Anti-government unrest in Iraq More protesters killed

BAGHDAD: Two protesters were shot dead in Baghdad on Wednesday and other Iraq cities were shrouded in acrid smoke from burning tyres as demonstrators pressed their campaign of anti-government rallies.

Masked youths sealed off streets with makeshift barricades across the restive south as schools and public offices stayed shut. "The government has lost all its legitimacy. We don’t want them," said one protester in the southern city of Basra.

"They meet every day and claim to be discussing our demands, but we expect nothing from them." For nearly two months, Iraq’s capital and south have been gripped by the largest protests since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

In central Baghdad, young demonstrators donned helmets and medical masks to face off again with security forces unleashing tear gas. Iraqi medical and security sources said at least two demonstrators were shot dead in Baghdad as protesters and security forces clashed.

An AFP correspondent reported volleys of gunfire from behind concrete barricades where the security forces were deployed. The Islamic State group, meanwhile, claimed that it was behind three deadly explosions that rocked Baghdad late on Tuesday, killing six people. The near-simultaneous blasts were caused by explosives-laden motorcycles and roadside bombs in Shiite neighbourhoods, medical and security sources said.

They were the first such attacks in Baghdad in several months claimed by IS, a group which the Iraqi authorities said had been defeated two years ago.

The street violence in Iraq has left more than 350 people dead and some 15,000 wounded over the past two months. Another 100 protesters suffered injuries in two days of rallies in Hillah, just south of Baghdad, when security forces used tear gas against them.