Turkey: New round of anti-government protests enters third day

Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas to break up fresh anti-government protests in Istanbul Thursday, amid anger over the death of a demonstrator earlier in the week -- the sixth since unrest broke out against the administration of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May.

Officers faced up to 3,000 angry protesters on a third consecutive day of demonstrations in the Kadikoy district, an opposition stronghold. The police fired tear gas, water cannon and plastic pellets to break up the crowd as it approached the local offices of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The incidents lasted several hours and ran into early morning Friday. Many protesters were arrested, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

There were media reports of similar incidents pitting police against demonstrators in the capital, Ankara, and the southern city of Antakya, where 22-year-old Ahmet Atakan died during a protest on Monday.

Atakan's death was the sixth recorded in protests since demonstrations against Erdogan's government began in May.

Atakan's family said he had been killed by a missile fired by police -- said to be a gas canister. Interior Minister Muammer Guler denied the allegations.

Guler has accused protesters of using the young man's death to "spread chaos." Local officials said Atakan died after falling from a rooftop, where he had been throwing stones at police. 

The protests this week are the latest in a spate of anti-government demonstrations this year.

On May 31, police violently cracked down on activists who had occupied Istanbul’s Gezi Park to halt a development plan that would raze its 600 trees. The incident snowballed into nationwide protests against the Erdogan administration, which demonstrators see as increasingly authoritarian.

The unrest represents the biggest challenge to the AKP government since it came to power in 2002.

Al Jazeera and wire services