- Fresh clashes between Iraqi security forces and anti-government protesters bro...
BAGHDAD - - Fresh clashes between Iraqi security forces and anti-government protesters broke out on Friday killing at least three people, despite a call for calm by the country’s top Shi’ite cleric, as authorities grapple with the nation’s biggest crisis in years.
One protester was killed by a tear gas canister fired directly into his head, a Reuters witness said. In the southern city of Basra, two people were killed as security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators outside the local government headquarters, police and medics said. Many of the demonstrators, some of whom view Sistani as part of the political and religious system they say is the cause of many Iraqis’ misery, took little solace from the cleric’s words.
The demonstrators, mostly unemployed youths, demand an overhaul of the political system and a corrupt ruling class which has dominated state institutions since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Doctors at hospitals have shown Reuters scans of tear gas canisters embedded in the skulls of dead protesters.
Late on Friday the military said 17 rockets had landed near a base hosting U.S. forces in northern Iraq. It did not say who was believed to be behind the attack.
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