Baghdad (AFP) - Protesters withdrew from Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday after breaking into the fortified area and storming Iraq's parliament in an unprecedented security breach the day before.
The move, which lessens the pressure on politicians in Baghdad, came as rare bombings in the south killed 33 people and wounded dozens.
"The protest organising committee announces the withdrawal of the demonstrators from the Green Zone," it said in a statement, citing respect for a major Shiite pilgrimage as the reason for their departure.
The statement was distributed by the office of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters make up the vast majority of the demonstrators.
Demonstrator Hussein al-Ali said that the announcement was made at Ihtifalat Square, where protesters had gathered, and that demonstrators then departed, but would be back later.
Protesters pulled down or scaled slabs of heavy concrete blast wall on Saturday to enter the Green Zone, where Iraq's main government institutions are located, the culmination of weeks of political turmoil and inaction by parliament.
Some remained overnight, and hundreds of people combined a festive demonstration with sight-seeing in the previously off-limits area on Sunday.
Protesters waved flags, clapped and chanted slogans in front of a grandstand from which Saddam Hussein once delivered addresses, in an area bordered by giant statues of twin crossed swords held in hands said to have been modelled on Saddam's own.
The Green Zone breach allowed Iraqis access to places they have rarely if ever been able to enter before.
Iraqi protesters climb over a concrete wall surrounding the parliament after breaking into Baghdad's heavily fortified "Green Zone" on April 30, 2016 (AFP Photo/Haidar Mohammed Ali)
