Teenage protester killed in Iraq Kurd demo

21 Feb, 2011

He said the slain teenager, Serkho Mohammed, 17, suffered two gunshots to his abdomen. Among the injured, eight suffered bullet wounds.Around 1,500 protesters had tried to march to Salem Street, the site of violent demonstrations that left two young men killed and 54 wounded days earlier, but security forces blocked their progress, sparking Sunday's clashes.

The demonstrators had been attempting to move toward the headquarters of the the two long dominant Kurdish former rebel parties the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the region's second city.Immediately after Thursday's protests, looters targeted seven offices of the Kurdish opposition Goran party, despite the bloc's denials it was involved in protests at the KDP offices.The KDP, led by regional president Massud Barzani, and the PUK, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, have for decades lorded over Kurdistan.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011 

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