Video .. Iraqi security fire on demonstrators and the fall of two dead and 200 wounded

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two people were killed and 200 wounded on Tuesday when Iraqi security forces cracked down on live ammunition and tear gas grenades in demonstrations in Baghdad and several Iraqi cities to denounce corruption and unemployment.

The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said one demonstrator was killed by "excessive violence" by security forces in Baghdad, and that at least 60 demonstrators were injured and suffocated by the security crackdown and the use of tear gas.

"One of the demonstrators participating in the demonstrations died, and two others were injured, one seriously, in addition to 25 security forces," said Abdul Hussein al-Jabri, director-general of the health department in the southern province of Dhi Qar.

In turn, the government media cell said in a statement that the demonstrations resulted in the injury of 200 civilians and 40 security forces.

The government cell regretted the violence that accompanied the protests and accused what it described as a "group of rioters" to carry out actions that led to the projection of the real content of these demands and stripped of the peacefulness of which they came out.

Around a thousand protesters gathered in the center of the capital.Al Jazeera correspondent said that the cities of the south of the country, especially Najaf, Basra, Wasit, Nasiriyah and Diwaniyah, have witnessed demonstrations despite the closure of roads to denounce what they considered as continuing corruption in most state institutions, and called on the government to reform and fight against spoilers, and provide job opportunities for young people.

Some protesters called for an open sit-in until the "end of injustice" and access to "services and appointments."

Investigation
For his part, called on the leader of the Sadrist movement Muqtada al-Sadr three presidencies in Iraq to open a fair investigation into the deaths of demonstrators.

Sadr had criticized in a brief statement security measures against the demonstrators, stressing that "the prestige of the state is not at the expense of the people and the poor."

Iraq ranks 12th on the list of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International, according to official reports that about $ 450 billion of public funds have disappeared since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, four times the state budget and more than twice the GDP of Iraq.