Shafaq News / At least five mortar shells targeted the vicinity of the U.S. embassy in the Green Zone, Baghdad, a security source reported.

The source told Shafaq News agency that violent armed clashes are already taking place in the Green Zone, where protestors are using RPGs, PKC guns and Kalashnikov rifles.

Five protestors were killed and 50

Shafaq News/ The President of the Kurdistan region, Nechirvan Barzani, on Monday warned of the reverberations of the "political and security developments" in Baghdad, expressing Erbil's readiness to act as a mediator between rival camps.

"We are closely following, and with great concern, the political and security developments Baghdad and other

Shafaq News / The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr decided on Monday to start a hunger strike.

"Sayyed Al-Sadr has started a hunger strike that will not end until the violence and the use of weapons stop," said the head of the resigned Sadrist bloc, Hassan al-Athari in a tweet.

He added, "the will to remove the corrupt does not give

Shafaq News / Three protestors were killed and 50 others (including members of the security forces) were wounded in Baghdad on Monday after a decision by Iraq's powerful Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to quit politics over a political deadlock prompted clashes between his supporters and backers of Iran-backed rivals.

Multiple suffocation