Baghdad, Iraq – At least 14 people have been killed after security forces used live ammunition and tear gas canisters to disperse anti-government protesters in the southern city of Nasiriya, medical sources and witnesses told Al Jazeera.
Authorities in the capital Baghdad dispatched troops to southern Iraq, which has seen massive protests for weeks, to “restore order” there, the military said in a statement on Thursday.
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Security sources told Al Jazeera that at least 120 others were wounded in the crackdown on protests in Nasiriya on Thursday, a day after the Iranian consulate was set on fire in Shia holy city of Najaf.
Several of the wounded are believed to be in critical condition. Medical sources, however, have told Al Jazeera that the death toll has gone up to 18 but it has yet to be confirmed by officials.
The raid on the Iranian consulate was the strongest expression of anti-Iranian sentiment by Iraqi protesters, who have taken to the streets in Baghdad and Iraq’s mainly Shia south since early October.
More than 360 people have been killed and more than 15,000 wounded so far, according to an AFP news agency tally.
Southern Iraq and Baghdad have been gripped by an escalating wave of anti-government demonstrations demanding an overhaul of the ruling system, seen as corrupt, sectarian and inefficient.
Global News 
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