Iraq rally turns violent, police kill protester

[June 19, 2010]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- A protest over electricity shortages in the mainly Shiite southern Iraq turned violent on Saturday with troops fatally shooting one demonstrator, police officials said, underscoring rising tension over the country's lack of basic services.

Elsewhere in Iraq, officials said gunmen sped up to a checkpoint and opened fire Saturday, killing three anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters.

The unrest came a day after more than 30 people were killed in a wave of violence targeting government officials, Iraqi security forces and those seen as allied with them.

In the southern city of Basra, police said one protester died and three were wounded when security forces opened fire on the demonstrators. They said five protesters were arrested.

Hundreds were rallying outside Basra's provincial council building, demanding better power supply to their houses and businesses. Some among the crowd carried banners reading: "Return Electricity to Us" and "Prison is more Comfortable than our Homes."

Police said they tried to control the crowd but protesters started throwing stones at the council building and set fire to a guard's cabin, prompting the troops to start shooting. They said shots were first fired into the air to disperse the crowd, but that failed to stop the violence.

Iraqis have been plagued with severe electricity outages that worsen as summer temperatures soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius). They have also been suffering from water shortages and poor water quality due to low levels and high sedimentation in Iraqi rivers.

On Friday, gunmen killed an employee of a local irrigation department and three of his family members as part of an apparent tribal dispute over water distribution west of Baghdad.

Irrigation department employees have increasingly been targeted in the area as rival tribal factions battle over the distribution of water.

Also on Saturday, officials said gunmen killed three anti-al-Qaida fighters after opening fire at a checkpoint south of Baghdad manned by a local government-backed group known as an Awakening Council.

The Council is part of a movement that has been key to a sharp drop in violence in recent years.

Nobody claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack in Jibala, 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Baghdad, but al-Qaida and other insurgents frequently target Awakening Council members as revenge or to discourage others from joining.

Police and hospital officials also raised the death toll to 12 in Friday's car bombing targeting an ethnic Turkomen provincial council member in the northern city of Tuz Khormato.

The violence reflects fears that violence could rise as militants try to take advantage of the political deadlock following inconclusive March 7 elections to foment new unrest.

Anger over the government's failure to provide public services more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion has been high.

[Associated Press; By SAAD ABDUL-KADIR]

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