4 Killed as Protests Spread to New Iraq City, Say Govt Sources
Image Courtesy: NDTV
Baghdad/Kut: Four Iraqi protesters have been shot dead as mass rallies against corruption and unemployment spread to the southern city of Amarah, medics and security sources said on Thursday.
Another protester was shot dead on Thursday in the province of Dhi Qar, where protests have been the bloodiest, regional health chief Abdulhussein al-Jaberi said.
The new deaths bring the overall toll from three days of demonstrations to 18, including one police officer.
In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces fired live rounds on Thursday to break up protests held for a third day despite an open-ended curfew in effect since dawn.
Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi ordered the ban on movements across the capital starting at 5:00 am (0200 GMT) to stem the popular demonstrations over widespread unemployment and state corruption.
The chaotic protests and ensuing clashes with riot police in Baghdad and several southern cities have left 18 protesters and one police officer dead.
On Thursday morning, riot police fired in the air to disperse several dozen protesters gathered in the emblematic Tahrir Square in defiance of the curfew, an AFP photographer said.
Tensions have been exacerbated by a near-total internet blackout, the closure of government offices in Baghdad and calls by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for "a general strike."
Before dawn twin explosions hit the Green Zone, where some ministries and embassies are located and which was struck by two rockets last week, a security source in the area told AFP.
The apparent attack came hours after security forces sealed off the Green Zone "until further notice" just a few months after it was reopened to the public, fearing angry protesters would swarm it.
Overnight, two protesters were killed in the southern city of Kut after they tried to storm a local government office, medics and security sources told AFP.
Another two demonstrators died further south in Nasiriyah, which has so far seen the deadliest protests with a total of eight protesters and one police officer killed.
Riot police in the capital have used water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds in an attempt to force protesters out of Tahrir and other areas in Baghdad.
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