Shots fired as deadly Iraq protests resume despite curfew

Iraqi security forces fired live rounds on Thursday to break up protests held for a third day in Baghdad despite an open-ended curfew in effect since dawn.

Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi ordered the ban on movements across the capital starting at 5:00 am (0200 GMT) to stem the popular demonstrations over widespread unemployment and state corruption.

The chaotic protests and ensuing clashes with riot police in Baghdad and several southern cities have left 12 protesters and one police officer dead. On Thursday morning, riot police fired in the air to disperse several dozen protesters gathered in the emblematic Tahrir Square in defiance of the curfew, an AFP photographer said.

"We slept here so the police don't take the place," one demonstrator told AFP before being pushed back en masse by police officers into adjacent sidestreets.

Tensions have been exacerbated by a near-total internet blackout, the closure of government offices in Baghdad and calls by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for "a general strike."