Two Baghdad protesters dead after clashes with police

BAGHDAD: Two demonstrators died in Baghdad early Monday after being shot in confrontations with security forces, the first victims of protest-related violence under a new Iraqi premier who had promised a dialogue with activists.

The deaths threaten to reignite an unprecedented movement slamming government graft and incompetence, which erupted across Baghdad and the country´s south in October but had waned in recent months. On Sunday, demonstrators staged angry rallies in the capital and several southern cities, where temperatures topping 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) have swelled demand for air-conditioning, overwhelming dilapidated power grids.

In Baghdad, dozens gathered at the protest hub of Tahrir Square, clashing with police and other security forces stationed there. “Two protesters died this morning. One was shot with a tear gas canister in the head, and another in the neck,” a medical source told AFP on Monday. Their bodies were carried through Tahrir on Monday morning by fellow activists, before being driven to the holy city of Najaf to be buried.