One protester has been killed by security forces after hundreds of anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Iraq's capital and southern provinces.
More than 100 protesters were also hurt, including at least 75 in the southern city of Nassiriya, in after security forces tried to clear sit-in protest camps on Sunday, medical sources said.
The protesters have defied a powerful Iraqi religious leader who recently withdrew his support from the popular movement.
Separately, five Katyusha rockets crashed into a riverbank near the US Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone without causing any injuries or serious damages, a statement from US Joint Operations Command said. One rocket landed inside the embassy walls, an Iraqi security official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
It is the third such attack this month and the perpetrators were not immediately known.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi condemned the rocket attack that targeted the US Embassy. In a statement, he asserted Iraq's commitment to "protecting all diplomatic missions."
Security forces fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse the crowds from the capital's Khilani Square, medical and security officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. One protester was killed and six wounded after security forces fired live rounds in nearby Wathba Square later in the evening.
At least 28 demonstrators were reported wounded by Iraqi security forces in the first hours of Sunday's street rallies.
The mass protests started in October over widespread government corruption and a lack of public services and jobs. They quickly grew into calls for sweeping changes to Iraq's political system that was imposed after the 2003 US invasion. Iraqi security forces have responded harshly. At least 500 protesters have been killed since the unrest began.
Iraq also has been roiled by US-Iran tensions that threatened a regional war after an American drone strike this month killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad.
The US attack pushed the Shi'Ite cleric and political leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, to turn his influence toward demanding an American troop withdrawal and holding an anti-US rally.
Analysts said al-Sadr, who often mobilises his followers on the street to buttress his political influence, was using the anti-US protest he staged as leverage in political negotiations among Iraq's elites to select the next premier.
Al-Sadr has long been an unpredictable maverick in Iraqi politics and is the only Shi'Ite leader who has challenged both Iran and the US
He also dropped his support for the anti-government movement on Friday, a move that analysts said was meant to buttress his political reputation during a time of national turmoil.
But by Sunday morning, it had the opposite effect as protesters pushed back.
Hundreds of protesters, mostly students, marched Sunday through key squares in the capital and southern Iraq to show their continued support for the anti-government movement, despite al-Sadr's reversal of position.
