The death toll among demonstrators rose to 27 people yesterday in Iraq, including eight in Baghdad, where popular protests resumed to become more volatile in cities in the south. While the authorities imposed a curfew in six provinces,

The representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, called in Friday sermon for "restraint" to avoid "chaos."

In a statement, the Iraqi Human Rights Commission said in a statement that 27 people were killed and 2,050 injured nationwide.

Half of those killed were shot live in southern Iraq, where demonstrators tried to storm the headquarters of the "Asaib Ahl al-Haq," one of the most prominent factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces, according to AFP security and medical sources.

In the capital Baghdad, Iraqi police fired live bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas, to disperse thousands of protesters in the streets, killing eight demonstrators and wounding dozens, according to security officials.

Five demonstrators were shot dead as they tried to storm the headquarters of an armed faction in Amara, the largest city in the southern province of Maysan.

Demonstrators attacked the headquarters of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the most prominent factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces, in the city of Amara, south of Baghdad.

Police sources said an intelligence officer and a member of Asaib Ahl al-Haq were killed in a clash with protesters in the city of Amara.

At least three people were killed when gunmen from Asaib Ahl al-Haq militiamen shot at a group of protesters as they tried to storm the group's headquarters in the city of Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar province, security and medical sources said.

In the same province, about 3000 demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the province and set it on fire.

Protesters in the province also set fire to the headquarters of political parties and the Office of the Electoral Commission.

The statement issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the burning and damage to 27 government buildings and party headquarters in the provinces of Babylon, Diwaniya, Missan, Wasit, Dhi Qar and Basra.

The authorities imposed curfews in the governorates of Dhi Qar, Babylon, Wasit, Basra, Muthanna and Missan.

In Basra province, thousands marched towards the southern governorate building, according to the official agency in Iraq, demonstrators demanded there to fight corruption and prosecute those responsible for the killing of demonstrators.

Protesters burned the offices of the Dawa Party, the Virtue Party and the Badr office in the city of Masawa, the capital of Muthanna.

In Karbala, Ali al-Sistani called on demonstrators and security forces to "exercise restraint" to avoid "chaos."

"We call on our beloved demonstrators and our fellow members of the security forces to abide strictly by the peacefulness of the demonstrations and not to allow them to be dragged into violence, riots and vandalism," his spokesman Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai said in Friday sermons.

He added that the religious authority's emphasis on the need for peaceful protests to be free from violence.

- Security forces repelled thousands of demonstrators

Rallying in central Baghdad yesterday.