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25 December 2019 The protest in Iraq flares up again, rekindled by the death of a famous activist and the attempted murder of a television comedian. Thaer al Tayeb, a Diwaniyah activist, about 200 km from Baghdad, died of the injuries sustained in an attack on him and another activist, whose vehicle was blown up while they were on board.

In Diwaniyah, where the activist's funeral was celebrated, the headquarters of two of the militias most feared and hated by the demonstrators were set on fire: the pro-Iranian Badr, who refers to MP Hadi al Ameri, and Assaib Ahl Al Haq, whose leaders have recently been hit by American sanctions because they are considered responsible for kidnappings, murders and torture.

Tayeb, is the latest, in chronological order, to a series of activists who have lost their lives since a mass protest against Tehran's lifetime and meddling in the country began just over three months ago and for an electoral law, with a uninominal stamp. Now it's up to the comedians: last night someone tried to kill Aws Fadhil, who from television screens built his celebrity as a comedian and battistista, shooting at the address of his car, on which the artist was traveling.

"They attack those who support the revolution - said the comedian - but we continue and we have achieved a goal". The reference is to the approval of the electoral law by the Parliament, which however risks being emptied by a reform of the constituencies that could reward the notables and hinder the arrival of technicians and independents in power.

Tehran is one of the indirect targets of the protest in Iraq, conducted mainly by young people - in the country the youth unemployment rate is 25%, twice the national average - of the southern Shiite majority cities, which took to the streets, challenging the curfew imposed by the authorities, against a political class considered corrupt and accustomed to the appropriation of public funds, in a country torn by 15 years of de facto civil war and with poor infrastructure, further proven by the recent war on Isis.

Iraq is OPEC's second largest oil producer, it has the largest oil reserves in the world but 22.5% of Iraqis live below the poverty line, according to World Bank data. The Iraqi government is supported simultaneously by the United States and Iran, which, however, today has a visibly greater weight than the Americans in internal dynamics, above all thanks to the relationships between the Shiite religious schools of the two countries and the role that the Shiite militias - formed and supported by Iran - they had in the war against Isis. Just the militias - many of which have political parties of reference, entered the parliament and then the government.