<p class="title">With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We've done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years," said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shiite holy city Karbala, his pilgrim's tent and cooking equipment are equally useful at a protest encampment.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Installed in the iconic square whose name means "liberation", he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the morning he coordinates with the surrounding tents, dividing sacks of rice, sugar, flour and other ingredients then assigning meals, drinks and sandwiches for volunteers to prepare.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The self-reliant encampment is the heart of a protest movement that seeks the radical overhaul of Iraq's political system, and despite frequent power cuts, it never stops beating.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the entrances to the square, dozens of guards like Abou al-Hassan man makeshift barricades, where men and women search incoming visitors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We Iraqis rub shoulders with the military from a young age, so we pick up a thing or two," said Hassan, dressed in camouflage fatigues.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We don't need special training to detect saboteurs and keep them out... or to be able to defend our state," he added, alertly scanning the perimeter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But on Friday, their "state" came under attack, when gunmen Iraqi authorities have failed to identify stormed a parking building occupied by protesters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the massacre that left 24 dead, protesters installed new checkpoints and closed an 18-storey building overlooking the square.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Infiltrated by intelligence agents and at the mercy of gunmen able to cross police and military roadblocks at will, protesters insist their mini-state remains committed to non-violence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But in a country where the influence and arsenals of pro-Iran armed groups continue to increase, the protest enclave has forged an alliance with another of Iraq's states within a state.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Unarmed "blue helmets" from Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) have intervened to protect protesters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When protests started in October, Ahmed al-Harithi "abandoned his job" as an obstetrician gynaecologist to protest and later to care for the injured.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He learned to coordinate with the paramedics and tuk-tuk drivers who ferried the wounded.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Soon, the doctors' and pharmacists' syndicates were organising a "mini-health ministry" in Tahrir, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They coordinated with logistics cells to stock medication that was donated or bought at a discount from sympathetic pharmacies.</p>.<p class="bodytext">To light their clinics at night, protesters jerry-rigged connections to the municipal high-tension wires. During daily power cuts, they rely on purchased generators.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In front of the field clinics, as tuk-tuks zoom between clusters of protesters, dozens of volunteers sweep the pavement. Tahrir has never been so clean, protesters say, in contrast to its previous neglect by municipal workers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Houda Amer has not been to class in weeks. Instead, the teacher spends her days painting the curbs and railings in the square.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"My weapon is my paintbrush," she said with a smile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Our revolution doesn't want to destroy everything," she said. "We are all here to build our nation."</p>
<p class="title">With border guards, clean-up crews and hospitals, Iraqi protesters have created a mini-state in Baghdad's Tahrir Square, offering the kinds of services they say their government has failed to provide.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We've done more in two months than the state has done in 16 years," said Haydar Chaker, a construction worker from Babylon province, south of the capital.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Everyone has their role, from cooking bread to painting murals, with a division of labour and scheduled shifts.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chaker came to Baghdad with his friends after the annual Arbaeen pilgrimage to the Shiite holy city Karbala, his pilgrim's tent and cooking equipment are equally useful at a protest encampment.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Installed in the iconic square whose name means "liberation", he provides three meals a day to hundreds of protesters, cooking with donated foods.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In the morning he coordinates with the surrounding tents, dividing sacks of rice, sugar, flour and other ingredients then assigning meals, drinks and sandwiches for volunteers to prepare.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The self-reliant encampment is the heart of a protest movement that seeks the radical overhaul of Iraq's political system, and despite frequent power cuts, it never stops beating.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At the entrances to the square, dozens of guards like Abou al-Hassan man makeshift barricades, where men and women search incoming visitors.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We Iraqis rub shoulders with the military from a young age, so we pick up a thing or two," said Hassan, dressed in camouflage fatigues.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We don't need special training to detect saboteurs and keep them out... or to be able to defend our state," he added, alertly scanning the perimeter.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But on Friday, their "state" came under attack, when gunmen Iraqi authorities have failed to identify stormed a parking building occupied by protesters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the massacre that left 24 dead, protesters installed new checkpoints and closed an 18-storey building overlooking the square.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Infiltrated by intelligence agents and at the mercy of gunmen able to cross police and military roadblocks at will, protesters insist their mini-state remains committed to non-violence.</p>.<p class="bodytext">But in a country where the influence and arsenals of pro-Iran armed groups continue to increase, the protest enclave has forged an alliance with another of Iraq's states within a state.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Unarmed "blue helmets" from Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) have intervened to protect protesters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">When protests started in October, Ahmed al-Harithi "abandoned his job" as an obstetrician gynaecologist to protest and later to care for the injured.</p>.<p class="bodytext">He learned to coordinate with the paramedics and tuk-tuk drivers who ferried the wounded.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Soon, the doctors' and pharmacists' syndicates were organising a "mini-health ministry" in Tahrir, he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">They coordinated with logistics cells to stock medication that was donated or bought at a discount from sympathetic pharmacies.</p>.<p class="bodytext">To light their clinics at night, protesters jerry-rigged connections to the municipal high-tension wires. During daily power cuts, they rely on purchased generators.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In front of the field clinics, as tuk-tuks zoom between clusters of protesters, dozens of volunteers sweep the pavement. Tahrir has never been so clean, protesters say, in contrast to its previous neglect by municipal workers.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Houda Amer has not been to class in weeks. Instead, the teacher spends her days painting the curbs and railings in the square.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"My weapon is my paintbrush," she said with a smile.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Our revolution doesn't want to destroy everything," she said. "We are all here to build our nation."</p>