Two demonstrators were killed and more than 200 people injured Tuesday, health officials said, in clashes with security forces during protests in Baghdad and the provinces that mounted the first challenge to Iraq's fragile one-year-old government. More than 1,000 protesters had descended on the capital before security forces dispersed the crowds with a volley of gunfire and tear gas.

Protests in Baghdad left one dead and 200 wounded, including 160 civilians, the health ministry said without providing further details. According to medical and police sources, most of them needed treatment for tear gas inhalation and some were injured by rubber bullets.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019