Iraqi security forces kill one protester, wound 25: Report

Iraqisecurityforceskilled at leastoneprotesterandwounded25others on Friday when they launched tear gas canisters to break up a crowd trying to breach Baghdad's Sinak bridge,securityand medicalsourcestold Reuters.

The bridge is close to the capital's central Tahrir Square where thousands have been camped out for months, with recent clashes causing the authorities to restrict access to the crossing. Theprotesterdied after a tear gas canister was launched directly at his neck, the medicalsourcessaid.

[ Iraqidemonstrators and tuk-tuk drivers are seen during ongoing anti-government protestsat the Sinak bridge in Baghdad (Courtesy: Reuters)]

"Saboteurs attacked the barricades in the Sinak bridge area andsecurityforceshave been using non-lethal methods to stop them for hours," said a spokesman for the prime minister.

Mass protests have gripped Iraq since October1 andprotesters, most of them young, are demanding an overhaul of a political system they see as profoundly corrupt and keeping mostIraqis in poverty. More than 450 people have beenkilled.

[Demonstrators stand on a concrete wall during ongoing anti-government protests at Sinak bridge in Baghdad (Courtesy: Reuters) ]

Despite numbers recently dwindling,protesters took to the streets again last week, determined to keep up the momentum of their protests despite attention turning to the threat of a US-Iran conflict after Washingtonkilled Tehran's top general in an airstrike inside Iraq.

Gunmenkilled two local journalists covering protests last Friday in the southern city of Basra.