BAGHDAD, IRAQ: On Thursday, a 16-year-old boy was killed and strung up by his feet in a central Baghdad square. An angry mob attacked him after he allegedly killed two shop keepers and four anti-government protesters.

+18 #ISIS has changed its name to #Iraq and is called '' DEMONSTRATORS '' ... a mob lynched, killed, beheaded and hanged a 16-year-old child in #Baghdad's Al-Wathba square pic.twitter.com/rgpDwrOnIA — dimpenewscom1 (@dimpenewscom1) December 12, 2019

Videos on social media show how the young man was beaten and dragged across the street before his body was strung up by its feet.

A large anti-government protest movement started 8 weeks ago in Iraq when protesters took action against government corruption, poor services and lack of employment. But anti-government protesters have been on edge following strange events such as abductions and assassinations of high-profile activists.

This is the boy Haitham who was lynched today by mob near #TahrirSquare after a fight between them!



This is not #IraqProtests

No crime will justify this savagery pic.twitter.com/dGos4pim8n — 🇮🇶Iraq & Middle East Updates (@IraqLiveUpdate) December 12, 2019

Protesters have become paranoid after 25 of them were killed in Baghdad’s Khilani Square in open fire from pickup trucks and in the same week, knife attacks in Tahrir Square. They claim that Iran-backed militias are trying to undermine their peaceful protests.

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that those who were responsible for the death of the teen were “terrorists” and that he would remove his militia, deployed in the square to protect protesters to leave if the perpetrators were not identified within 48 hours.

#ISIS has changed its name to #Iraq and is called '' DEMONSTRATORS '' ... a mob lynched, killed, beheaded and hanged a 16-year-old child in #Baghdad's Al-Wathba square pic.twitter.com/0wAYbasjV0 — dimpenewscom1 (@dimpenewscom1) December 12, 2019

The wider protest movement in Tahrir Square condemned the killing and distanced themselves from it.

“We can’t allow the image of our pure revolution to be distorted, so we declare that we are innocent as peaceful demonstrators to what happened this morning in Wathba Square,” the statement said.