2 killed, dozens wounded

Two Iraqis were killed and dozens wounded in protest-related violence yesterday, as authorities suspended a television station which has broadcast intensive coverage of the months-long movement demanding regime change.

The youth-led campaign has pressed on despite violence that has killed more than 480 people, a vast majority of them protesters, since rallies erupted in Baghdad and Shiite-majority southern Iraq on October 1.

Demanding snap elections, an independent prime minister and accountability for long-standing corruption and bloodshed, youths have occupied squares, blockaded streets and boycotted university classes for nearly four months.

Security forces have responded with live rounds and tear gas, and on Tuesday one protester was shot dead in clashes with riot police in the southern protest hotspot of Kut, according to medical and security sources.

Further north in the capital, a professor at the famed Mustansariyah University was shot dead early yesterday while driving in his car, medics and police said.

Near Tahrir, protesters carrying makeshift shield tried to seal off roads and threw rocks at riot police firing tear gas and live rounds. Around 15 protesters were wounded, medics said.

Other rallies and skirmishes rocked the port city of Basra in the south, as well as Amarah, Hillah and Nasiriyah.

Political factions have thus far failed to agree on a replacement for the prime minister, Adel Abdel Mahdi, who resigned in December but has stayed on in a caretaker role. And while parliament has passed a new law to oversee parliamentary elections, it falls short of protesters’ demands and has yet to be signed into law by the president.

The delays have infuriated protesters, and even Iraq’s top Shia religious authority and the United Nations have criticised authorities for failing to enact reform.

The government has also come under fire for not doing enough to protect journalists in the country. Iraqi authorities this week suspended Al-Dijla television station for a month, media and police sources said yesterday.