Anti-government protesters gather in Tahrir Square during ongoing protests in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Ali Abdul Hassan)

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SULAIMANI — As many as 48 people have gone missing since the beginning of October when anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and the southern provinces, a local rights watchdog said on Monday (December 16).

“Our commission has received complaints about 48 participants of the protests who are missing or have been kidnapped,” said Ali Bayani, a member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights.

He added that militias groups have targeted civilians, including women, in a planned and deliberate way.

“The government is responsible for the missing people and should launch a serious investigation,” he said. “The perpetrators must be found and brought to justice.”

Protesters took to the streets at the beginning of October to demand an end to corruption, better public services, and employment, but since then the unrest has become a more general uprising seeking the ouster of the Iraq's political establishment.

At least 470 protesters have been killed and 19,000 others have been wounded, the Commission said on December 4.

On Friday, Amnesty International condemned what it called a “campaign of terror” against both prominent activists and regular protesters.

At least three activists and organizers of the protesters had been killed since last Sunday, while two environmentalists have gone missing.

On Sunday, Haqi Ismail was killed while driving in the Shaab area of northern Baghdad. He had been active in the protest movement over the last two months and another activist, Saib Taib, who was from Diwaniya in al-Qadisiyyah province, was wounded after an improvised explosive device exploded under his vehicle in the Iraqi capital.

Last Wednesday, environmental activists Omer Kazim al-Amri and Salman Khaiallah al-Mansoori disappeared while traveling to the Kadhmiya neighborhood to buy tents and other equipment for the protests in Tahrir Square. They still remain missing.

The night before that, activist Ali Lami, who was from the southeastern city of Kut, was abducted and killed in the Iraqi capital as he left the protests.

Another prominent civil society activist, Fahem al-Tai, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Karbala on December 8 while returning home from protests.

(NRT Digital Media)