Baghdad update: Protestors reach cabinet of ministers, special forces guarding banks

The latest update from Baghdad where protestors have broken into the parliament building and mobilizing around the cabinet of ministers:

Protestors have reached the gates of the Iraqi cabinet of ministers and attempt entry.

Rudaw reporter Bahman Hassan said, the protestors are banging on the gates and try to break in.

Guards of the compound are facing off the angry crowd, according to our correspondent.

Iraqi Special Forces are dispatched to protect banks across the capital.

United Nations office in Baghdad says it remains open, but gates closed for personnel safety.

Iraqi MP Awad Awadi has joined protestors inside parliament, telling Rudaw: “Today is the day of all Iraqis and we (MPs) await the decision of people on our country’s future,”

Iraqi PM Haider Abadi seen walking in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

Rudaw correspondent in Baghdad Mustafa Goran says that a special Kurdish force has been tasked with guarding the Iraqi parliament. “No confrontation occurred between them and protestors,”

Most MPs fled the parliament building before protestors reached the compound.

Some Kurdish MPs were trapped inside the building including Ashwaq Jaff who told Rudaw that she was being isolated by security forces against protestors.

Ammar Tuma of the Fadhila bloc was captured by protestors. Reports said he was physically hurt.

Protestors removed blast walls and concrete barriers following a speech by radical cleric Muqtada Sadr who threatened, “We will either bring down this government or it will start reforms,”

Sadr has released several statements in the last several months, threatening to march into the Green Zone, including warnings against foreign diplomatic missions among them the US and British embassies.