(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130112-belfast-hmed-1p.photoblog600.jpg)Cathal McNaughton / ReutersPolice officers in riot gear stand near a burning, hijacked car during rioting in East Belfast on Saturday. Protests continue in Northern Ireland as loyalists renewed their anger against restrictions on flying the union flag from Belfast City Hall. By Stephen Mangan, ReutersBELFAST -- At least 16 police officers were injured when pro-British and Irish nationalist youths clashed in the Northern Irish capital on Saturday following another protest against the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld)Rioting started as the mainly Protestant protesters passed a Catholic area on their way home from a rally in central Belfast against the flag's removal. Police scrambled to separate crowds of youths who pelted each other with bricks and bottles.
The unrest over the past five weeks has been some of the most sustained in the British-ruled province since a 1998 peace deal ended 30 years of conflict between Catholic Irish nationalists seeking union with Ireland and Protestant loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.
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