At least Two Shot Dead in Fresh Guinea Violence

At least two people were shot dead Friday in Conakry during fresh clashes between Guinean police and opposition protestors, a hospital source and an opposition official said.

"Three of our supporters were shot dead Friday in Conakry," senior opposition official Cellou Dalein Diallo told AFP. A medic at a hospital in Conakry was able to confirm two deaths.

The troubled west African nation's opposition, protesting against a "unilateral" government decision to stage long-delayed legislative elections on June 30, had already clashed with police on Thursday.

A policeman who was seriously wounded in Thursday's unrest died of his injuries on Friday, a police spokesman said.

More than 20 people were wounded on Thursday when the protest march veered off its authorized course.

The exact circumstances of Friday's violence were not immediately clear but Diallo said two of the victims were aged 12 and 18.

According to a relative of one of the victims who claims to have witnessed the incident, "the pair were gunned down by soldiers on motorbikes in the Bambeto neighborhood" of Conakry.

No opposition demonstration had been planned for Friday.

Opposition parties have been staging regular protests for several weeks demanding "free and fair" legislative elections, almost all of which have escalated into deadly violence.

The United Nations Security Council said in a statement on Monday it was "worried about instability" in Guinea and called for calm in the restive west African nation.