Toll rises to 22 dead in day's crackdown in Iraq's Nasiriyah: Medics

The toll in a bloody crackdown on Iraq's restive southern city of Nasiriyah on Thursday rose to 22 protesters dead and more than 180 wounded, medics told AFP.

The violence erupted after the premier dispatched military commanders to "restore order" in the protest-hit south, hours after demonstrators torched Tehran's consulate in the shrine city of Karbala.