The deputy premier Saleh al-Mutlak was forced to flee a rally he was addressing on Sunday. The demonstrators, who have blocked a key highway connecting Iraq to Syria and Jordan for the past week over threw water bottles, stones and shoes at Saleh al-Mutlak before grabbing and hitting him. Mutlak managed to escape after federal police arrived and fired their weapons into the air. The deputy premier was all right and was returning to Baghdad.  Mutlak had arrived at the rally site earlier on Sunday and began addressing the crowds, which have numbered in the tens of thousands at their peak over the past week, from an elevated platform.