Fresh clashes erupt in Baghdad despite call for calm by top cleric

Fresh clashes erupt in Baghdad despite call for calm by top cleric
Fresh clashes erupt in Baghdad despite call for calm by top cleric

Fresh clashes between Iraqi security forces and anti-government protesters broke out in Baghdad on Friday despite a call for calm by the country's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric, as authorities grapple with the country's biggest crisis in years.

Security forces fired tear gasand threw stun grenades into crowds of protesters wearing helmets and makeshiftbody armour on a main road in the middle of the Iraqi capital, sendingdemonstrators scattering, some wounded, Reuters reporters said.

More than 260 people have beenkilled since the protests over a lack of jobs and services began in Baghdad onOct. 1 and quickly spread to southern provinces, according to police andmedics.

Police, the military andparamilitary groups have used live gunfire against mostly unarmed protesterssince the beginning of the unrest.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,who only speaks on politics in times of crisis and wields enormous influenceover public opinion in Shi'ite-majority Iraq, held security forces accountablefor any violent escalation and urged the government to respond as quickly aspossible to demonstrators' demands.

"The biggest responsibilityis on the security forces," a representative of Sistani said in a sermonafter Friday prayers in the holy city of Kerbala. "They must avoid usingexcessive force with peaceful protesters."

Protesters, some of whom viewSistani as part of the political and religious system they say is the cause ofmany Iraqis' misery, took little solace from the cleric's words.

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