Iraq protests continue .. The death toll rises in Baghdad and the army denies clashes

There were conflicting reports about the number of people killed in the protests in the Iraqi capital Baghdad today, according to the correspondent of Al Jazeera there that Iraqi security and medical sources said that the dead in the morning hours were two and then adjusted the number to three.

Al-Jazeera correspondent that field sources reported that four other demonstrators were killed in the evening, which is likely to rise to seven. Dozens were injured.

For his part, denied the spokesman of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf today, "fabricated" news reported by some media about the loss of life in the Tahrir Square and Khalani Square in central Baghdad.

"There was no friction between the security forces and the demonstrators," Khalaf said in a statement published by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Medical sources said earlier that two demonstrators were killed in the morning as a result of security forces fired tear gas directly at their heads, and wounded more than fifty others.

Al-Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, Farah al-Zaman Shawqi, said that she saw plumes of smoke rising near the bridges of Al-Ahrar and Al-Shuhada, this evening, indicating that there were new clashes between security forces and demonstrators.

Release of detainees
The correspondent also reported that the Iraqi judiciary announced today the release of more than 2,400 people since the beginning of the protests, but did not say how many protesters are still in prison.

The Al-Ahrar Bridge in Baghdad witnessed late last night limited clashes between the demonstrators and the security forces, after the latter burned a number of tents and supplies of the demonstrators and kept them away from the bridge, then managed to return to their places.

Southern Governorates
Outside Baghdad, protests led to the closure of several government departments and the blocking of roads leading to vital facilities, particularly ports such as Khor al-Zubair and Umm Qasr in the oil-rich Basra province.

The protesters closed government buildings and schools in the southern cities of Hilla, Nasiriyah, Diwaniya and Kut, AFP reported.

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that there is a state of hit-and-run between the demonstrators and the security forces in the central and southern provinces of the country, as the protesters are trying to close roads leading to ports and oil fields and the security forces intervene to reopen.

He added that the security forces reopened this morning to the road leading to the twenty oil field, and also opened the border crossing with Kuwait after the protesters closed the protesters, and blocked the road leading to the port of Khor Al-Zubair.

In Dhi Qar, also in the south, local sources said security fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse the protesters who tried to storm an oil company in the province.

Schools, universities, institutes and a number of institutions and businesses are still closing, especially the southern governorates.

Killed, wounded and arrested
For its part, said the Human Rights Commission in Iraq that nine demonstrators were killed, 135 others wounded and 108 protesters were arrested during the past five days in Baghdad, Dhi Qar and Basra in the south of the country.

A statement by the Commission said that the statistics document the events in Baghdad and a number of provinces for the period from 16 to 20 of this month, and pointed to the continued use of live bullets, rubber and tear gases caused by the killing of demonstrators, two in Dhi Qar and one in the province of Basra and six in Baghdad and the injury of 135 demonstrators in The capital arrested 108 protesters.

The Commission demanded the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to oblige the security services not to use live bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas against peaceful demonstrators, and to call on the Supreme Judicial Council to release peaceful demonstrators arrested.

She warned against the continued rise in cases of kidnappings and assassinations, which affected a number of demonstrators, bloggers, activists, lawyers and journalists from unknown sources.

Since the beginning of the demonstrations early last month, more than 330 people have been killed in Baghdad and the south, the largest protests in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.