67 killed as anti-govt protests flare in Iraq

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of demonstrators continued their protests on Saturday in Baghdad and some provinces in southern and central Iraq over deteriorating living conditions, leaving up to 67 people dead and more than 2,500 others wounded.

Following Friday's protests in Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad on the eastern side of the Tigris River, dozens of the demonstrators spent their night in tents, so they could resume the protests on Saturday morning and repeat their attempts to cross the nearby al-Jumhouriyah Bridge to reach the Green Zone.

The last attempt to cross the bridge was around the sunset, when the riot police heavily fired tear-gas canisters and sound bombs to disperse the demonstrators and managed to push them back out of Tahrir Square in the surrounding neighborhoods, an Interior Ministry source said.