2 Iraqi protesters killed, more than 20 injured in Baghdad: Officials

At least two protestors were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Baghdad on January 17 in a fresh wave of violence that erupted between the anti-government demonstrators and Iraqi security forces, according to the officials. Riot police fired tear gas and hurled petrol bombs to disperse the crowd on the important Sinak Bridge after demonstrators attempted to breach cement barriers previously erected by security forces that caused casualties, according to the activists and medical and security officials. The protestors of Iraq have burned the entrance of a shrine in the southern holy city of Najaf on November 30 and the security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

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The demonstrators shared a video of a doorway to the Hakim shrine set on fire as protestors cheered and filmed it on their cell phones. The incident occurred during one of the deadliest weeks of Iraq's anti-government unrest that erupted last month. Widespread protests continued in the southern city of Nassiriya where protesters earlier surrounded a police station in Baghdad. The violence escalated after the Iranian consulate in Najaf was set on fire on Wednesday. Violent protestors burned tires and gheraoed a police station in the Southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya on November 30, according to the reports.

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Widespread protests close schools and offices

Iraqi officials said that two protestors have been shot dead and at least 26 wounded in Baghdad and southern Iraq in continued unrest. Adel Abdul Mahdi submitted his resignation on Friday to parliament after the government has faced two months of violent widespread protests. He resigned after the country's senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric forced the lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government that has been facing weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. The protestors have been protesting in Baghdad defying a curfew order introduced in late October. Protestors closed the main roads of the capital. Schools and colleges have been closed across Baghdad and various regions of Iraq and the students were seen staging sit-ins at their schools. 

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