Iraqi authorities deploy security forces around protest site, warn of terrorist infiltration

Iraqi authorities deployed security forces around the main rallying point for Sunni protests in western Iraq overnight and say the area has become a haven for terrorists.

The head of police for the western Anbar region, Hadi Arzeij, announced the operation in a televised press conference Saturday.

The Defense Ministry said in a separate statement that it took actions overnight to block al-Qaida infiltrators and prevent the flow of weapons and explosives to the main protest site in Ramadi.

Witnesses say a large number of security forces deployed around the protest area before dawn before withdrawing later.

For more than two months, a sit-in site along a highway in Ramadi has been the center of protests by Iraqi Sunnis against the Shiite-led government.