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Two students killed in Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad

From Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
Two students were killed by gunfire in Baghdad, where Iraqis protested against government corruption again on Monday.
Two students were killed by gunfire in Baghdad, where Iraqis protested against government corruption again on Monday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Gunmen opened fire Monday killing a high school boy and a male college student in Baghdad's Amriya Sunni neighborhood
  • In Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, two police were wounded
  • But overall violence over the past three years has dropped
RELATED TOPICS
  • Baghdad
  • Iraq

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen opened fire Monday in western Baghdad's Amriya Sunni neighborhood, killing a high-school boy and a male college student, Interior Ministry officials told CNN. The motive for the attack was unclear; Iraqi security forces were investigating the incident.

In a separate incident Monday in southeastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, two police were wounded when a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol, ministry officials said.

But overall violence in Iraq has declined considerably over the past three years compared with what it was like during the height of the sectarian war between 2005 and 2007, when civilian deaths alone routinely exceeded 1,000 per month.

Figures compiled by the Defense, Interior and Health Ministries and released Monday show that 197 people -- 119 civilians, 45 police and 33 soldiers -- were killed last month. Another 325 were wounded -- 200 civilians, 65 police and 60 soldiers, the ministries said.

That's the lowest death toll since November 2010, when a total of 171 people were killed, including civilians, police and army personnel.

Separately, demonstrations continued Monday in Iraq as hundreds of people took to the streets of Sulaimaniya, Baghdad and Falluja to protests corruption, high unemployment and a lack of basic services. Some protesters demanded political reforms, police officials in the three cities said.

Also on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad released a statement condemning recent attacks on journalists and news organizations, including Sunday's attack on the Kurdish Voice radio station in Kalar, an earlier attack on the Nalia Radio and Television in the Kurdistan Region, as well as the beating of Basrah journalists on March 4 and the destruction of the offices of the Journalist Freedoms Observatory in Baghdad.

"We call on Iraqi government and Kurdistan regional government authorities to follow through on their pledges to investigate these incidents fully, and punish the perpetrators," the embassy statement said. "We also recognize that elements of the Iraqi security forces have taken measures to protect journalists during demonstrations, and commend them for these efforts."

The head of an independent Kurdish radio station said Sunday that gunmen attacked the broadcast facility and destroyed or stole equipment overnight. Azad Othman, the head of Dank Radio, told CNN that the attackers stormed the station in Kalar, a town 150 kilometers south of Sulaimaniya. Security officials in Sulaimaniya said they were investigating.

It was the second attack on an independent broadcaster in Kurdistan in the past two weeks. On February 20, masked gunmen attacked and burned NRT TV, wounding a guard, according to police and the broadcast company. NRT, northern Iraq's first independent television station, started broadcasting on February 17 and was the only station to air footage of shots fired at demonstrators on the first day of the protests in Sulaimaniya, which erupted in early February, according to a company statement.

Since then, tens of thousands of protesters have participated in a series of demonstrations across the country, apparently inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. At least 19 people have been killed and more than 200 others wounded since the start of the demonstrations, health officials in the country tell CNN.

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