BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Six Iraqis including two police officers were killed and scores were wounded in Baghdad and other cities on Monday in clashes with security forces, medical and security sources said, as anti-government unrest resumed after a lull of several weeks.
Three protesters succumbed to their wounds at a Baghdad hospital after police fired live rounds in Tayaran Square, the sources said. Two protesters were shot by live bullets while a third was hit by a tear gas canister, they said.
A fourth demonstrator was shot dead by police in the Shi’ite holy city of Kerbala, the sources added.
Protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, Reuters witnesses said.
“They (security forces) should stop shooting and aiming, who are they and who are we? Both sides are Iraqis. So why are you killing your brothers?” said one woman protester in Baghdad who declined to give her name.
Three Katyusha rockets fell inside the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign missions, police sources told Reuters. The rockets were launched from Zafaraniyah district outside Baghdad, the sources said, adding that two rockets landed near the U.S. embassy.
