Iraqi forces fire tear gas and rubber bullets, killing at least 21 as rallies erupt in Baghdad and southern cities.

At least 21 people have been killed in Iraq as anti-government protests resumed after a three-week hiatus.

Iraqi police on Friday fired rubber bullets and volleys of tear gas canisters to disperse thousands of protesters that had gathered in the capital, Baghdad, while several other demonstrations swept across the country’s south.

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The protesters are calling for an overhaul of the country’s political system and an end to official corruption amid growing anger over chronically high unemployment and poor public services.

The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll in the protests at 21, including eight people in Baghdad. Thirteen others were killed in the southern provinces of Maysan, Dhi Qar and Muthanna, Mustafa Saadoon, the observatory’s director, told Al Jazeera.

More than 1,700 protesters were wounded, Saadoon said.

Iraq’s semi-official Human Rights Commission also said 21 people had been killed during the demonstrations, according to AFP news agency.

Iraq’s Ministry of Interior earlier said at least four people had died – two in Baghdad and two in the southern city of Amarah.

‘The system has done nothing for us’

Security forces were deployed on the streets of Baghdad on Thursday night in anticipation of the rallies, which are a continuation of the economically driven demonstrations that began in early October and turned deadly as security forces cracked down.

Demonstrators have called on the government to address high unemployment, poor public services and corruption, blaming fraud and infighting among political leaders for failing to improve their lives.

“We want the government to step down and for the political system to be completely revamped,” a 20-something year-old protester in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square told Al Jazeera.

“The whole political elite needs to change because the current system has done nothing for us,” added the demonstrator, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

A 28-year-old lawyer told Al Jazeera change needs to begin with a new constitution.

“We want a new constitution. Without that nothing can change. It is the constitution that has created the sectarian crisis we’ve lived in for years,” the lawyer said, also requesting anonymity.

Many Iraqis blame the current constitution, drafted and approved in 2005, two years after a US-led invasion, for the sectarian nature of Iraq’s political system.

Many Iraqis blame the current constitution, drafted and approved two years after the 2003 US-led invasion, for the sectarian nature of Iraq’s political system [Bakr al-Ubaidi/ Al Jazeera]

“People are very upset about the ongoing lack of economic opportunities, basic services – such as water and electricity – and what they perceive to be a dysfunctional government that is looting the country of its money,” Al Jazeera’s Natasha Ghoneim, reporting from Baghdad, said.

Rallies were also held in various parts of southern Iraq, including in the cities of Basra and Samawa.

“There are people throughout Iraq who have now finished Friday prayers and headed to areas in their cities to protests,” Ghoneim said.

Iraq’s top Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meanwhile called on protesters and security forces to keep anti-government demonstrations peaceful.

“Real reform and change in the country has to be through peaceful methods,” a representative of the cleric said during a Friday sermon in the holy city of Kerbala.

Al-Sistani, who rarely weighs in on politics except in times of crisis, said security forces must not allow attacks on public and private property.

In Nasiriyah, meanwhile, at least 3,000 protesters stormed the provincial government building and set it ablaze, police sources told the Reuters news agency.

Iraqi protesters defy tear gas and live ammunition fired by security forces [Bakr al-Ubaidi/ Al Jazeera]

Deadly crackdown

A government-appointed inquiry into the protests earlier this month determined in a report published on Tuesday that security forces had used excessive force and live fire to quell the demonstrations, killing 149 people and wounding more than 3,000. Eight members of the security forces were also killed.

The report, which said more than 70 percent of the deaths were caused by gunshots to head or chest, held senior commanders responsible, but stopped short of blaming Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and other top officials, saying there had been no orders to shoot.

The violence has posed the biggest challenge to Abdul Mahdi since he took office a year ago.

Renad Mansour, research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera that Friday’s demonstrations were part of a years-long process of disillusionment among young Iraqis.

“Iraqis are rejecting the post-2003 system and they have been trying to voice, year after year, their grievances and sense of disillusionment with it,” Mansour said.

“This has come in the form of low voter turn-out in the last election, protests across the south [of Iraq] last year … and even going back to the mass [anti-government] protests in 2015,” he added.

The main difference now, Mansour said, was the spike in violence that has escalated since early October.

At least one demonstrator was killed and more than 200 wounded, according to the Iraqi Human Rights Commission [Bakr al-Ubaidi/ Al Jazeera]

In an attempt to appease Iraqis in the face of the planned demonstrations, Abdul Mahdi said in a televised speech on Thursday night that people would be free to exercise their right to demonstrate, but warned violence would not be tolerated.

The prime minister stressed a government collapse would drag Iraq into further turmoil.

“The resignation of the government today without a constitutional alternative will lead the country into chaos,” he said.

He reiterated reforms announced in the aftermath of the protests – including a cabinet reshuffle, job opportunities for unemployed youth, and the establishment of a new court to try corrupt officials.

The premier also announced that government salaries, including for top officials, would be gradually halved, with funds redirected to a social security fund for the country’s poorest citizens.

Additional reporting by Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) in Doha and Bakr al-Ubaidi in Baghdad