KUT, Iraq, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Iraqi security forces in Kut Wednesday fired upon protesters demanding the provincial governor resign, killing at least three people, officials said.
After police fired on the demonstrators, a local government official said the protesters stormed the governor's headquarters and his home, burning both, The New York Times reported.
At least 27 people, including one police officer, were injured.
"They burned all the rooms in the buildings and all the generators; they also burned the cars of the employees," the official told the Times. "We were able to take the deputy and the employees out the back door. Some of the employees were women and they were choked by the fires."
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Scattered protests have popped up across Iraq, with demonstrators calling for better government services, among other things.
The protest in Kut, near the Iraq-Iran border, was organized by the Youth of Kut, which wants the province's governor, Latif Hamad al-Tarfa, to step down because he failed to create jobs and boost electricity supplies, an organizer said. Tarfa was in Baghdad Wednesday.
In Fallujah Tuesday, demonstrators called on the government to end arbitrary arrests, resume a military draft and dismiss non-Iraqis from government office, al-Sumaria reported. The protesters also called for the government to sever accords with the United States.
Police also reported demonstrations in the Shiite district of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad and in several other provinces, CNN said.
The demonstrations in Iraq follow a series of uprisings across the Middle East, of which two toppled the governments of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
