Shafaq News / A protester died on Saturday after being run over by a car of riot police in Wasit Governorate, southern Iraq. A Hospital source reported.

The source told Shafaq News Agency, "A protester died and another wounded after being run over in the city of Kut, the center of Wasit governorate."

Police still fight running battles with protesters in the city center. He added.

This is the second incident in the Governorate within 24 hours, Hussein Kata’a, a protester died after setting himself alights on Saturday.

Last month Iraqi security forces cleared out sit-in tents in multiple Governorates including Baghdad’s Tahrir square, which became a symbol of anti-government protests during months-long mass unrest last year.

Haboubi square, where one of the worst killings of demonstrators took place last year and the last major protest site, had been cleared also on Friday night by Sadr supporters, Reuters witness said, another major blow to anti-government protests that have largely lost steam in recent months.

Al-Sadr supporters fired gunshots and threw petrol bombs at the protesters’ tents, leading the protesters to fight back, the Reuters witness said.

A hospital source said the protesters died from bullet wounds. The clashes were still going on on Friday evening.

Iraq’s biggest anti-government protests in decades broke out in October 2019 and continued for several months, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demanding jobs, services and the removal of the ruling elite, which they said was corrupt. Nearly 500 people were killed. The protests caused the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who took office in May, has pledged to hold a parliamentary election, in line with a demand of many pro-democracy activists.