In the evening of Wednesday, 27 November, high flames consumed part of the Iranian consulate in Najaf, southern Iraq. With cries of "Iran out! "Hundreds of demonstrators attacked the consular representation and replaced the Iranian flag with that of Iraq.
After trying to disperse the crowd with tear gas, at the cost of fifty wounded according to medical sources quoted by Agence France-Presse, the security forces withdrew and the consulate staff was evacuated before protesters enter it. A curfew has been imposed in the city.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has claimed in Baghdad "A decisive, effective and responsible action against destructive agents and aggressors". The fire of the Iranian representation in the holy city, where millions of Iranian pilgrims come every year to visit the mausoleum of Imam Ali, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and first imam of Shiism, is highly symbolic.
It marks a new turning point in the dispute started on 1st October. The demonstrations have so far remained peaceful in this city that is home to marjaya, the country's Shia religious leadership, including the highest representative, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, has supported the movement.
Already in early November, protesters had burned the compound of the Iranian consulate in the holy Shia city of Karbala, at the cost of four deaths. Resentment is strong in the ranks of the protesters against the powerful Shiite neighbor, whom they accuse of supporting the " diet " Iraq, whose fall they claim.
In Baghdad and the south of the country, thousands of protesters, mostly young and Shiite, have been demanding sincest October the redesign of the political system established in 2003 and the renewal of a political class they deem corrupt and clientelist. They accuse Shiite religious parties in power and their militias of serving Iran's interests, to the detriment of the country hit by poverty and unemployment.
"Crisis cells"
The lack of credible reforms and the scale of the crackdown, which left at least 350 dead and more than 15,000 injured, hardened the movement in the south. Since the beginning of the week, protesters have been burning tires and blocking road access in several provinces in a broad movement of civil disobedience.
