators, and led to Al-Zaytoun Bridge massacre.

On 3^rd of February 2022, some demonstrators and the families of Al-Zaytoun Bridge martyrs went to the street to give a speech due to orders that included the suspension of arrest warrants for the suspects in Al-Zaytoun Bridge incident by the Minister of Interior so, the demonstrators announced that they won’t remain silent on this matter that they would escalate and close the bridge completely if this case was ignored.

The “protest volcano” is able to burst again ,fill the streets and squares, but this time with higher ambition, more demands, and greater numbers.

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