Police used tear gas and fired into the air in Baghdad to disperse thousands of protesters in the streets of the capital, where planned anti-government demonstrations resumed after a three-week hiatus, AP reported. 

Protests against corruption, unemployment, and the lack of basic services began on October 1. During the clashes, security forces fired live ammunition, killing people.

The protests spread to several southern provinces, and authorities imposed a curfew and turned off the Internet for several days to suppress unrest.

After a week of violence in the capital and southern provinces of the country, a government-appointed investigation into the protests found that the security forces used excessive force, killing 149 people and injuring more than 3,000. Eight security personnel were killed.

However, after thousands of protesters crossed the Jumhuriyya Bridge leading to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices, soldiers fired at first just tear gas, then live rounds to push back the protesters after they removed concrete barriers in an effort to reach the Green Zone's entrance.