Popular protests continue in the Iraqi capital and a number of southern governorates for the eighth week in a row, to demand comprehensive reform and fight corruption in the country, and the sit-in squares, especially the Tahrir Square in Baghdad, witnessed the arrival of dozens of demonstrators supporting the protests.

On the other hand, government sources said that meetings to choose a new prime minister are still continuing, and that discussions in the political scenes are confined to specific personalities.

The Special Office of the Sadrist Movement leader announced the closure of all institutions affiliated with his movement for a full year, excluding from the decision three institutions that have no relationship to political work, among them the formations of the Peace Brigades, the armed faction belonging to the popular crowd and supported by Sadr.

Basra dead
In Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq, three civilians were killed by attacks by unknown gunmen in the city center, and a medical source in Basra Health Directorate said that the dead bodies of the dead had reached the hospitals of Basra Governorate.

The incidents of targeting activists in the protests are repeated, including the recent photojournalist Ahmed Al-Muhanna being stabbed with a sharp object and the kidnapping of photographer Zaid Muhammad Al-Khafaji in Baghdad.

Last Wednesday dawn, the body of the civil activist Ali Najm al-Lami, north of the capital, Baghdad, was found hours after his disappearance after he left "Tahrir Square", while two unidentified gunmen last Sunday night killed the activist in the popular protests in the city of Karbala Fahim al-Taie.

In a related context, a security source said that the son of the deputy in the Iraqi parliament for the Alliance of Sa`ron Ja`far al-Musawi survived an assassination attempt with an armed attack in Baghdad.

The source, who asked not to be named, said that Moussaoui's son was taken to hospital for treatment without revealing the severity of his health.

Al Wathba Square
Meanwhile, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Khaled Muhanna said that arrest warrants had been issued against a number of people suspected of being involved in the Al Wathba incident, which witnessed the killing of a person and the hanging of his body on a lighting pole after he shot protesters and killed four of them.

He added in a statement to Al-Jazeera that investigations are still ongoing to determine the identity of those who participated in the Al-Wathba incident, explaining that no accused has been handed over or received until now, but he also indicated that arrest warrants have been issued against a number of people who have been identified, stressing that the judiciary will say His word separation.