Iraq's outgoing premier Adel Abdel Mahdi was seen as an independent who could unite rival factions, but anti-government protests that left hundreds dead put an early end to his term.

The 77-year-old veteran was named prime minister in late October 2018 as a consensus candidate among Iraq's divided political giants and its competing international allies.

Without a political base of his own, Abdel Mahdi was seen as the weakest prime minister in Iraq's history and observers early on predicted he would not survive the country's fractious politics for long.

But few expected he would lose his seat to furious street protests.

Demonstrations denouncing endemic graft and lack of jobs erupted on October 1 in Iraq's capital and Shiite-majority south, and a heavy-handed response by security forces and armed groups since has left more than 420 people dead and close to 20,000 wounded.

After a spree of violence this week, Abdel Mahdi said he would step down and on Sunday parliament approved his resignation.

That made him the first premier to resign since Iraq adopted a parliamentary system following the US-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

- From dissident to deposed -

A Shiite raised in Baghdad, Abdel Mahdi was born to the son of a minister during Iraq's monarchy, which met a bloody end in 1958.

He joined the Baath party, which brought Saddam to power in the late 1970s, before switching to oppose the dictator, first as a communist and then as an Islamist from abroad.

He returned after Saddam's overthrow and became a senior figure in the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a Shiite movement close to Iran.

A member of the interim authorities installed by the US military command, Abdel Mahdi briefly served as finance minister then became vice president after the country's first multi-party elections in 2005.

In the role, he was lightly wounded in 2007 when a bomb exploded inside the public works ministry.

In 2014, he was appointed oil minister under Haider al-Abadi, the man he was set to succeed as premier.

He excelled in the role, deftly negotiating with Kurds over oil before resigning after two years.

A francophone who attended university in France, he also has an excellent command of English.

"This is someone who has at various points in his career been a communist, an Islamist, an independent," said a former official who has known him for years.

"What does that tell you about what he wants? Power."

- 'Fighting off a coup' -

With a burly physique and a face framed by spectacles and a thin moustache, Abdel Mahdi was expected to use his years of experience for the tough post of premier.

He came to power based on a tenuous alliance between the parliamentary blocs of Hadi al-Ameri, a leading member of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, and populist cleric Moqtadr Sadr.

Abdel Mahdi also had the support of the autonomous Kurdish government in the north and had hoped to normalise ties between Baghdad and regional capital Arbil.

And he had the required blessing of Iraq's main allies, neighbouring Iran and the United States, who are bitter foes.

In taking the post, Abdel Mahdi admitted it was a "heavy responsibility" and said he was keeping his resignation letter "in his pocket".

He had pledged to balance ties with the US and Iran while fighting graft in a country ranked the 12th most corrupt by watchdog group Transparency International.

"He is someone who likes consensus, who is hands-off and does not like to take dramatic action," said a government source close to him.

But progress was hamstrung by divisions within the government and Abdel Mahdi "could not regain control," the source added.

In early October, demonstrators hit the streets in the largest grassroots movement in decades, venting their fury at the ruling system.

As the death toll mounted, government sources told AFP the premier became increasingly "conspiratorial" and resisted calls from the street, as well as from his one-time backer Sadr, to step down.

"He was convinced he was fighting off a coup," the government source said.

The turning point was, fatefully, three days of bloody violence this week in his birthplace of Nasiriyah, where more than 40 protesters were shot dead.

The country's top Shiite cleric urged parliament to drop support for the government and, within hours, his former government allies said they were open to a vote of no-confidence.

Iraqis mourn protest dead ahead of parliament session
Mosul, Iraq (AFP) Dec 1, 2019 - Iraqis across the country marched Sunday to mourn protesters killed in anti-government rallies, even turning out in Sunni areas where people were previously too afraid to join in.

Demonstrators have hit the streets since early October in Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south to demand the ouster of a government they accuse of being corrupt, inefficient and beholden to foreign powers.

After a spike in deaths this week raised the toll to more than 420 killed, Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said Friday he would submit his resignation to parliament. The chamber was due to convene later Sunday, but no agenda had yet been published.

In recent weeks, most Sunni-majority areas refrained from protesting, fearing that opposing the central government would earn them the labels of being "terrorists" or supporters of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein.

But after a spike in violence days ago left nearly 70 people dead across three cities, Iraqis in nearly all provinces turned out in solidarity.

In Sunday's marches, hundreds of students dressed in black organised a mourning march in the northern city of Mosul, on the city's university campus.

"It's the least Mosul can give to the martyrs of Dhi Qar and Najaf," said Zahraa Ahmed, a dentistry student, naming the two provinces where most recent victims were from.

"The protesters are asking for their basic rights so the government should have answered from the beginning."

Another student, Hussein Kheder, carrying an Iraqi flag, said the whole country was now on the same page politically.

"Now the government needs to answer to the protesters' demands," he told AFP.

For three years, Mosul was the heart of the Islamic State group's ultra-conservative "caliphate", and much of it still lies in ruins today.

In Salahaddin, another northern Sunni province where no rallies had taken place so far, authorities had already declared on Friday three days of mourning for the victims.

And eight other Shiite-majority provinces have announced on Sunday a mourning day during which government offices would remain shut.

More than 20 people were killed in the shrine city of Najaf, 40 people in the hotspot of Nasiriyah and three in the capital Baghdad.

AFP's correspondent reported calm in Nasiriyah on Sunday after three consecutive days of violence.

The protest hotspot is the birthplace of Abdel Mahdi, the embattled premier, who came to power just a year ago based on a shaky alliance between rival parties.

He had resisted protesters' calls for him to step down over the past two months.

But the crackdown turned the tide this week, as it prompted Iraq's top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani to call on parliament to drop its support for Abdel Mahdi.

In quick succession, political factions indicated they would support a no-confidence vote.

It was however not certain whether that vote would take place Sunday afternoon as no agenda had yet been published.

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Iraqis keep up anti-regime demos despite PM's vow to quit
Nasiriyah, Iraq (AFP) Nov 30, 2019
Iraqis kept up anti-government protests in Baghdad and the south on Saturday, unsatisfied with the premier's vowed resignation and insisting on the overhaul of a system they say is corrupt and beholden to foreign powers. Protesters have hit the streets since early October in the largest grassroots movement Iraq has seen in decades, sparked by fury at poor public services, lack of jobs and endemic government graft. The decentralised demonstrations were met with violence from security forces and a ... read more