Protesters who attacked security forces and stormed the parliament in Iraq's capital disbanded Sunday, shortly after Iraq's prime minister ordered the arrest of the demonstrators whose actions sparked a state of emergency, NBC News reports.
Roads to and from Baghdad had reopened after security forces secured the breach of the heavily fortified Green Zone.
The protesters, who were responding to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's call to pressure the government to introduce reforms, left the parliament building on Saturday night and were holding a sit-in at the Saddam-era Grand Festivities Square, but retreated Sunday at al-Sadr's prompting.
Iraq has been mired in a political crisis for months, hindering the government's ability to combat ISIS — which still controls much of the country's north and west — or address a financial crisis largely prompted by the plunge in global oil prices.
Photo Credit: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
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