Iraqi Protesters Defiant as Prominent Cleric Withdraws Suppo

[NewsReporter]

VOA - Vietnam News

Since Iraqi Shia Cleric Muqtada el-Sadr withdrew his support for anti-government protests last week, security forces and protesters have been clashing daily across southern Iraq.   The clashes are the latest escalation in a spate of protests over poverty, unemployment, corruption and foreign intervention that have been going on since October and have killed at least 600 people.  As VOA’s Heather Murdock and Halan Akoy report from Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, a rising death toll has made protesters only more determined to fight.