RAMADI (Iraq), Dec 30: Two people were wounded when security forces opened fire to disperse protesters who attacked Iraq’s deputy prime minister on Sunday, forcing him to flee a rally he was addressing, witnesses said.

The demonstrators, who have blocked a key highway connecting Iraq to Syria and Jordan for the past week over the alleged targeting of their Sunni Arab minority by the Shia-led government in Baghdad, threw water bottles, stones and shoes at Saleh Al Mutlak before grabbing and hitting him.

Mr Mutlak, who belongs to the Sunni community and Anbar province where the protests have been staged, managed to escape after federal police arrived and fired their weapons into the air.

An aide to Mr Mutlak, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deputy premier was all right and was returning to Baghdad.

Mr Mutlak had arrived at the rally site earlier on Sunday and began addressing the crowd from an elevated platform.

But as he began speaking, demonstrators shouted “Traitor!” in an apparent reference to his being in the national unity government they were protesting against, and began throwing bottles of water at him.

They then began hurling stones and shoes, at which point Mr Mutlak’s personal security detail formed a protective ring around him and escorted him from the platform, firing their weapons above the heads of protesters.

But demonstrators followed them and broke through the security cordon, grabbing Mr Mutlak’s clothes and hitting him in the mouth, drawing blood.

Federal policemen then intervened, firing into the air to disperse the crowd, and Mr Mutlak was driven off in an unmarked civilian car. Two people were wounded by the gunfire.—Agencies