Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who shot to fame after throwing a shoe at George W. Bush, was arrested yesterday for encouraging people to join today's protests, Reuters reports. His family say he and his brother were taken away by security forces; they don't know where the two are being held. At least five Iraqi protesters were killed by security forces today as thousands of demonstrators massed in cities across the country for a "Day of Rage."
Baghdad was virtually locked down, with soldiers deployed en masse across the central part of the city, searching protesters trying to enter Liberation Square and closing off the plaza and side streets with razor wire, AP reports. The protests have targeted the country's corruption, high unemployment, and poor public services. "We want a good life like human beings, not like animals," one Baghdad protester said, denouncing a government that dwells in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. "The government of the Green Zone is terrified of the people's voice," he said. (More Muntazer al-Zaidi stories.)